Public hospital, Kiyuna, Ginowan.
University of the Ryukyus Hospital
The prefecture’s only university hospital, 620 beds at Ginowan — a critical care centre open around the clock, and the hyperbaric unit that treats decompression sickness.
Ambulance and fire: 119. Police: 110. Emergency consultation: #7119.
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琉球大学病院
Say “Ryudai Byoin”, or show the driver 琉球大学病院. Add 宜野湾市, Ginowan — the hospital moved to Nishi-Futenma in January 2025 while the university’s main campus stayed in Nishihara, so the name on its own can send you to the wrong place. Buses 25, 125 and 294 stop in front of the main entrance.
Ryukyu Daigaku Byoin, usually shortened to 琉大病院, Ryudai Byoin. The bus stop at the main entrance carries the hospital’s own name.
- TypePublic — the teaching hospital of the University of the Ryukyus, a national university corporation, and the prefecture’s only advanced treatment hospital
- BedsAbout 620
- Address1076 Kiyuna, Ginowan, Okinawa 901-2725, Japan
- Switchboard+81 98 894 1301
- Emergency room+81 98 894 1670
- Websitehosp.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
- HoursEmergency outpatient reception and treatment are both listed as all day, and the critical care centre states that it works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; outpatient consultations from 9:00 on weekdays with the first-visit window 8:00 to 11:00, closed Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and 29 December to 3 January
- LanguagesThe hospital publishes one page for international visitors in English and says that a patient who brings no interpreter can be given a medical interpreting service by video call; the rest of the site is machine translation, and it points foreign patients at the prefecture’s own 24-hour interpretation line
- AccreditationHospital accreditation from the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. It claims neither JCI nor JMIP, and neither appears anywhere on its site
- Opened1970
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
Okinawa’s only university hospital and its only advanced treatment hospital, rebuilt at Nishi-Futenma in Ginowan and open on the new site since January 2025, with 620 beds and helipads on the roof and in the grounds. Its critical care centre says it works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and its English page for international visitors tells travellers and emergency patients to come to the emergency room. It also holds the hyperbaric treatment department that treats decompression sickness, which is why it matters on a diving island.
What it is known for
Two things a visitor would not guess at. It is the prefecture’s only university hospital and its only advanced treatment hospital, with 620 beds, a critical care centre working 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, what it calls the first hybrid emergency room in Okinawa, and helipads on the roof and in the grounds. And it holds the island’s hyperbaric treatment department, whose own list of conditions names decompression sickness alongside carbon monoxide poisoning and bowel obstruction, and which treats around two hundred patients a year. The same doctor heads both the emergency department and the chamber.
Who it suits
Divers first of all, and anyone taken seriously ill or badly hurt in the middle of the island — Ginowan, Chatan, Urasoe, the Route 58 resort strip. Its English page is unusually direct with visitors: see a local doctor first if you are merely unwell, but travellers and emergency patients should come to the emergency room. For anything planned it is the opposite of accommodating. Appointments are by referral only, it says it does not accept bookings made by patients themselves, and a referral letter is needed at nearly every department for a first visit.
Cost and insurance
The most expensive hospital on this page, and it says so itself. A foreign patient without valid Japanese public health insurance is billed at 200 per cent of the standard rate plus tax, which the hospital explains as the cost of multilingual support, and payment is in full, up front. A first visit without a referral letter adds 7,700 yen including tax, and there is a 3,300 yen charge at a follow-up if you decline to be referred back out to a local doctor. A foreign-language document costs 8,800 yen to translate. The one direct-billing route it publishes is for TRICARE Prime and defence-affiliated patients through International SOS.
Getting there
The hospital moved in January 2025, so use its own directions to the new site at Nishi-Futenma. From Naha Airport it gives about forty-five minutes by taxi, about fifty-five on the 294 express on weekdays, an hour on the 25 and eighty minutes on the 125; all three routes stop in front of the main entrance. By car it routes you off the Okinawa Expressway at Nishihara interchange, or up Route 58 and onto prefectural road 81. The multi-storey car park opposite is linked to reception on the third floor and costs an outpatient 200 yen a visit. In 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
- Naha City HospitalPublic, about 470 beds, Furujima, on the monorail.
- Okinawa Prefectural Hokubu HospitalPublic, about 327 beds, Nago, northern Okinawa.