Living in Japan

The following list of websites provides useful information for foreigners living in Japan on topics such as hospitals, banks, mobile phones, electricity and gas. The links are available in English. Please check them out for further information.

Hospitals

Here you can find a list of medical institutions in Japan. Although the site was originally created to aid the safe travel of foreign tourists in Japan, it would also be useful for foreigners living in Japan.

International Schools

You can look up international schools in Japan at the following accreditation organizations’ websites.

The number of IB candidates and authorized schools in Japan has expanded to 216 schools. (As of September 2023)
Lists of authorized schools are on the websites below.

Banking Service

The following large banks have branches in various parts of Japan. Additionally, there are several banks offering online banking services, including account opening, in English.

Mobile Communications

There are four major carriers (mobile network operators) in Japan as follows. Also, there are a number of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), some of which offer services in English.

Electricity

The Japanese electricity system used to consist of ten regional electric power companies, such as Tokyo Electric Power CompanyA new window will open., Kansai Electric Power CompanyA new window will open., and Chubu Electric PowerA new window will open., that assumed the responsibility of supplying electricity to each region.

Since the full liberalization of the electricity market in April 2016, consumers can choose services from many other retail companies in their areas. Agency for Natural Resources and Energy’s websiteA new window will open. provides information about switching power companies and links to retailers offering services in foreign languages.

Gas

City gas, supplied via pipeline network, is available in many city areas of Japan. After the liberalization of the city gas market in 2017, consumer can choose from many retail companies in their areas in addition to a local city gas company. Below are links to major city gas companies’ English websites.

Contact the local city gas company (instead of a retail company) for emergency procedures such as gas leakages, earthquakes, etc.

Water

Contact the waterworks bureau of the local municipality to activate the service. Below are examples of major cities’ websites:

Multilingual speech translation application

VoiceTraA new window will open.is a free speech translation application produced by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The application translates your speech into over 30 different languages including Japanese and allows you to communicate with people from different parts of the world.

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