Background and Objectives
These years foreign visitors have been increasing in Japan. The tendency is expected to be accelerated heading for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, followed by the Osaka Expo in 2025. The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent EMS is understood by foreign residents in Japan.
Methods
We collected questionnaires from foreigners who had an experience of living in Japan. The questionnaire was composed of 10 questions including nationality, period of stay, the experience of calling an ambulance, reasons for calling an ambulance, and so on.
Results
Fifty-seven completed questionnaires were returned as of November 2018. Average age was 34, and 32person out of 57 were men. Their experiences of calling an ambulance were 21%, which showed less than that of Japanese in the same age. 90% of them worried about language, and 70% about medical fee.
In case of facing medical emergency case, 95% of respondents thought that they should call an ambulance only when it seeming to be a dangerous state of life. However, some of them didn’t know even the emergency call number.
Conclusions
We confirmed the results that foreign residents in Japan did not necessarily understand EMS. In addition to the hospitality, providing EMS information to foreign visitors should be more actively considered by all related people.
