1. What is Navii?
Medical Information Net (医療情報ネット), nicknamed Navii (ナビイ), is a national website run by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省) and the prefectures. It lets you search hospitals, clinics, dental clinics, midwives and pharmacies anywhere in Japan, including in Kumamoto.
You can narrow the search by medical department and by the foreign languages a facility can handle. You can also look for clinics that are open now, and for duty doctors and emergency centers at night and on holidays. You do not need to register.
2. If it is an emergency, call 119
The Ministry says that when you judge a situation to be very urgent, you should call an ambulance on 119 without hesitation. Navii does not diagnose; it is only a search tool.
3. How to search by language
- Open Navii (link in Key facts). To use English, choose “Other Languages” at the top right, pick English, and click “OK” on the note about machine translation.
- On the tab for medical institutions (医療機関を探す), go to the detailed search (じっくり探す) and choose “Foreign languages” (外国語) under the basic items.
- Choose the language you need and the place, such as a city or a station, and search.
- Open a result to see its details. You can save it as a favorite.
Pharmacies have the same language search on the pharmacy tab (薬局を探す). Some results may come from a neighboring prefecture. To search only Kumamoto Prefecture, use the search by prefecture (都道府県固有の機能から探す) and choose 熊本県.
4. At night or on a holiday
Under the quick search (急いで探す), choose the holiday and night search (休日夜間対応医療機関) and select a place. The Ministry says some prefectures do not publish this information on Navii; if nothing shows, use the search by prefecture. There is also a phone guidance service, but it is in Japanese only and has a call charge (see Key facts).
5. Good to know
- The English, Chinese and Korean pages are machine-translated, and the Ministry warns that facility names can be translated wrongly. Keep the Japanese name when you phone or visit.
- The information is what each facility reported to the prefecture, and it may not be the latest. Check with the hospital or pharmacy before you go, especially about languages.
