One Month in Japan for Older Travelers

The one-month medicine line

Four weeks sits just under Japan's personal-import line for prescription medicine. For prescription medicines other than controlled or prohibited substances, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) allows up to a one-month supply without an Import Confirmation. Above that amount, obtain an import confirmation (yunyu kakunin-sho, 輸入確認証, still widely called yakkan shoumei) before you leave home. Controlled medicines have separate requirements, and some medicines cannot be brought into Japan even with a prescription.

Count each medicine separately, by the days of dosing on the label. A traveler staying 28 days has a few spare days under the line. A traveler staying 31 days with a week of buffer does not. If a delayed flight or a minor illness could stretch the stay, decide at home whether the buffer fits under one month or needs the confirmation. Our guide to bringing medication to Japan covers the application and the controlled-drug walls.

Pack everything in the cabin bag, in original labeled packaging, with a list of generic names and daily doses. Do not change a dose or skip a medicine to fit a limit. That is a conversation for the prescribing doctor.

Insurance questions to settle

A visitor is outside Japan's public health insurance, so a hospital bill is the visitor's own. JNTO, the national tourism organization, says a traveler without overseas insurance may be charged the full amount, and its page cites two examples: rib fractures with a collapsed lung at 7.5 million yen and a heart attack at 10 million yen, each including surgery, a hospital stay and an escorted flight home. It also warns that unpaid medical bills can lead to denied entry on a later trip.

Do not compare products here. Compare your own policy with the list below, in writing, before you buy the ticket. Older travelers hit the exclusions first.

• Age ceiling: some plans stop at a stated age, so check yours against the date you travel home.
• Trip length: confirm the policy covers every day, including delay days.
• Pre-existing conditions: ask whether a flare-up of a known condition is covered and under what wording.
• Medical evacuation and repatriation: ask whether they are covered and who decides.
• Cashless payment: ask whether the insurer can pay a hospital directly, since JNTO notes that clinics generally take only cash and cashless terms vary by insurer.
• Claims contact: save the 24-hour number and the policy number on paper and on a phone.

Papers to carry

Carry one folder, on paper, that a stranger could read in two minutes. A phone battery is not a medical record.

• Passport and a copy kept separately
• Insurance certificate and the insurer's emergency number
• Medication list with generic names, doses and times
• Doctor's letter in English with diagnoses, allergies and implanted devices
• Names and phone numbers of two family contacts, with the time difference noted
• The address of your lodging, written in Japanese, for taxi drivers and ambulance crews

Week one: arrive and settle

Treat the first week as recovery. A long flight is tiring, and the time change can disturb sleep for several days. Plan one outing a day at most and keep the first two evenings free.

Do three practical things early. Walk to the nearest pharmacy and convenience store so the route is known before you need it. Locate the nearest clinic or hospital that lists your language, using the JNTO medical institution search, which filters by area, language and department and shows up to 30 facilities sorted by straight-line distance. Ask the front desk how to call a taxi and how to reach them at night. Ask also where the lift is, which entrance is step-free, and whether a spare key or a staff number is available if you need help in the room.

If you have a long-term condition, set the daily medication routine on day one, using the timing your doctor gave you for the time change, and keep the original packaging in the bag. Our chronic condition guide goes deeper on diabetes, heart and lung conditions.

Week two: find a routine

By the second week most people want to do more. This is when overreach happens. Keep a rule of one main activity and one rest in a day, and treat the third outing as optional.

A month is long enough to repeat a good day, and repetition is the point of a slow trip. If a short walk, a seated lunch and a rest worked, do it again rather than escalating. Note how your legs, breathing and sleep respond after each outing. That record is useful if you later see a doctor.

Week three: the midpoint check

Week three is the time to look at what is left. Count the remaining tablets by day. Compare them with the days remaining plus a buffer. A shortfall found now can be handled calmly. A shortfall found on day 27 cannot.

