Questions and answers about a medical trip to Japan

We help. Tell us the purpose, and we connect you to a suitable facility through its international patient desk and help confirm the appointment date. The facility decides whether and when it can see you, and everything medical is between you and its doctors. If you already have an appointment, we simply build the trip around it.

As early as possible, ideally three to four weeks: large hospitals need time to review foreign patient requests, and good long-stay rooms go early. With a week's notice we can still help, with fewer facility and hotel choices.

The Medical Stay Visa requires an identity guarantor organisation registered under Japanese rules. We prepare the file with you, follow it through with the registered organisation and the facility, and keep hotel and transport confirmations ready for the application; we do not act as the guarantor ourselves. Many short check-up or cosmetic trips travel on an ordinary short-term stay; whether you need the medical visa depends on nationality and length of stay, and the embassy decides.

Yes, that is part of coordination. Tell us the purpose and the city you prefer; we propose suitable facility types, connect you through the international patient desk and help confirm a date. We propose by service type and logistics, not medical opinion; what to examine or treat is for the doctors there.

Passport, the appointment confirmation, any referral or records the facility asked for (translated as they instructed), travel insurance papers, and a list of your medicines. Keep medical documents with you and hand them to the facility directly; do not send them to us through the form.

Personal-use quantities of most prescription medicines are allowed for up to about a one-month supply; larger quantities and certain categories need an import certificate called Yakkan Shoumei applied for in advance, and some substances common elsewhere are prohibited in Japan. Check with the Japanese embassy or Japan's health ministry before you fly. This is a customs matter; we can only remind you to check.

A driver with a name board in the arrivals hall. We track the flight, so a delay moves the pickup automatically at no extra charge. Wheelchair assistance from the aircraft door is requested from the airline in advance; we tell you how.

It depends on the trip. For a short check-up, a quiet business or international hotel within about 20 minutes' drive. For a week or more, a long-stay hotel or serviced apartment with a small kitchen and laundry, preferably with an elevator and a step-free bathroom. We ask about mobility and diet first, then send two or three options with the distance to your facility.

Sharing a hotel room is normal and we book accordingly. Whether a relative may stay overnight in a hospital room is the hospital's rule; many in Japan do not allow it, so plan on a hotel nearby for the companion. We schedule the car for their visits.

The car is booked by the hour or as a fixed round trip. The driver takes you to the facility entrance, waits or returns at a time you set, and adapts if the appointment runs late: you or the companion message us and the driver stays. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are available on request.

Usually yes, if you ask for it and the facility permits, which most do for interpreting. Some departments limit the room to the patient; then the companion waits outside and you can ask the doctor to write down key points for translation afterwards.

Yes. Prescriptions from a Japanese facility are filled at a pharmacy, often next to the facility. The companion goes with you and reads the instructions on the leaflet. For over-the-counter items, Japanese drugstores are well stocked; we point you to one near the hotel and translate labels, but we do not recommend medicines.

Tell us as soon as the facility tells you. We extend the hotel where possible or move you to another with similar conditions, and reschedule the car and companion. Extending your permitted stay is handled by immigration and the registered guarantor organisation; we follow the file with you.

Yes, that is why this section exists: most international desks in Japan work in Japanese, English and Chinese, with very little Vietnamese or Korean. OlaChill answers requests in Vietnamese, Korean, English and Chinese, and provides companion staff in your language for the appointments.

Directly to the medical facility, against its own invoice. OlaChill does not collect, add to or hold that money. OlaChill's invoice carries only trip coordination, cars, hotel, companion staff, golf and tours.

Only travel items: coordination, transfers, hourly car, hotel or apartment, companion staff, golf, onsen, tours, helicopter. Each line is priced separately and you remove what you do not need. No medical fee or visa fee ever appears on our invoice.

That is between you and the facility. In our experience foreign patients usually pay at the facility's payment counter, by card or cash, and some facilities ask for a deposit before treatment. Ask the facility for the exact terms in writing before you travel; we help pass that question to its international desk.

Cars change free of charge with notice the day before. Hotels follow their own conditions; for medical trips we favour flexible rates, so a change usually costs nothing or one night. Golf and tours have their own cancellation terms shown when booked. Whether the facility reschedules is its decision; we rearrange around it.

We cancel or move the car, companion and hotel under each item's conditions; most of our items are refundable or movable with early notice, and we tell you which lines are not before you book. Any deposit already paid to the facility is handled by the facility; we cannot recover it for you but can help pass on the request.

Ordinary travel insurance usually excludes planned treatment and covers only unexpected illness or accidents during the trip. Some insurers sell separate medical-travel policies. Read the policy or ask the insurer; we are not able to interpret insurance terms for you.

No. We do not touch medical money in any form, including passing it through. This keeps the facility's records clean and protects you: the receipt is in your name, from the facility, which you may need for insurance or tax at home.

Anything the facility has not told you to avoid. Popular choices are a private day tour by car, a round of golf within an hour of the city, a night at an onsen ryokan, and for the companions a helicopter flight over Tokyo. We plan around the appointment times and keep you within reach of the facility when the schedule is tight.

Yes, that is often the best use of those days. A car with a driver picks them up at the hotel, takes them to Kamakura, Hakone, Nikko or around the city, and brings them back for visiting hours. We coordinate the times with your appointment schedule.

That is a question for the doctor, not for us, and we do not answer it in their place. After blood tests or a routine check many guests go straight out; after sedated endoscopy, injections or procedures the facility usually asks you to rest. Ask before you leave the facility, the companion will translate the answer, and we plan the free days around it.