Emergency Number and Ambulance Use in Japan

The emergency number for an ambulance in Japan is 119, the same number used for fire; the police number is 110. When you call 119, say first that it is a medical emergency, then give the address, the symptoms, the patient's age, and your name and phone number. According to the City of Hiroshima's official FAQ, calling an ambulance is itself free, and you do not need an insurance card to ride in one, but a small number of areas now let certain large hospitals add a separate fee after ambulance transports that were not urgent at the time of the call (Ibaraki Prefecture) or, in principle, mild cases that did not lead to admission (the Matsusaka area). Where it operates, #7119 is a phone line for help deciding whether you need an ambulance at all.

Which number do you call for an ambulance in Japan?

Japan does not have a single all-purpose emergency number. The official visitor guide from the Japan National Tourism Organization lists 119 for the fire department, to be used "when someone is seriously sick or injured" as well as for fires and traffic accidents, and 110 for the police in cases of crime or traffic accidents. That guide, JNTO’s medical guide for visitors, also reminds readers that they cannot choose which hospital an ambulance takes them to, a point covered in more detail below. The same 119 dispatcher answers for both fire and medical calls, so the first thing to establish on the phone is which of the two you need.

The ambulance (救急車, kyūkyūsha) is not restricted to citizens or residents. The national Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) states plainly in its English-language ambulance guide that the service "is available for anyone in Japan," and that you can reach 119 from a mobile phone, a fixed line or a public telephone. Tourists, students, and workers on any visa status call the same number.

Ambulance use in Japan at a glance, from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, FDMA, City of Hiroshima, City of Matsusaka, Ibaraki Prefecture and JNTO pages (checked September 2026)

Question	What the official source states	Scope and date
Numbers to call	119 for fire and serious illness or injury; 110 for police	Nationwide (JNTO)
Language help on a 119 call	Three-way interpretation through a telephone interpretation center, 24 hours a day in major languages, introduced by 673 of 720 fire headquarters	Nationwide (FDMA), as of January 1, 2025
Languages on a Tokyo 119 call	Three-way simultaneous interpretation in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Portuguese and Spanish	Tokyo (page dated January 2023)
Cost of the ambulance ride	Free; no health insurance card needed to use the ambulance	Hiroshima City (page updated March 2025)
Hospital fee after a non-admitted ambulance transport	7,700 yen (tax included) at three core hospitals for mild cases not admitted, with exemptions	Matsusaka area, since June 1, 2024 (page updated September 2025)
Hospital fee when the call was not urgent	2,200 to 13,200 yen, depending on the hospital, at 23 large hospitals	Ibaraki Prefecture, since December 2, 2024 (page updated July 2026)
Phone advice before calling 119	#7119, with advice from doctors, nurses and paramedics, in 41 regions	FDMA list current as of July 2026
Choosing a hospital	Not possible; paramedics select the receiving hospital	JNTO; Hiroshima City

What do you say when you call 119?

The dispatcher's first question is whether you are reporting a fire or a medical emergency. In the example dialogue in the FDMA English guide for ambulance services, the operator asks exactly that, and the caller answers "Medical emergency." In Japanese the word to use is kyūkyū (救急, emergency medical) or kyūkyūsha (ambulance). The guide then walks through the questions most callers are asked, in this order:

1. The location. Give the address; if you do not know it, describe a nearby building or intersection as a landmark.
2. The symptoms. Say what is wrong and when it started, for example chest pain and the time it began.
3. The age. If you are calling for someone else, give how old the person is or looks.
4. Your name and a phone number. The FDMA explains that the crew may contact you if they cannot find your location, so give a number that will still reach you after the call ends.

The dispatcher may ask further questions about the patient's condition, and the FDMA asks callers to give as much information as they can. Help is not held back until every question is answered: the guide says that if the situation is serious, the ambulance is dispatched before all of these questions have been asked. Keep answering calmly while the dispatcher works through the details.

You do not need to speak Japanese to call 119, although the exact languages depend on where you are. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s page on calling an ambulance, dated January 2023, states that for emergency calls from foreigners, three-way simultaneous interpretation is available in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, and it repeats the same five steps listed above. Both the Tokyo page and the FDMA guide also give the same practical advice: if someone nearby speaks Japanese, ask for their help with the call, and stay calm and answer slowly.

Interpretation is not limited to Tokyo. The FDMA page on three-way 119 interpretation explains that when a foreigner calls 119, the fire headquarters’ dispatch center forwards the call to a telephone interpretation center, which interprets between the caller and the dispatcher 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in major languages. As of January 1, 2025, 673 of the country’s 720 fire headquarters had introduced this service. Because it is adopted headquarters by headquarters, a small number of areas did not yet have it on that date, which is one more reason to follow the official advice to ask a nearby Japanese speaker for help when one is available.

Does an ambulance cost money in Japan?

The ambulance ride itself is treated as a public service. The City of Hiroshima’s ambulance FAQ answers the question directly: using an ambulance is free, and no health insurance card is needed to use one, although the receiving hospital may ask to see it. What you pay for is the medical care at the hospital. The JNTO visitor guide warns that visitors without travel insurance may be charged the full amount of their treatment, and that credit cards are accepted only at major hospitals while clinics generally take cash only, so the hospital bill is the cost to plan for, not the ambulance.

