Show this to your driver
沖縄県立北部病院
Say “Hokubu Byoin”, or show the driver 沖縄県立北部病院 together with the address 名護市大中2-12-3 — Nago has two large hospitals, and the other one, the district medical association’s, is somewhere else entirely. It stands in the Onaka district of Nago, and it is the prefectural hospital nearest Motobu and the Churaumi aquarium.
Okinawa Kenritsu Hokubu Byoin, usually shortened to 北部病院, Hokubu Byoin.
- TypePublic — the prefectural hospital for northern Okinawa, designated a community medical support hospital, a disaster base hospital and a regional perinatal centre
- BedsAbout 327
- Address2-12-3 Onaka, Nago, Okinawa 905-8512, Japan
- Switchboard+81 980 52 2719
- Websitehokubuweb.hosp.pref.okinawa.jp
- HoursThe hospital’s English pages state that it accepts emergency patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week; first-visit outpatient reception weekdays 8:30 to 11:00, follow-up visits to 14:00, closed Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
- LanguagesJapanese, with its outpatient and emergency guidance written out in English rather than machine-translated. It advertises no interpreter service
- Opened1946
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
The prefectural hospital for the northern third of the island, at Onaka in Nago, with 327 beds and twenty-nine departments. The prefecture calls it the last line of care for its region, and the hospital’s own English pages say it accepts emergency patients around the clock. It matters to visitors because it is the closest of the prefecture’s six hospitals to Motobu, the Churaumi aquarium and the northern coast, and it also runs the clinics on the small islands of Iheya and Izena.
What it is known for
Being the prefecture’s hospital for the whole northern region, and for writing its patient guidance out in English rather than leaving it to a machine. Those English pages state that it accepts emergency patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and — the sentence a visitor most needs — that although a referral letter is required in principle for a first visit, it is not required at night, on holidays or in an emergency. It has 327 beds, twenty-nine departments, and designations as a community medical support hospital, a disaster base hospital and a regional perinatal centre.
Who it suits
Anyone staying north of the middle of the island: Nago, Motobu, the Churaumi aquarium, the Yanbaru forest and the northern beaches, where the alternative is a long drive south. It is a regional hospital rather than a tertiary trauma centre, and it is candid about that. Psychiatry is suspended and dermatology takes inpatients only. It says that paying the no-referral surcharge does not guarantee you will be seen, and that at night and on holidays some of its emergency clinics are covered by doctors from elsewhere in the region. First-visit reception is weekday mornings, 8:30 to 11:00, and it closes at weekends and on public holidays.
Cost and insurance
The surcharge for a first visit without a referral letter is 7,000 yen including tax, or 5,000 yen for dental and oral surgery, and 3,000 yen at a follow-up; the same 7,000 yen applies to a first visit to the emergency department made without a letter. The hospital lists what is exempt: cases where emergency transport was judged necessary, visits that end in admission, follow-up after an abnormal screening result, and road and workplace accidents. It states in English that paying does not guarantee treatment, and that without a letter it may ask about your symptoms at reception and send you to a local clinic instead.
Getting there
The hospital is in the Onaka district of Nago and publishes floor plans but no travel directions, so plan the journey yourself: from the south this is a drive or an intercity bus up the west coast, and from Motobu and the aquarium it is the closest of the prefecture’s six hospitals. There are 214 outpatient parking spaces. One piece of advice it does give in English is worth taking: staff change over between 6:00 and 8:30 in the morning and between 16:00 and 18:00, waits are longer then, and it asks you to avoid those hours if you can. For an emergency, dial 119.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 119 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 2 hospitals in Okinawa
- University of the Ryukyus HospitalPublic, about 620 beds, Nishi-Futenma, Ginowan.
- Naha City HospitalPublic, about 470 beds, Furujima, on the monorail.