20 May How to have your prescription filled

After seeing a doctor, you will receive your prescription, if needed. Take the prescription to a pharmacy and get it filled.

In Japan, the prescription you receive from your doctor is valid for only 4 days, so please go to any prescription pharmacy outside of the hospital and have it filled within 4 days.

To read the Explanation of the Handling of Prescriptions Outside of the Hospital, please click here.

In order to get the medicine at a pharmacy, you will be asked to show your health insurance card, medication record (Okusuri Techo おくすり手帳), and Medical Expense Subsidy Certificates, if you have any.

You will receive your medicine, your Okusuri Techo with a sticker showing the current prescription, a medicine information sheet, and a receipt and details about the prescription. Please keep the receipts for your records. In some cases, the cost of the medication can be claimed as a tax deduction for medical expenses.

Medication Record (Okusuri Techo)

A medication record is a small record book or an app which records your prescription history. The pharmacist can get information about your past and current medications.

Medication record apps are convenient because there are several types of smartphone apps available, and you don’t have to worry about forgetting to take a record of your medication like you do with a paper record book! Even if the app is not affiliated with the pharmacy you go to regularly, you can always see the list of the medications you are currently taking on your smartphone.

If you want to use an Okusuri Techo record book:

When you have your prescription filled, you’ll have a small sticker listing basic information about your medicine affixed to your Okusuri Techo record book.

Each time before filling your prescription, the pharmacist will check this record book to see what kind of medicine you’ve taken previously and are currently taking.

They may also ask you if you would like to take a generic drug.

What is a generic drug?

Prescription drugs are divided into two types: the original, brand-name drug (Senpatsu-hin 先発品) and a generic drug (Kohatsu-hin 後発品). While brand-name drugs are researched, developed, and marketed at great cost and time, generic drugs are manufactured and marketed by pharmaceutical companies other than the developer after the patent for the manufacturing of the original drug has expired. Generic drugs have different product names from Senpatsu-hin, but are approved by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) as having the same active ingredients and efficacy. That is why most generic drugs are less expensive.

If you wish to receive a generic drug, please use the “Generic Drug Request Sticker” to be attached to your insurance card or Okusuri Techo.

Unless the prescription was made with a brand name and the prescribing doctor has indicated that substitution of a generic drug is unacceptable, you will receive a generic drug, which will lower the cost.

For Sapporo City National Health Insurance subscribers, the sticker will be sent together with your new insurance card around the end of July every year, or you can pick one up at the counter of the Insurance and Pension Section of any ward office in Sapporo.

For more information, please visit the City of Sapporo website (in Japanese)

Open pharmacies on holidays and Sundays

Most pharmacies are closed on holidays and Sundays. If you need to have your prescription filled on holidays or weekends, please check which pharmacies are open in your neighborhood by calling the Sapporo Pharmacist Association (9 am to 5 pm).
Tel: 0120-33-8931 for Chuo-ku, Kita-ku, Higashi-ku, Nishi-ku, Teine-ku
Tel: 0120-22-8941 for Shiroishi-ku, Atsubetsu-ku, Toyohira-ku, Kiyota-ku, Minami-ku
Because the service is only in Japanese, please ask someone who can speak Japanese to help you get the information.

Note： You may have to pay for extra charge at a prescription pharmacy on weekends, holidays or after hours.　Be sure to check on this beforehand.

See also “How to go to hospital”, “Hospitals open on weekends and holidays”

Revised May 20, 2024