A small number of areas have added a charge at the hospital end when the ambulance was not really needed. This is not an ambulance fare. It is the sentei ryōyōhi (選定療養費), a special fee that large hospitals collect when a patient comes without a referral letter, and some regions now apply it to ambulance arrivals too. In Mie Prefecture, the City of Matsusaka reports that since June 1, 2024, three core hospitals in the Matsusaka area charge 7,700 yen (tax included) per person when a patient brought by ambulance is, in principle, a mild case who is not admitted. The city lists exemptions, including patients with a referral letter, patients who are admitted, recipients of public medical-expense programs, disaster victims, and workplace, on-duty and traffic injuries, and it notes that the decision is made case by case by the hospital and doctor rather than applied uniformly.

Ibaraki Prefecture introduced a wider scheme on December 2, 2024. According to the Ibaraki Prefectural Government, 23 large hospitals collect the fee from ambulance patients when the call was not urgent at the time the ambulance was requested, with amounts ranging from 2,200 yen to 13,200 yen depending on the hospital. The prefecture stresses that the test is urgency at the moment of the call, not whether the patient turned out to have a mild condition or was admitted: heat illness, a child's febrile seizure or an epileptic seizure that improves by arrival is not charged. Its examples of calls that may not be urgent include a minor cut or scrape only, a slight fever of 37.4°C or lower, cold symptoms only, and a bruise only. The prefecture also tells residents to call an ambulance without hesitation in an emergency, as before.

No official page reviewed for this guide showed any municipality charging for the ambulance ride itself. These fee schemes are local and can change, so check your own prefecture's or city's current page if cost is a concern. In a true emergency, cost should not delay a 119 call.

When should you call #7119 instead of 119?

#7119 is the number for the Emergency Safety Center service (救急安心センター事業, kyūkyū anshin sentā jigyō). The FDMA page on the #7119 service describes it as a phone consultation line for when you have a sudden illness or injury and cannot decide whether to call an ambulance or go to a hospital right away; callers receive advice from doctors, nurses and paramedics. Staff can advise on first aid and suggest an appropriate medical institution, and when they judge that the situation is urgent they transfer the call to 119 or ask the caller to call 119.

The service is not yet national. The FDMA states that #7119 currently operates in 41 regions and that it is working to expand it across the country; its survey of participating areas is current as of July 2026. If your area is not on the list, #7119 may not connect; if in doubt, call 119. For children, Ibaraki Prefecture's page directs parents to the separate pediatric line #8000 alongside #7119 for adults. None of the official pages reviewed for this guide state which languages #7119 answers in, so a caller who does not speak Japanese may need help from a Japanese speaker.

The FDMA guide lists symptoms for which you should not hesitate to call 119 directly rather than seek advice first. For adults these include sudden severe headache, facial asymmetry on smiling or slurred speech, sudden numbness or weakness on one side of the body, sudden shortness of breath, chest compression lasting a few minutes, vomiting blood, unconsciousness, continuous convulsions, massive bleeding, extensive burns, near drowning, and a fall from a high place. For children under 15 it adds blue lips, weak breathing, and a seizure that continues or is followed by unconsciousness, and for babies under three months, anything that seems wrong.

What happens after the ambulance arrives?

The FDMA describes the chain from the 119 call to the hospital as judging the priority of the call, ambulance dispatch, observation and treatment, selection of a medical facility, and transport. When the crew arrives, it asks you to explain the conditions under which the illness or accident occurred, any changes before the ambulance arrived, the most painful symptoms, past illnesses and current medication. If other people are at the scene, the FDMA suggests sending one of them to the spot where the ambulance will arrive, which helps the crew reach you more quickly.

You cannot pick the destination. Hiroshima City explains that paramedics (救急救命士, kyūkyū kyūmeishi) select the nearest medical institution suited to the patient's symptoms, urgency and severity, based on their own observation. JNTO's guide says the same thing in plain terms for visitors, and adds that depending on your condition you may be treated without being questioned, which is why it recommends filling out its personal medical information sheet in advance.

Emergency hospitals (救急病院, kyūkyū byōin) are described by JNTO as available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and accepting emergency care patients. For people who need a doctor but not an ambulance, JNTO points to clinics or general hospitals during regular hours and to after-hours services outside them, which vary by region. JNTO's medical institution search also flags "Category 1" base medical institutions, selected by prefectures, that can provide services to foreign emergency patients who need hospitalization. The same guide cautions that only a limited number of medical institutions can work in languages other than Japanese, so an interpreter or translation tool may still be needed at the hospital.

How can you prepare before an emergency?

A few minutes of preparation makes a 119 call faster. The FDMA suggests having these items ready when you call an ambulance: your passport, cash or a credit card to pay at the hospital, and your current medication. It also says a written note of your current medical status is useful to have in hand for the crew. Keep your home address written in Japanese near the phone, since the location is the first detail the dispatcher needs after the type of emergency, and keep the address of your workplace or school the same way.

If you cannot speak Japanese and need someone else to call for you, JNTO provides a sentence to show a bystander: 救急車を呼んでください (kyūkyūsha o yonde kudasai), meaning "Please call an ambulance." Visitors can also use the Japan Visitor Hotline at 050-3816-2787, which JNTO lists as a 24-hour, 365-day service in English, Chinese and Korean covering emergencies such as illness; JNTO notes that as a general rule it does not provide three-way interpretation. For residents, one of the most useful steps is to find out ahead of time whether #7119 covers your area, so you know which number to reach for when a situation is unclear. This guide is general information; for questions about a specific situation, confirm with your local fire department or city office.