If a parent lives in Tokyo, Japan Care Concierge can help with online preparation, family reporting and coordination planning, as well as in-person support such as facility visits and accompaniment. We cover all of Japan; the scope of any in-person work is agreed in writing before it starts.

The care system is national: Tokyo uses Japan's long-term care insurance like the rest of the country. The local entry point is the community comprehensive support center (地域包括支援センター), and Tokyo has a quirk worth knowing before you call.

Many of its 23 wards rebrand these centers under their own names, so the term you search for may not match the sign on the door. Kita Ward uses 高齢者あんしんセンター (elderly anshin centers). Koto Ward uses 長寿サポートセンター. Chuo Ward uses おとしより相談センター. Toshima and Katsushika Wards use 高齢者総合相談センター.

They are all the same legal thing performing the same role. If you only search the standard term, you can wrongly conclude your parent's ward has no center.

As in every municipality, which center handles your case is set by your parent's home address. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government publishes a directory of every support center and home-care support center in the metropolis, which is the reliable way to find the one tied to a specific address.

The center is staffed by a team that typically includes a social worker, a public health nurse and a care-management specialist. It handles the first consultation and long-term care insurance guidance. It also takes applications, deals with elder-abuse and rights issues and creates care plans.

The realistic first step is the same everywhere: find the assigned center, make contact and start a care-needs certification (要介護認定).

For a foreign family, the friction is partly the language and partly this naming inconsistency across wards. The centers operate in Japanese, and each ward's website is structured differently. That makes self-service slow when you are abroad or under time pressure.

JCC reduces that. We identify the correct support center for your parent's Tokyo ward and address under whatever local name that ward uses, prepare you for the consultation and translate what the care manager proposes and what it costs. For families living overseas, planning and reporting can run online. Local attendance in Tokyo is scheduled once the scope is agreed.

Getting medical care

To find a clinic or hospital that can see your parent in English or another language, start with Medical Information Net, nicknamed Navii (医療情報ネット ナビイ), run by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In April 2024 it replaced the separate search systems each prefecture used to run, so every prefecture's medical institutions are now searched there. The site has an English interface, and its detailed search can filter by foreign-language support. Language details are reported by each institution, so phone ahead to confirm.

Tokyo's own search service, Himawari (ひまわり), moved into that national system on April 1, 2024. The Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Medical Information Center still runs a foreign-language medical information line, 03-5285-8181, in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Spanish, every day from 9:00 to 20:00. Staff tell callers which institutions can see a patient in those languages and explain how Japanese medical care works.

The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) keeps an English page called "Guide for when you are feeling ill". Its medical institution search filters by prefecture, language and department, and the page explains how a visit to a Japanese hospital works. It is written for visitors, but the steps are the same for a parent who lives here.

Tokyo is covered by #7119. The Tokyo Fire Department's emergency medical consultation center answers anywhere in Tokyo, 24 hours a day, for all ages. The direct lines are 03-3212-2323 in the 23 wards and 042-521-2323 in the Tama area. It is for deciding whether to call an ambulance or go to hospital now. If the situation is clearly an emergency, call 119.

Related guidance

Official local references

Local specifics on this page are drawn from official sources:

See all areas we cover. Local details vary by ward and change over time; our editorial policy explains how we source and correct content.