If a refill is needed, do not expect a Japanese pharmacy to fill a foreign prescription. Pharmacists dispense on a doctor's prescription (Pharmacists Act, Article 23), and in practice that means seeing a doctor in Japan first. That doctor decides whether to prescribe. Expect to pay in full, and expect that your brand or dose may not be sold. Our guide to finding English-speaking doctors in Japan explains the directories and the referral-letter habit, and continuing prescriptions in Japan explains how pharmacies treat foreign prescriptions. Call your own doctor at home about alternatives before you act on anything abroad.

Also check the weather pattern. The Ministry of the Environment's heat-stress site publishes WBGT bands in which 31 and above is the exercise-prohibited level, so a hot week calls for early mornings and cool indoor stops. Cold weeks call for the reverse: shorter outings and warm rooms.

Week four: close and leave

The last week is for packing, not for new plans. Keep the final three days light. Confirm the airport transfer, the baggage plan and any wheelchair assistance with the airline, and keep medicines in the cabin bag.

Pack the folder last and carry it. Tell the family at home your flight and arrival time. If the stay might need to run past your original date, read two months in Japan before you decide, and check the date on your landing stamp first, because the period given at the airport sets your limit.

A day that works

A month rewards a repeatable day. The pattern below suits many older visitors, though your doctor knows your limits better than any guide.

Falls are the quiet risk of a long stay. Lodging often has a raised bathroom threshold, steep stairs and thin night lighting. On the first evening, walk the route from bed to toilet and fix what you can. Ask the lodging for a night light or a bath mat. Keep a phone with the lodging address on the bedside table.

• Morning medicines at the same time as at home, adjusted only as your doctor advised before the trip
• One main outing in the cooler or quieter part of the day, with seats and toilets identified in advance
• A proper midday rest, lying down if that is your habit
• A light evening meal near the lodging, with water kept within reach overnight
• A short check-in message to family at home, so a missed message is noticed

Who to call

Call 119 for an ambulance or the fire service, and 110 for police. JNTO notes that emergency hospitals are open 24 hours a day, every day, and that you cannot choose the hospital you are taken to.

For help finding care or information, the Japan Visitor Hotline is at 050-3816-2787 (+81-50-3816-2787 from abroad), open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in English, Chinese and Korean. JNTO states it gives general support but does not provide three-way interpretation or make reservations for visitors. At a hospital, ask reception for a rough estimate. The payment there covers treatment so far, and any medicine is charged separately at the pharmacy.

Major hospitals take credit cards. Clinics generally take cash only, so keep some yen on hand. Where the language gap is large, a companion can help; see travel helpers and paid care companions in Japan.

Longer than planned

If illness keeps you in Japan past your date, the rule is narrow. Japan's Immigration Services Agency allows renewal of a Temporary Visitor stay in principle only for truly unavoidable humanitarian reasons or similar special circumstances, and its example is a need for medical treatment.

Apply before the last day on your landing stamp. The filing steps, the fee and the route for a hospital stay are in our guide to the 90-day limit. This is not legal advice. The immigration bureau, your embassy or an administrative scrivener (gyouseishoshi) can speak to your own case.

One base or two

For most older visitors, one or two bases beat a new bed every few nights. Each move costs a day of luggage, a station and a new set of stairs. For a month, ask what each option does to your health logistics.

The table compares the structures only. It is not a recommendation of any place or business. Whatever you choose, look for a lodging with a lift or a ground-floor room, a step-free route to a station, and a clinic and pharmacy within a short taxi ride.

Help on the ground

If you want a bilingual person to accompany medical visits, help with a pharmacy, or support a spouse who needs daily assistance, Japan Care Concierge is a social-welfare-corporation-backed care concierge, not a travel agency, and does not book trips. Our accessible travel support page explains what help during a stay can look like. For a stay of several months, start with the pillar on long-term stays in Japan.

Three months is a different problem from one. See three months in Japan for older travelers if your plans might stretch.