30 Dec Ambulance

If you need an ambulance

Call 119 and say “Kyukyu-sha onegai shimasu” 救急車おねがいします。(ambulance, please) to the operator. Fire engines and ambulances are available free of charge, but they can be only used in emergencies.

Then tell him/her your address clearly.

If you have access to a landline (a non-mobile telephone that has a number starting with 011), use that to call from and tell the operator the landline phone number. This helps the 119 operator locate your whereabouts more quickly.
If there is anyone close to you who can speak Japanese, ask them to help  explain where you are. This will also help the 119 operator to locate your whereabouts and so be able to send an ambulance more quickly.

From the Fire Department of Sapporo City:
“Although we do not have any staff who specialize in foreign languages, we have prepared a list of items in foreign languages that should be followed in order to confirm your address and the purpose of your call.
First of all please let us know what service you need (ambulance or fire engine) and the address of the place you are calling from. We will send an ambulance or the fire brigade right away and then we will ask for some more detailed information.
In case we are unable to understand exactly where you are, we will use several systems to locate your whereabouts from your phone number, then we will send our team.
Once our team meets you, we may use our pictorial sheets for communication.”

You can use a telephone consultation service available 24 hours 7 days a week, headquartered at Emergency Relief Center, “the Kyukyu Anshin Center in Sapporo” (救急安心センター札幌). Press #7119 on your telephone and a nurse will promptly respond to you. This service supports 6 languages namely, English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Malay, and Russian, other than Japanese.                updated in 2017