The short version: a Japanese medicine box answers three questions in three fixed places. Front: which symptom, plus a class label (第2類医薬品). Back panel 用法・用量: how many, how often, when. Warning block 使用上の注意: who must not take it. The single most misread word is 食間 - it means between meals, not during them.
It is always the same scene. Ten at night, a sore throat that arrived out of nowhere, and a drugstore that is - thankfully - still open. Inside, an entire wall of boxes, every one of them white and blue and covered in cheerful text, and not a single word of English anywhere on the shelf that matters.
You do the thing everybody does: pick up two boxes, compare them, understand neither, and buy the one with the friendliest illustration. Sometimes that works. Sometimes you get home with something for hay fever, or with a cold remedy that puts you to sleep at the exact moment you needed to be awake.
What makes this frustrating is that it is not really a language problem. The box is superbly organised - Japanese packaging is legally required to answer specific questions in specific places - and once you can read about forty characters, the wall of boxes turns into a sorted database. This is that forty.
ドラッグストア, 薬局, 調剤薬局 - three different shops
| Sign | Reading | What it is | Go here when |
|---|---|---|---|
| ドラッグストア | — | Retail drugstore - medicine plus cosmetics, snacks, detergent | You want over-the-counter medicine and everything else. |
| 薬局 | やっきょく | Pharmacy in the legal sense, with a 薬剤師 on site | You need real advice, or a prescription filled. |
| 調剤薬局 | ちょうざいやっきょく | Dispensing pharmacy - clusters around clinics and hospitals | You are holding a 処方箋. |
| 処方箋受付 | しょほうせんうけつけ | Prescription counter | Hand over the prescription and your お薬手帳 here. |
| 薬剤師 | やくざいし | Licensed pharmacist | Can sell every class of medicine and answer questions. |
| 登録販売者 | とうろくはんばいしゃ | Registered seller | Can sell class 2 and class 3 medicine - most of the shelf. |
第1類, 指定第2類, 第3類: what the class number tells you
Every box carries a class in a small square. It is not a strength rating - it is a rule about who is allowed to hand it to you, and it explains why some boxes sit behind glass.
| Label | Reading | What it means in the shop |
|---|---|---|
| 要指導医薬品 | ようしどういやくひん | Requires face-to-face guidance from a pharmacist. Cannot be bought online. |
| 第1類医薬品 | だいいちるいいやくひん | Highest OTC risk. A 薬剤師 must hand it over with a written explanation - usually kept behind the counter. |
| 指定第2類医薬品 | していだいにるいいやくひん | A flagged subset of class 2 needing extra caution - often shown as ② or 2 in a circle. |
| 第2類医薬品 | だいにるいいやくひん | Open shelf. Most cold remedies, painkillers and fever medicine live here. |
| 第3類医薬品 | だいさんるいいやくひん | Lowest risk - vitamins, mild digestive aids, many eye drops. |
Symptom kanji: the line that decides everything
Japanese medicine is sold by symptom, printed in large characters near the top. Find your symptom and you have already eliminated ninety per cent of the wall.
Colds, fever and the head
Throat, nose and chest
Stomach and gut
Skin, eyes and body
錠, 顆粒, 軟膏: the delivery method
| Word | Reading | Form |
|---|---|---|
| 錠 / 錠剤 | じょう / じょうざい | Tablet. 1回2錠 = two tablets per dose. |
| カプセル | — | Capsule. |
| 顆粒 / 散剤 | かりゅう / さんざい | Granules / powder, poured onto the tongue and washed down. |
| シロップ | — | Syrup - usually the children’s version (小児用). |
| 軟膏 / クリーム | なんこう | Ointment / cream, applied to the skin (外用). |
| 湿布 | しっぷ | Medicated compress patch for shoulders and back. 冷感 cooling / 温感 warming. |
| 点眼薬 | てんがんやく | Eye drops - 目薬 (めぐすり) on the friendly boxes. |
| うがい薬 | うがいぐすり | Gargle solution for a sore throat. |
| 絆創膏 | ばんそうこう | Adhesive bandage. |
| 消毒液 | しょうどくえき | Antiseptic. |
| 体温計 | たいおんけい | Thermometer - 体 body + 温 temperature + 計 meter. |
用法・用量 - the six lines that actually matter
Turn the box over and you find a small table. It is always the same table, in the same order. Here is what one looks like, translated line by line.
