Tokyo apartment emergencies for foreign residents

The two numbers are 110 and 119. 110 is police (the digits are easier to remember if you say them in Japanese: hyaku-tō-ban). 119 is fire and ambulance, which is the same as 911 with the digits reversed. You will not remember this if I tell you once. Write them on the back of the IC card you keep in your wallet, or stick them inside the kitchen cabinet door.

I have called 119 once in five years in Tokyo. The dispatcher answered in Japanese, I said "English please," and after fifteen seconds a translator was on the line. They will do this. It is a service that exists. You do not need to apologize for using it.

Most of what follows is calmer than 110 or 119. Power outs, lockouts, a leak under the kitchen sink. Things you handle yourself in five minutes if you know where the panel is. The binder in the apartment has the unit-specific photos. This piece is the layer above that: the moves that work in any Tokyo apartment.

110 and 119, and the English line

110 (hyaku-tō-ban) is police. Crime, traffic accident, lost wallet, suspicious person at the door.

119 (ichi-ichi-kyū) is fire and ambulance. The same number for both, and the dispatcher routes by what you say. Fire in the kitchen, a fall down the stairs, chest pain at 2am are all 119.

Both lines accept English. The fire department's emergency 119 has a multi-language interpreter service that picks up within about fifteen seconds. You say "English" (or "Chinese," "Korean," "Spanish") and the dispatcher conferences in a translator on a three-way line. They do not need you to read a long sentence. The word "English" plus your address and what is happening is enough.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police also has a foreigner-support phone line in English, but for an emergency, dial 110 first. The cleaner version of the rule: if it is happening right now, the three-digit numbers are the right tool.

Your address in Japanese is the hard part. Have it ready, written on the inside of the cabinet door above the kettle. Include the kanji and the rōmaji, building name and room number. The dispatcher will ask. You will not improvise this well at 3am.

Earthquake

The protocol the city teaches is three words: drop, cover, hold. Drop to the floor before the shaking knocks you down. Cover your head and neck with your arms, or better, get under a sturdy table. Hold the table leg so it doesn't slide away from you.

What you do not do: run outside. Falling tiles and glass from the building face are the biggest injury risk in a Tokyo shake. The room is safer than the street for the duration. Stay inside until it stops.

When the shaking ends, check on yourself, then the apartment. The gas meter in most Tokyo units has a safety valve that auto-shuts at a certain intensity. After a moderate shake, the meter will be in shut-off mode and the stovetop will not light. The reset is a small button on the meter itself, usually three steps long: press, wait three minutes, the display reverts. The meter is in a service closet outside the front door, in the hallway, or on the balcony, depending on the building. The unit-specific binder has the photo of where yours is.

If the apartment smells of gas after a shake, do not reset the meter. That is the gas-leak protocol, below.

Tsunami is not a concern in central Tokyo for the wards a midterm guest is likely in. Coastal wards (Ōta near the bay, Kōtō east of the Sumida) are the exception. Your phone will broadcast a J-Alert in Japanese if one is coming. The English subtitle on the alert says "TSUNAMI WARNING" in capitals. Walk inland or upstairs.

Gas leak

If you smell gas (the smell is sulfur, like a struck match that did not catch), three moves, in order.

Open the windows and the balcony door. All of them. Cross-ventilation matters more than which way the breeze blows.

Do not light anything. The stovetop, a candle, a cigarette, anything. Also: do not flip any electrical switches. The spark inside a switch as it makes or breaks contact is enough to ignite gas-air mix. Leave the lights as you find them. If the room is dark, navigate by phone screen.

Call Tokyo Gas. The 24-hour emergency leak line is 0570-002299. (If your phone cannot dial 0570 numbers, which some IP phones can't, the backup line is 03-6735-8899.) They will dispatch a technician. They speak Japanese; if your Japanese is thin, say "gas leak, English please," and they will route you. Then leave the apartment and wait for the technician in the hallway or downstairs.

If you smell gas in the hallway or stairwell, not your apartment, the same numbers apply. The leak could be a neighbor's unit and the technician needs to find it.

Power out

A whole-building outage is rare in central Tokyo. The common case is a tripped breaker in your own unit. The classic trigger: microwave plus air conditioner plus electric kettle running at the same moment. The breaker pops, the lights die, the wifi router goes silent.

The breaker panel is usually near the front door, inside a small white plastic cabinet on the wall, or tucked into the hallway closet. Open the cabinet. You will see a main breaker (the largest switch, often labeled with the amp rating) and a row of smaller branch breakers underneath.

A tripped breaker sits in the middle, between the on and off positions. The fix is to flip it fully off, then back on. If you do not know which one tripped, the visual hint is usually obvious: a single switch out of line with the rest.

Before you flip it back on, turn off whatever was running when the lights died. If you reset with the kettle and microwave both on, it will trip again in twenty seconds.

If the breaker won't stay on, or you cannot find the panel, message your host. The unit-specific binder has the panel photo with the labels translated.

