Guide To Making An Emergency Call In Japan

When traveling abroad we all hope nothing happens but just in case it does, it is sometimes good to know how to perform an emergency call to get help.  One of the first things you need to know about emergency calls in Japan is that there is no one "911" equivalent instead the number you dial depends on the service you need.  The number for the police is 110 while fire and medical help can be found by dialing 119.  It is also important to note that it might be impossible to dial either of those numbers from a cell phone in Japan.  Also it might be impossible to find an English speaking dispatcher and so knowing some basic emergency service Japanese might be valuable.  Below I have taken the language help for fire and medical emergency calls from the State Department and made it phonetic so that English speakers with no Japanese experience can get an accurate idea on how to pronounce the words.  Or if you forget them (as you probably would) in an emergency simply look at this website from your smart phone as you make the call since you might not be able to use cell phones anyway.

Dial 119 for fire or medical emergency help

Kah-gee des-oo

Say this to be directed towards help from the fire department

Kew-Kew des-oo

Say this for medical emergencies

(Remember to stay on the line until you are 100% sure the dispatcher knows both why you are calling and where to send the help as well as your phone number)

Dough she-ma-she-ta ka?

(What the operator will say after you tell them fire or medical it will mean "what happened")

den-wah ban-go wah (insert telephone number) des-oo

How to tell them what number to reach you at (guide to telephone numbers at the bottom)

wah-ta-she no nah-may-uh wah (insert name) des-oo

How to tell them your name

shoe-ket-sue des-oo

Bleeding

co-set-sue des-oo

Broken Bone

He-doy yah-kuh-do des-oo

Burn

co-kew co-nan des-oo

Difficulty Breathing

kay-ren des-oo

Convulsions

moo-nuh gah tie-hen koo-roo-she des-oo

Chest Pains

co net-sue des-oo

High Fever

Kuh-gah des-oo

Injury

dough-koo-boo-sue des-oo

Poison

dough-koo gah-sue des-oo

Poison gas

bee-yo-key des-oo

Sick

E-she-key foo-may des-oo

Unconscious

If you call from a land-line (i.e. not a cell phone) the dispatcher will in most cases have the capacity to trace the phone call and send help to your location.  However if you are using a cell phone or sometimes if you aren't it might be important to know a few words to direct them towards you.  First of all if you have the actual address of where you are remember to give it in reverse order of how you would normally give it.  For example instead of giving the street number, street name, then city you would do the exact opposite.  If you have any land marks around you the following phonetic vocabulary might help you direct the dispatchers.

may

Front

ur-ah

Behind

nah-nah mah may

Diagonally in front

to-nar-E

Next to

As promised above here is the list of the words 0-9 phonetically so that you can give someone your phone number.  If you for some reason need to know the characters for Japanese numbers please see the Guide To Written Japanese

Zero

0

E-chee

1

knee

2

sah-n

3

yawn

4

go

5

row-koo

6

nah-nah

7

ha-chee

8

kew

9

Ok for a recap lets say your name is Jenny and your number is 867-5309 and you wanted to give out your number you would say

(wah-ta-she no) den-wah ban-go wah ha-chee, row-koo, nah-nah, go, sah-n, zero, kew des-oo

(My) number is eight, six, seven, five, three, zero, nine

*All information in this post except for the numbers 0-9 is based off of information found in This State Department Article you can find the non-phonetic version of the vocabulary there