Timing words, ranked by how often you meet them
| Instruction | Reading | Meaning | In practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1日3回 | いちにちさんかい | Three times a day | 回 = times. 1日2回, 1日1回 follow the same shape. |
| 毎食後 | まいしょくご | After every meal | 毎 every + 食 meal + 後 after. |
| 食前 | しょくぜん | Before a meal | Typically around 30 minutes before eating. |
| 食間 | しょっかん | Between meals | Roughly two hours after eating - not during the meal. |
| 就寝前 | しゅうしんぜん | Before sleeping | 就寝 = going to bed. |
| 頓服 | とんぷく | Only when symptoms appear | As needed, with a stated minimum gap between doses. |
| 1回2錠 | いっかいにじょう | Two tablets per dose | 回 = per occasion, 錠 = tablets. |
| 服用 | ふくよう | To take (internally) | 服用しないこと = do not take. |
| 内服 / 外用 | ないふく / がいよう | Internal / external use | 外用薬 goes on the skin and must never be swallowed. |
| 成人 / 小児 | せいじん / しょうに | Adult / child | 小児用 on the front = the children’s formulation. |
| 15歳以上 / 15歳未満 | じゅうごさいいじょう / みまん | 15 and over / under 15 | 以上 includes the number; 未満 excludes it. |
使用上の注意 - the part worth reading slowly
| Phrase | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| してはいけないこと | — | Things you must not do - the strongest section on the box. |
| 相談すること | そうだんすること | Consult a doctor or pharmacist first (pregnancy, other medication, chronic illness). |
| 眠くなることがあります | ねむくなる… | May cause drowsiness. |
| 運転しないでください | うんてん… | Do not drive after taking this. |
| 妊娠中 / 授乳中 | にんしんちゅう / じゅにゅうちゅう | While pregnant / while breastfeeding. |
| 副作用 | ふくさよう | Side effects. |
| 長期連用しない | ちょうきれんよう… | Do not take continuously for a long period. |
| 小児の手の届かない所に保管 | しょうに…ほかん | Store out of reach of children. |
| 直射日光を避け | ちょくしゃにっこうをさけ | Keep out of direct sunlight. |
Five sentences that get you the right box
喉が痛いんですが、何かありますか。のどがいたいんですが、なにかありますか。My throat hurts - do you have something for that?
熱があります。ねつがあります。I have a fever.
眠くならないものはありますか。ねむくならないものはありますか。Is there one that doesn’t make you drowsy?
これは1日何回飲みますか。これはいちにちなんかいのみますか。How many times a day do I take this?
他の薬を飲んでいます。大丈夫ですか。ほかのくすりをのんでいます。だいじょうぶですか。I’m taking other medication. Is this okay?
One more thing worth knowing: the お薬手帳 is a small booklet that records everything ever dispensed to you. Pharmacies will offer you one, it costs nothing, and it is the fastest way to answer that last question honestly.
Why this vocabulary sticks so badly - and the fix
Drugstore Japanese has a cruel property: you only need it when you feel terrible. It is the one moment when careful decoding is impossible, and the one moment when getting it right actually matters. Studying it in advance feels pointless; needing it without having studied it feels awful.
The realistic answer is to make the aisle readable on the spot, and then let that moment turn into memory automatically.
1. Read the box where you are standing. Kanjijo’s OCR scanner reads a photo of the packaging and returns the reading and meaning of every character - the symptom line, the class label, the dosage table, the warning block.
2. Keep what you scanned. Every character and word can go straight into the SRS engine, each with an exclusive mnemonic, so 服用, 毎食後 and 眠くなる are simply readable next time instead of solvable.
3. Review without deciding to. The home and lock screen widgets surface due cards on the screen you already look at forty times a day, and the interactive test widget quizzes you in three seconds without opening the app.
4. Be able to ask, not just read. The conversation and shadowing tracks drill exactly this kind of exchange out loud, and dictation trains the harder half - understanding the pharmacist’s answer.