Water leak

A water leak in a Tokyo apartment is two questions: how fast, and from where.

A slow drip under the kitchen sink is a maintenance call. Put a bowl under it, message your host, and you can usually handle it the next day.

A pipe burst, an overflowing washing machine, water visible on the floor: that is an emergency. The move is to stop the water before you clean anything up.

Each unit has a main water shutoff. It is usually a metal valve in the service closet near the gas meter, or under the kitchen sink, or behind a small panel in the hallway. The valve turns clockwise to close. The binder has the photo and the location for this unit.

After the water is off, contain what is on the floor with towels. Move anything wood, paper, or electronic away from the wet area. Call your host immediately. If water has reached the floor below (you will know because the neighbor knocks on your door inside five minutes), apologize, call your host, and do not try to manage the downstairs neighbor yourself. The host handles that conversation in Japanese.

Lockout

Locked out of the apartment is the most common Tokyo emergency, by a wide margin. The keys are inside, the door is shut, it is raining.

Do not try to force the door. Tokyo apartment doors are steel-framed and the locks are pin-tumbler with a security plate. Forcing them damages the frame, costs the landlord money, and rarely works anyway. Sit down on the stairwell. You have time.

Call your host. They keep a spare key for exactly this. Most hosts can be at the building inside an hour during the day, longer at night.

If for some reason the host cannot reach you, a 鍵屋 (kagi-ya — locksmith) is the last resort. Tokyo locksmiths run ¥8,000–¥25,000 depending on the lock type and the hour. Many advertise online in English; Google Maps shows the nearest 24-hour ones. Ask for an estimate before they start work. There are operators who quote ¥5,000 over the phone and bill ¥30,000 in person. Get the price in writing in a text message before they pick the lock.

A note on the policy: halfkey covers the first lockout. A repeat lockout in the same stay carries a ¥5,000 callout fee. The policy exists because the second lockout is almost always avoidable: a habit of taking the key, a phone-strap holder, a small box by the door.

Hospital, clinic, pharmacy

Day-to-day health needs split into three tiers in Tokyo.

A 内科 (naika — internal medicine clinic, the equivalent of a GP) handles fever, cold, food poisoning, a sprained ankle, a routine prescription. Most run 9am to 6pm with a break in the middle of the day, closed Sundays and one weekday. Walk in, take a number, expect to wait thirty to ninety minutes. The receipt at the end is itemized; if you have travel insurance, this is the document you submit.

A 薬局 (yakkyoku — pharmacy) fills the prescription. The pharmacy attached to the clinic is the fastest path; you walk out of the clinic, walk across the street, and the prescription is ready in ten minutes. A larger drugstore chain (Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sundrug, Welcia) handles over-the-counter painkillers, cold medicine, and band-aids without a prescription. Most stay open until 10pm.

After-hours, you want 救急外来 (kyūkyū gairai — the hospital emergency room). The major Tokyo hospitals (St. Luke's, the Red Cross, the University Hospital network) staff English-speaking ER doctors at most hours, and the larger ones like St. Luke's in Tsukiji and Tokyo Medical and Dental in Yushima keep an interpreter on call. If you are not sure whether to go, the Tokyo Metropolitan Health Bureau runs an English nurse-line at 03-5285-8181 (9am to 8pm). They will tell you whether to wait until morning or go to the ER now.

If your stay is in Yotsuya, the Yotsuya neighborhood piece names the specific picks within walking distance: which clinic for a walk-in cold, which pharmacy stays latest, which hospital for the after-hours ER.

For a true emergency (chest pain, suspected stroke, a serious fall, a child with a high fever and seizures), call 119 and let the ambulance route you. The ambulance is free. They take you to the nearest hospital that can handle the case.

What to do tonight, before any of this happens

Three things, twenty minutes total. Do them while the apartment is calm.

Walk to the gas meter, the breaker panel, and the water shutoff. The binder photos are useful, but the muscle memory of having opened the cabinet once is what gets you there at 3am. If you cannot find one of the three, message your host now.

Save the numbers in your phone: 110, 119, your host, Tokyo Gas 0570-002299, the English nurse-line 03-5285-8181. The lockscreen contact widget is a useful place for the host's number. Emergency responders can see it without unlocking the phone.

Write your address in Japanese on a sticker and put it inside the front door of the kitchen cabinet. The kanji of your building name, the room number, the ward and the chōme. When a dispatcher asks, you read it off the sticker. You do not have to translate it in your head while your hands are shaking.

The calm after

Most Tokyo apartments go their whole stay without an emergency. The breaker trips once. The water heater needs a reset. The cabinet stays closed. The numbers stay in the phone.

If something does happen, the part of the city you will notice first is how quietly the systems work. The 119 dispatcher does not raise her voice. The Tokyo Gas technician arrives in a small van with a tool kit and a polite bow. The neighbor downstairs answers the door in a thin blue cardigan and accepts the apology before you finish it.

The emergency is a moment. The city absorbs it. You handle your five minutes, and then the apartment goes back to being the apartment.