Public Health Center

保健所 (hokenjo)

A public health center (保健所, hokenjo) is a government-run facility providing community health services including infectious disease control, tuberculosis screening, mental health consultations, maternal and child health programs, and food sanitation oversight. They issue health-related certificates, manage vaccination programs, and coordinate disease surveillance. Some centers offer multilingual consultations or referrals to interpretation services for foreign residents.

Japan's public health centers played a central role in COVID-19 testing and contact tracing and remain important first contacts for infectious disease reporting and public health concerns.

In 9 languages

LanguageTerm
English Public Health Center
Japanese (日本語) 保健所
Chinese (中文) 保健所
Korean (한국어) 보건소
Portuguese Centro de saúde pública
Spanish Centro de salud pública
Filipino Sentro ng kalusugang pampubliko
Thai สำนักงานสาธารณสุข
Vietnamese Trung tâm y tế công cộng
Romanization hokenjo
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Last reviewed: September 2026