What to Bring to a Doctor's Visit
What to bring to doctor Japan visits is a short checklist: insurance proof, identity proof, a referral letter for large hospitals, your medication record, relevant prior results, and language preparation.12 Reception checks the papers before the consultation starts, so missing proof means paying in full first and claiming back later.3
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) site and the Digital Agency site.
Overview
This checklist covers first outpatient visits at clinics and hospitals nationwide for insured residents. It follows the standard reception flow: submit proof, fill the new-patient form, see the doctor, pay, and take any prescription to an outside pharmacy.1
Work the table in order. Insurance proof comes first because every later step prices from it. Language preparation comes before the visit because most small clinics hold Japanese-only forms.45
| Order | Item | Bring | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Insurance proof | Registered My Number Card or Eligibility Confirmation Form | 4 |
| 2 | Identity proof | Residence card or other official ID | 2 |
| 3 | Referral papers | Referral letter when headed to a large hospital | 1 |
| 4 | Medication record | Medication notebook plus current-drug list | 6 |
| 5 | Prior records | Imaging, test results, medical certificate when relevant | 1 |
| 6 | Language help | Translation app, written symptom note, or companion | 3 |
| 7 | At the counter | Fill the new-patient form handed by reception | 1 |
The diagram shows the reception to pharmacy sequence the checklist supports. Each row in the table maps to one step in that flow.1
Insurance proof at reception
The マイナ保険証 (maina hokenshō, "health-insurance-use-registered My Number Card") is now the standard card to show at clinics and pharmacies.4 Staff verify qualification with a card reader instead of a plastic card. You show either this linked card or the 資格確認書 (shikaku kakuninsho, "Eligibility Confirmation Form") and receive insured care at the same copay ratio as before.4
Registration for health-insurance use is a one-time step through Mynaportal or at a clinic or pharmacy reader.4 Once the card shows as registered, it keeps working across moves and job changes without waiting for a new plastic card, as long as enrollment with the new insurer is complete.
New issuance of former-style cards stopped on 2024-12-02, and former cards stayed usable at most until 2025-12-01 (as of 2025-07; confirm current figures with MHLW).4 From 2025-12-02 the base mechanism is the registered My Number Card or the Eligibility Confirmation Form (as of 2026-02-19).7 A large-hospital first-visit page instructs residents to present the My Number Card or health insurance card at reception, and the National Center for Global Health and Medicine instructs first-visit patients to submit the insurance card with the registration form at the First Visit counter.21
Identity and referral papers
Hospitals verify patient identity at registration and accept official photo ID such as a My Number card, health insurance card, driver's license, passport, or residence card.2 Bring one identity document alongside insurance proof even when the clinic letter does not name it. The exact ID asked for depends on the facility, so a hospital request does not prove every small clinic asks the same way.
Residence card as identity proof
The 在留カード (zairyū kādo, "residence card") functions as identity proof in this flow.2 It does not substitute for insurance proof. Carry both when both exist.
Whether a small clinic asks for the residence card varies by facility. Hospital first-visit pages state the requirement explicitly while routine clinic flows describe insurance plus the questionnaire as the standard set (limitation: facility-level practice inferred from hospital pages plus secondary clinic guides, not from a national ID rule).21
Referral letter for hospital visits
The 紹介状 (shōkaijō, "referral letter") is the patient referral document a clinic physician writes when hospital-level testing or treatment is needed.2 The National Center for Global Health and Medicine requires anyone seeking initial care there to bring a letter issued within the three months before registration.1 NTT Medical Center Tokyo asks outpatients to bring a referral document from a primary-care doctor or nearby clinic.2
Under the national role-sharing system, first-contact care sits with community clinics while advanced or specialized care sits with hospitals of 200 or more beds.8 A patient visiting such a hospital without a referral pays a fixed fee in addition to the ordinary first-visit fee.8
The table below shows the amounts at one large hospital. Tokyo Metropolitan Hiroo Hospital applies these figures from the listed date; other large hospitals set their own amounts above the national minimum, and practitioner guides report 7,700 yen and up for a medical first visit elsewhere (as of 2024-01-01; confirm current figures with the hospital you plan to visit).983
| Item | Amount | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-referral first visit, medical | ¥7,000 | 2024-01-019 | In addition to the ordinary copay |
| Non-referral first visit, dental | ¥5,000 | 2024-01-019 | In addition to the ordinary copay |
| Non-referral revisit, medical | ¥3,000 | 2024-01-019 | After recovery and return without referral |
| Non-referral revisit, dental | ¥1,900 | 2024-01-019 | After recovery and return without referral |
Medication history and prior records
Japan separates prescribing from dispensing: the doctor writes a 処方箋 (shohōsen, "prescription") and a separate pharmacy fills it, so a patient may use different pharmacies over time.6 The portable record that closes that gap is the お薬手帳 (okusuri techō, "medication notebook").6
