PEP is a 28-day course of anti-HIV drugs that can stop an infection taking hold — but only if you start within 72 hours of the exposure, and the sooner the better. One thing to plan around in Japan: PEP is not covered by insurance. You pay the full cost yourself, and it's steep. Don't let that stop you. Know the number is coming so it doesn't freeze you at the desk.
🚨 Where to Go Right Now
Your route depends on the time. A specialist clinic is the clean path; a hospital ER is the fallback when everything's shut.
| Time / Day | Where to Go | What to Expect |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday, daytime | An HIV / sexual health clinic, or the AIDS Clinical Center (ACC) | Full assessment, baseline HIV test, the right prescription. The ideal route. |
| Night / weekend / holiday | Hospital emergency department (救急外来, kyūkyū gairai) | A doctor can give you a day or two of PEP to bridge the gap. You then go to a specialist clinic when it opens. |
| Anytime, English needed | Personal Health Clinic (Ueno) · Private Care Clinic Tokyo (Shinjuku) | English-speaking staff; walk in or call ahead. |
There's no free PEP in Japan. Typical private pricing: around ¥20,000 for the first consultation, ¥10,000 per day of medication (≈¥280,000 for 28 days), and roughly ¥10,000 extra outside normal hours. Ask the clinic to confirm its own prices when you call.
📞 Key Contacts in Tokyo
- AIDS Clinical Center (ACC) — the national HIV reference centre. Handles PEP assessment. English patient page:
acc.jihs.go.jp/general/pep_eng.html. - Personal Health Clinic (Ueno, Bunkyo-ku) — rapid HIV testing, PrEP and PEP, English-speaking. Tel: 03-5817-4415.
- Private Care Clinic Tokyo (Shinjuku) — English service Monday–Saturday, ACC-linked and infectious-disease doctors.
If it's the middle of the night and you can't reach a specialist, go to a hospital ER and say plainly you had a possible HIV exposure and need PEP now. They can give you a short bridging supply. This is exactly what emergency care is for — don't sit on it until morning if that pushes you past 72 hours.
🗣️ What to Say
Staff won't guess why you're there, and embarrassment just costs you time. Be blunt.
- What you need: "HIV kansen no osore ga arimasu. PEP wo hajimetai desu." (I may have been exposed to HIV. I want to start PEP.)
- The timing: "Bakuro wa [X] jikan mae desu." (The exposure was [X] hours ago.)
- The exposure: what happened, and that the other guy's HIV status is unknown or positive.
Have the Japanese ready on your phone to show them — the vocabulary guide below has the phrases.
💊 The Course
It's a three-drug combination taken daily for 28 days, no missed doses. Side effects — nausea, fatigue, headache — are usually manageable, and the clinic can give you something for them. Don't stop early without talking to the doctor. Near the end of the course, and again a few weeks later, you'll retest for HIV to confirm the exposure didn't take.
Needing PEP more than once is the clearest sign to switch to PrEP. Daily or on-demand cover kills the 72-hour scramble and, over time, costs far less than repeat emergency courses.
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