Japanese Emergency Phrases You Hope Never to Need

The two numbers and who answers

Japan splits emergencies between two numbers. 110, read hyakutōban, reaches the police and covers crime, traffic accidents and anything threatening. 119, read hyakujūkyū-ban, reaches the fire service, which also dispatches ambulances, so one number serves both a fire and a medical emergency. Both are free from any phone, including the grey and green payphones that still stand in stations and which work without coins in a disaster.

The #7119 advice line does not exist everywhere and is not for a real emergency; it exists for the case where you are unsure whether a symptom warrants an ambulance. Look up whether your prefecture runs it before you need it, and save the answer in your phone next to the address of your building written in Japanese.

Say what kind of emergency first

The single most useful habit is to lead with the category, not with an apology or an introduction. The operator's first question is kaji desu ka, kyūkyū desu ka, meaning is it a fire or a medical emergency, and answering it before it is asked saves several seconds. One noun plus desu is a complete, correct sentence here. Everything else follows once the dispatcher knows which service to send.

The questions the operator will ask

Notice how many answers are a single word or a number. That is deliberate on the operator's side: the questions are built so that a frightened caller can answer them. Give the location before the story, because dispatch begins as soon as the address is confirmed and the rest of the call happens while a vehicle is already moving. If you are asked to stay on the line, stay on it.

Giving your location without an address

Japanese streets mostly have no names, and addresses run from ward to district to block to building number, which is hard to read off a sign in a hurry. Three things fix this. Utility poles carry a small plate with the district and block numbers printed on it. Vending machines often have an address sticker on the side. Convenience stores are named after their branch, so reading the sign gives a location by itself. Say what you can see and let the operator do the rest.

Describing the person who needs help

The dispatcher will ask about consciousness and breathing before anything else, because those two answers change what is sent and what you will be told to do while you wait. Learn ishiki, consciousness, and iki, breath, as a pair. Use the te imasu form for a state you can see right now, as in taorete imasu for someone lying collapsed, and add anything you know about medication or a chronic condition at the end.

Getting a bystander to act

A general appeal to a crowd produces hesitation everywhere in the world, so the trick is the same in Japanese as in English: choose one person, look at them, and give them one task. Anata wa, meaning as for you, sounds blunt in ordinary conversation, which is exactly why it works here. Follow it with a single te kudasai instruction and then turn to the next person with a different task.

Asking for language help on the line

Emergency lines in Japan have some interpreter support, usually as a three-way call brought in after the operator understands what service is needed. That means the fastest route to an interpreter is still to give the category and the location in Japanese first. Say your language plainly, keep your sentences to one clause, and repeat rather than rephrase, because a repeated sentence is easier to catch than a new one.

Reporting a lost wallet or a theft

Lost property and crime are different reports, and the word you choose decides which one you get. Otoshimashita means you dropped it and leads to an ishitsubutsu todoke, a lost property report. Nusumaremashita means it was stolen and leads to a higai todoke, a criminal report, which is the document an insurer will ask for. Go to the nearest kōban, the small police box on a corner, rather than to a police station.

The officer will ask doko de nakushimashita ka, where you lost it, nan-ji goro desu ka, roughly what time, and donna saifu desu ka, what the wallet looks like. Prepare a colour, a material and one distinguishing detail. You will also be asked for your residence card or passport, so having a photo of it on your phone speeds the report up considerably.

Earthquake words and what the announcements say

The early warning arrives as a loud two-tone alert and a short line of text naming the region and the expected intensity. It gives seconds, not minutes, so the only useful response is the one you have already rehearsed. Afterwards, station and shop announcements repeat hinan, avoid the lifts, and name the nearest hinanjo, which is usually a local school. Learn the location of yours in advance and note the disaster message dial, 171, which lets you record and retrieve a short safety message when phone lines are congested.

Typhoons and the three grades of warning

The grade is the part to read first. Chūihō, keihō and tokubetsu keihō rise in severity, and the noun in front of them tells you what kind: ōame keihō is a heavy rain warning. Keikaku unkyū matters even if the storm passes you by, because railways announce the suspension the day before and simply stop running at the stated hour. Check it in the evening rather than at the station in the morning.

Ill or injured in a hotel

Hotel front desks are the easiest emergency help to reach in Japan, and staff will make the call for you if you give them the room number and one clear sentence. Start with your room number, because that is what they need to send someone up. If you are asking about a clinic rather than an ambulance, say when you need to be seen, since night and weekend cover is limited and reception will know which hospital takes walk-ins.

If an ambulance does come, take your passport or residence card, your insurance card if you have one, and any medicine you are already taking. The clinic vocabulary on this blog covers what happens once you arrive, from the reception counter to the pharmacy afterwards, and the two sets of phrases are worth learning together.