Ultimate guide to COVID-19 Mass Vaccination in Japan

For non-Japanese-speakers who live in Japan as registered residents and willing to receive a shot, I feel your frustration by the lack of information in English. So, here they are, your bundled-up resource of needed information on COVID-19 mass vaccination rollout with your action plan.

At this moment (June 2021, Tokyo, Japan), the vaccinations for the top priority target category people (health care workers, senior citizens, and then for people with underlying disease, etc.) are in the full swing. And therefore the Japanese government is now preparing to expand the scope of vaccine rollout to the entire population in Japan.

However, non-Japanese-speaker residents who are waiting to receive their vaccine vouchers may still not be able to make an appointment or receive the shots if they do not understand Japanese.

Here, you can find a complete guide on the total flow of each stage from your booking, getting prepared, until the vaccination day in step-by-step explanations.

In the first part “1. What are the steps to go? Where do I start from?“, you’ll know all needed preparation before visiting the mass vaccination venue/facility.

And in the latter part “2. What actually happens in the mass vaccination center?” tells you all the process in the mass vaccination center.

The Prevaccination Screening Questionnaires for COVID-19 vaccine (medical questionnaire) sample with each field’s English meaning and entry guide that supports you in filling out the needed fields can also be found for your handy supporting tool.

Hope this article helps to cast some light upon the current sort-of-left-behind situation for non-Japanese-speakers in Japan.

1. What are the steps to go? Where do I start from?

The brief overall steps to go are;

• The first thing to do is to patiently WAIT until the vaccination starts with the category group you’d fall into.
  
  
• When your turn comes closer, you will receive a vaccination voucher in postal mail at your registered address. This is enclosed with a letter ‘COVID-19 Vaccination Information’ and short medical questionnaires from the municipality of your residence. Keep all the papers safely for later use.ATTENTION!: DO NOT peel off the affix labels from your vaccination voucher.Postal Mail Envelope Sample Image

Vaccination Voucher Sample Image

• Choose your vaccination venue/facility near you.
  Prefecture and city/village-wise list of available venues/facilities can be found HERE, although, the web is currently in Japanese only. The basic idea to use this venue-near-you finder is to go on choosing the address starting from your prefecture, followed by city/village/etc. until you reach the available venues information.
  
  Tip = It’s always worthy to tell your family doctor if you’re seeing regularly for a chronic disease that you’re concerned about being vaccinated by someone who doesn’t know your health condition very well at your next visit.
  
  Maybe your regularly visiting facility can arrange to give you a shot there when your turn comes (even if the facility is not in the area of your registered address). Or you’ll have a bit of useful advice, at least.

• Once your venue/facility is chosen, book your vaccination online or by phone at the municipality of your residence’s official vaccination booking website/phone number. The booking web/phone information should be on the letter enclosed with your vaccine voucher. Sorry, this needs to be done in Japanese again…
  
  To support your vaccination booking online, the word-for-word Japanese – English term collection is shown below. Refer to this to enter the needed fields online, then specify the venue, date, and time of your vaccination. However, the booking system’s entry prompts differ by the municipality, so you may need to deal with additional screen/s or entry to reach the booking entry screen.
  
  Generally, the online booking steps have 3 processes; 1) Log in with your voucher ID and password, 2) your personal data entry, and 3) booking entry. Word-for-word Japanese – English term table with entry guide

• In advance of your vaccination appointment date, be prepared by filling out the needed entry fields on your medical questionnaire. The word-for-word translated English samples to help you fill them out are shown below.
  
  Please note the sample is for you to know the meaning of each field, the originally enclosed Japanese version needs to be used when actually filling it out comparing with the sample picture. There should be two blank questionnaires enclosed (maybe only one if your vaccine is single dose type). One for the 1st and one for the 2nd dose, so be sure to keep the extra one until the 2nd dose time.

• Please fill in or check the sections indicated by the blue boxes in the picture above (some should be left blank until you arrive at the test site). Do not fill in any of the other fields.
  The numbers at the beginning of the following sentences explain the entries in the numbers in the blue boxes in the picture.

1. Your address, name, and phone number

2. Date of birth, age, gender, body temp at the time of filling out

 

3. Check the box that applies.

4. Consent to Receive the Vaccine

5. Date and your signature

 

• Here’s the checklist before you step out of your house on your vaccination appointment day.
  
  

 

Alright, now you’re all set and ready to go visit your vaccination facility/venue!

2. What actually happens in the mass vaccination center?

Of course, let me cover this part for you, as well 🙂
There may be small differences by each center of each prefecture, or if you’re getting it at your family doctor’s clinic,  but the basic idea is mutual and goes like as below.

• Sanitize your hands and take your temperature at the entrance.
  (You may need to wait in a line at an appropriate distance if many people are already there before you.)

• Check-in at wherever used as the check-in counter
  – They’ll probably ask your name first to check if your name is on the day’s vaccination booking list.
  – Show your ID, vaccination voucher, and medical questionnaire at this counter.
  – A (public health) nurse will interview you about your health condition of the day and confirm all the entries in your medical questionnaire are filled properly at this point or you may need to stay at the waiting area and wait until your turn comes to get this short interview.

• Then, you’ll move to the area of the medical doctor’s pre-examination in/near the vaccination area.
  – Here, a medical doctor will interview you to decide if you’re in a vaccine-ready condition.
  – The doctor also explains the effectiveness of the vaccination, possible adverse reactions, and the vaccination health damage relief system to obtain your consent.
  You’ll proceed to the next step only when the both of above is YES.

• Get vaccinated on your non-dominant arm.

• They’ll affix the vaccine product label on your vaccination voucher and stamp it as a record. Keep this voucher safe until your 2nd doze.

• You’ll now proceed to the resting area for post-vaccination condition monitoring for 15 – 30 minutes.
  In case you feel sick after the vaccination, you can receive first aid treatment from medical staff in the first aid area/room.

Congrats! It gotta have been a hard day for you, but it’s over!!!

I guess now you might be wondering if there’ll be any English-speaking staff available at the vaccine site for your pre-interviews, which I, too, agree doesn’t seem very likely to happen… So, I decided to offer continued support with your communication at the vaccination site by writing the next article with a handy collection of Japanese – English vocabulary words to use in your vaccine site and typical interview phrases you can even use by pointing for simple communication, how’s that!?
If you think they’re useful, please, stay tuned for more posts!

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