The notebook is a free paper booklet or smartphone app in which every visited pharmacy logs drug name, dose, and date.6 A dispensing pharmacy issues the booklet free at the first fill and updates it free after that. Any licensed dispensing pharmacy can read and add to it, not only the issuing one.6
Before dispensing, the pharmacist checks the notebook for interactions with current drugs, duplicate prescriptions from different doctors, and noted allergies or reactions.6 Pharmacies routinely ask whether the patient holds the booklet, and the booklet records past and current prescription medicines.10
Bring the medication notebook to every pharmacy, not only the one that issued it. A pharmacist at an unfamiliar counter reads the shared history instead of relying on memory or conversation.6
Bring relevant prior records alongside the notebook. The National Center for Global Health and Medicine instructs first-visit hospital patients to bring the referral letter plus X-ray films or CDs and the medicine pocketbook, and to bring any medical certificate held.1 Out-of-hospital prescriptions are normally submitted to an insured pharmacy of the patient's choice within 4 days including the issue date.1
The new-patient form
After submitting the registration form and insurance proof at the First Visit counter, the patient receives a medical questionnaire form, fills it out, and returns it to the same counter before being directed to the department.1 The 問診票 (monshinhyō, "medical questionnaire") is that intake form for symptoms, onset timing, medical history, allergies, and current medications.5
There is no single national standard form. Each clinic or hospital uses its own layout (limitation: no-single-standard-form claim rests on a resident-focused secondary source, consistent with observed hospital-specific PDFs).5 The National Center for Global Health and Medicine separates the registration form (name, birth date, address, nationality, phone) from the medical questionnaire (symptoms and history) handed over after the counter accepts the first set.1
Major hospitals in large cities sometimes hold English forms or English-speaking staff, while most small neighborhood clinics do not.5 A printable bilingual form carried from home is the fallback where no English form exists (limitation: English-availability pattern from a 2019 secondary source; facility-level variation, confirm per clinic).5
English questionnaire availability depends on the individual facility, not on a national standard. Call ahead where language matters instead of assuming the counter holds one.5
Language preparation
English availability sits on a spectrum, and calling ahead to confirm English availability and the specific provider on the day is the documented strategy (limitation: spectrum characterization from the content-plan scope, not from a fetched primary source in this pass). Where no English support exists, the working fallback is a translation app on the phone plus a written symptom note in English and Japanese, or a Japanese-speaking companion.3
Tokyo's Himawari service gives free phone consultation and institution information in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Spanish, daily 09:00 to 20:00 year round, at 03-5285-8181 (as of 2023-01-01; confirm current hours with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government).11 Call charges fall on the caller.11
The AMDA International Medical Information Center provides telephone services in several languages, introduces facilities with staff who speak the patient's language, and explains the health-care system.12 Its Tokyo center takes calls at 03-5285-8088 and its Kansai center at 06-4395-0555.12
Good to know
Forgetting insurance proof means full payment first
Without verified insurance on the day, the patient pays the full amount at the counter and claims reimbursement later, which adds paperwork and waiting time (limitation: reimbursement mechanics summarized from secondary clinic guides; insurer-specific filing steps vary).3 Leaving the card unregistered produces the same result as forgetting it.4
A separate habit prevents most cases. Keep the registered My Number Card or the Confirmation Form with the identity document the night before, and check the link status in Mynaportal after any job change or move.47
A Japanese-only form still counts when English is unavailable
Most small clinics hold Japanese-only questionnaires, so arriving without a translation app or a prewritten symptom note slows registration and risks an incomplete history.53 The counter still expects a completed form before directing the patient to the department.1
Whether an English questionnaire exists depends on the individual facility, not on a national form standard. Confirm by phone before the visit where language matters.5
Prior records save a repeat test only when the doctor can read them
Bring films, CDs, test results, and the medicine pocketbook issued within a usable window. The National Center for Global Health and Medicine requires the referral letter itself to be within three months of registration.1
Overseas records in another language help only when the receiving doctor can interpret them.1 Bring the originals plus any Japanese translation held, and keep the medicine pocketbook alongside them.16
See also
- Selecting a Local Clinic as Primary Care
- How Japan's Universal-Coverage System Works
- Who Enrolls in National Health Insurance
- Specialty Department Signs: Reading Japan Clinic Placards
- How Japanese Pharmacies Work
- The Medication Record Book (Okusuri Techo)