And behind it, the full course for whenever you want it: N5–N1 kanji, vocabulary and grammar banks, JLPT reading and JLPT listening practice, and mock JLPT tests.
- OCR scanner for packaging
- Home & lock screen widgets
- Interactive test widget
- Exclusive kanji & vocab mnemonics
- SRS spaced repetition
- Full N5–N1 grammar bank
- JLPT reading practice
- JLPT listening practice
- Mock JLPT tests
- Conversation & shadowing
- Dictation training
- Zen design
Quick reference
- 食前 / 食後 / 食間
- Before a meal / after a meal / between meals (about 2 hours after eating).
- 頓服
- Only when symptoms appear, with a minimum gap between doses.
- 1回2錠、1日3回
- Two tablets per dose, three doses per day.
- 15歳以上 / 15歳未満
- 15 and over (inclusive) / under 15 (exclusive).
- 第1類 / 指定第2類 / 第2類 / 第3類
- Risk classes. Class 1 comes from a pharmacist; classes 2 and 3 sit on the shelf.
- 内服 / 外用
- Taken internally / applied externally. 外用薬 must never be swallowed.
- 眠くなることがあります
- May cause drowsiness. The opposite claim is 眠くなりにくい.
- 相談すること
- Ask a doctor or pharmacist before taking - pregnancy, other medication, chronic conditions.
Related Reading on Kanjijo
Frequently Asked Questions
食間 (しょっかん) means between meals - not during them. Despite the character 間 suggesting in the middle of, it refers to the empty stretch roughly two hours after eating, when the stomach is no longer full. This is one of the most misread instructions on Japanese packaging for foreign readers. Its neighbours are 食前 (しょくぜん, before a meal, usually about 30 minutes), 食後 (しょくご, after a meal, usually within 30 minutes), 毎食後 (まいしょくご, after every meal) and 就寝前 (しゅうしんぜん, before going to sleep).
頓服 (とんぷく) means taken only when symptoms appear, rather than on a fixed schedule - the Japanese equivalent of as needed. A 頓服 painkiller or fever medicine is taken at the moment of the headache or fever, and the packaging will state a minimum interval before the next dose. It contrasts with the scheduled instruction 1日3回 毎食後 (three times a day after every meal), which is taken whether or not symptoms are present at that hour.
They are Japan’s risk classes for over-the-counter medicine, printed on the front of every box. 第1類医薬品 carries the highest risk and must be handed over by a 薬剤師 (pharmacist) with a written explanation, so it usually sits behind the counter. 指定第2類医薬品 is a flagged subset of the second class requiring extra caution. 第2類医薬品 and 第3類医薬品 can be sold by a 登録販売者 (registered seller) and sit on the open shelves - most cold remedies and painkillers are class 2. Above all of these is 要指導医薬品, which requires face-to-face pharmacist guidance and cannot be sold online.
A ドラッグストア is a retail shop selling over-the-counter medicine alongside cosmetics, snacks and household goods. A 薬局 is a pharmacy in the legal sense, staffed by a 薬剤師 and able to dispense prescriptions; a 調剤薬局 is one that exists mainly for that purpose and clusters around hospitals and clinics. If you are carrying a 処方箋 (しょほうせん, prescription) you need a counter marked 処方箋受付. Many large drugstores contain a dispensing counter inside, so the two categories overlap in practice.
Point a camera at it. Kanjijo’s OCR scanner reads the box and returns the reading and meaning of every character on the symptom line, the dosage panel and the warning block, which answers the question standing in the aisle. What makes the second visit easier is that any character or word you scan can be sent into the app’s SRS engine with an exclusive mnemonic attached, so the packaging vocabulary - 錠, 服用, 毎食後, 眠くなる - becomes something you simply read next time rather than something you have to solve.
Turn the aisle into information
Kanjijo reads what you cannot: an OCR scanner for any box, label or sign, exclusive mnemonics for every kanji and word, an SRS engine that schedules each review for the moment before you forget, and home, lock screen and interactive test widgets that keep it all in front of you. Plus the full N5–N1 kanji, vocabulary and grammar banks, JLPT reading and listening practice, mock tests, conversation, shadowing and dictation. Free on iPhone.
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