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Hospitals and Health

If you find yourself in an emergency situation and need medical assistance, please dial 119. In Japan, you can call an ambulance anytime, anywhere, without being charged for transporting the patient to the hospital.

No one actually wants to become sick, but one needs to know what to do in case of an illness or other medical situation. Here are a few bits of information that may help Onomichi residents who find themselves in need of medical assistance.

Hospitals in the Onomichi area providing services in English (other languages also available)

Please click on the following link to access the prefecture of Hiroshima's Emergency Medical Care Network (EMCN). Follow the instructions on the top page to use the search engine and find the closest hospital or clinic offering medical services in the language of your choice. The EMCN also provides a very useful Emergency Medical Care Handbook in four languages (English, Portuguese, Chinese and Korean) which should be printed and used for reference.

Please note that the City of Onomichi is not responsible for the accuracy of the information listed on the EMCN's web page. You should first call the hospital to check for the availability of the foreign language-speaking staff.

Health insurance

There are two systems of public health insurance in Japan: the Employee's Health Insurance (Shakai Hoken) and the National Health Insurance (Kokumin Kenko Hoken) programs. Please read through the sections below to find out which one you can apply to and learn how each system works.

• Employee's Health Insurance vs National Health Insurance
• Joining the NHI, reporting changes, etc.
• National Health Insurance premium payments
• National Health Insurance benefits