Japanese at the Doctor: Symptoms and Appointments

Choosing the right clinic

Japan usually sends you straight to a specialist clinic rather than to a general practitioner, so the first decision is which door to walk through. Naika covers general internal medicine and is the right choice for fever, coughs, stomach trouble and anything you cannot categorise. Jibika, short for jibi inkōka, handles ears, nose and throat, including hay fever. Hifuka is dermatology. Neighbourhood clinics print their departments on the sign outside, so recognising these few words saves a wasted trip.

One line before the phrases. This is language help, not medical advice: it gives you the words to book, describe and understand, and nothing more. For anything serious, anything involving a child, and any conversation about a diagnosis you do not follow, take a translation app with you and, where you can, an interpreter or a Japanese-speaking friend.

The suffix -ka marks a department, so any sign ending in that character is telling you what the clinic treats. Larger hospitals put all of these under one roof and ask you at the entrance which one you want, which is where nani-ka, meaning which department, becomes a question you need to answer rather than ask.

Booking the appointment

Many small clinics still work on first come, first served, so the call is often about opening hours rather than a time slot. Keep the call to three pieces of information: that you want to be seen, what is wrong in four or five words, and whether today is possible. Say your name slowly at the end and be ready to spell it in katakana. If the clinic uses online booking, the same vocabulary appears on the form.

Expect the clinic to answer with an instruction rather than a discussion. Jū-ji han ni o-koshi kudasai means come at half past ten, and hokenshō o o-mochi kudasai means bring your insurance card. Both use the honorific o- plus kudasai pattern that runs through every medical counter in Japan, so treat them as fixed blocks and listen for the number and the noun inside them.

The reception counter and your insurance card

Reception wants three things. The hokenshō is your health insurance card and is asked for at every visit, not only the first. The shinsatsuken is the clinic's own patient card, issued after your first visit and reused forever afterwards. The monshinhyō is a symptom questionnaire you fill in on a clipboard while you wait. Say hajimete desu if this is your first time here and the receptionist will hand you the form without further explanation.

The form itself is short and repetitive. It asks for namae, your name, seinengappi, your date of birth, jūsho, your address, and shokugyō, your occupation, then gives a grid of symptoms to tick with itsu kara, meaning since when, beside it. Further down it asks about arerugī, allergies, genzai nonde iru kusuri, medicine you currently take, and byōreki, your medical history. Photograph a completed form the first time so the next clinic takes two minutes instead of ten.

Symptom words you can point to

Two of these behave differently from the rest. Netsu and seki are nouns that pair with arimasu or demasu, so netsu ga arimasu and seki ga demasu are the natural sentences. Darui and ikigurushii are adjectives and stand alone with desu. Everything else in the list can be said as X ga arimasu, which is enough to be understood even if a doctor would phrase it more precisely.

Saying where it hurts and since when

The frame is body part plus ga itai desu. Atama ga itai desu, onaka ga itai desu, nodo ga itai desu. Add the timeline with kara, meaning since, attached to a point in time: mikka mae kara means since three days ago, kinō no yoru kara means since last night. Doctors care more about the timeline than about elegant grammar, so a bare noun plus kara at the front of the sentence is perfectly clear.

Describing how the pain feels

Japanese describes pain with sound words, and doctors genuinely use them to narrow down a cause. Zukizuki is a throbbing pulse, typical of a headache. Kirikiri is a sharp twisting pain, often in the stomach. Shikushiku is a dull ache that will not stop. Hirihiri stings and burns on skin or in a throat. Gangan is a heavy pounding. Attach them directly to itamimasu or shimasu, and add a trigger with a to clause: osu to itai desu means it hurts when pressed.

The questions the doctor will ask

The consultation is short, often under five minutes, and it moves through these questions in roughly this order. Prepare the first three answers before you go in and you will keep pace with the rest. If a question does not land, wakarimasen rather than a guessed yes is the safer answer, because a wrong hai about medication or allergies is the mistake with real consequences.

Allergies and medicine you already take

This is the part of the visit to over-prepare. Bring the packaging of anything you take regularly, or a photograph of it, because a brand name from another country means nothing here while the printed chemical name usually does. Japan uses an okusuri techō, a medicine record booklet that pharmacies stamp with every prescription, and handing it over answers the medication question without a word of Japanese. Say allergies as a noun plus arerugī ga arimasu.

Understanding the diagnosis

Diagnoses arrive as a short noun plus desu ne, followed by a plan. You do not need to catch every word, but you do need three things before you leave the room: what it is, what you must do, and when to come back. Ask for each of them separately rather than nodding through the whole explanation, and ask for the name in writing if you intend to look it up or tell an employer.

O-daiji ni closes almost every visit. It means take care of yourself and is said by the doctor, the receptionist and often the pharmacist, so a short arigatō gozaimasu is the whole reply. A shindansho, the medical certificate some employers and schools require, normally costs extra and may take a few days, so ask for it in the consultation room rather than at the counter on your way out.

At the pharmacy afterwards

Clinics rarely dispense medicine themselves. You leave with a shohōsen, a prescription valid for a few days, and take it to a pharmacy marked chōzai yakkyoku, usually the one next door. The pharmacist repeats the dosage aloud and writes it on the bag, so the words to catch are the frequency and the timing: ichinichi sankai means three times a day, shokugo means after meals, shokuzen means before meals, and neru mae means before bed.

The whole visit as one sequence

• On the phone: yoyaku o onegai shimasu, then kyō, mite moraemasu ka.
• At the door: naika, jibika or hifuka on the sign, matched to your symptom.
• At reception: hajimete desu, then hand over the hokenshō.
• On the clipboard: tick the symptoms, write the date they started next to itsu kara.
• In the waiting room: listen for your family name plus san and a room number.
• First answer: the body part plus ga itai desu, or netsu ga arimasu.
• Second answer: mikka mae kara desu, the timeline the doctor asks for next.
• Third answer: zukizuki, kirikiri or hirihiri to describe the feeling.
• Declarations: arerugī ga arimasu and the medicine you already take.
• Before leaving the room: mō ichido onegai shimasu if anything was unclear.
• At the pharmacy: shohōsen desu, then repeat the dosage back as a question.