Getting vaccinated in Japan, first dose experience

One of the City-Cost team received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine here in Japan recently. Here they recount the vaccination experience, focusing on documents prepared, the flow of things on the day of being vaccinated and subsequent feelings immediately and in the days following. What follows is their voice.

Related: Plans to better COVID vaccine support for foreign residents of Japan late in the day?

I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine through work, which means being inoculated with the Moderna vaccine (the vaccine currently used in Japan at large-scale vaccination centers, universities and in the workplace). On a personal note, I had no preference between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (the two vaccines currently available in Japan) having little understanding of either other than that the Pfizer vaccine is said to be a couple of percentage points more effective than that manufactured by Moderna.

Being vaccinated through work I suppose saved me any potential hassle that others might face in finding facilities with appointment vacancies when going through the municipality of residence route or at a large-scale, state-run vaccination center. With this in mind, I won’t comment further on the booking procedure.

In terms of documents and flow though, I imagine vaccination procedures to be similar regardless of the location / administration and so I’m sharing my experience here should it help fill in any blanks for others who are intending to receive vaccinations themselves, here in Japan.

I cannot and will not pretend to have any significant understanding of any medical terms of procedures relating to the vaccine or vaccination process. This is just a straightforward recounting of the experience as I went through it. 

Oh, I’m male, early 40s, exercise regularly and have no known serious allergies or underlying health issues. 

Documents to prepare and bring to the vaccination

The following documents were emailed to me as PDFs to download (by HR) and were also sent by post along with the “vaccination coupons” from my municipality of residence. 

Instructions for COVID-19 vaccination - No, not a set of instructions for a DIY vaccination kit, rather this document provides a breakdown of the vaccine (by manufacturer) including headers like, “Effects of the vaccine and administration method,” “People who need to be careful about getting vaccinated,” and “What to do after receiving the vaccine.” I just needed to read and understand this.  

*Note: I received this document in Japanese from my municipality of residence. It’s available to download in a number of languages from the website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/vaccine_tagengo.html

Prevaccination Screening Questionnaire for COVID-19 vaccine - This is a set of questions that helps you and the onsite medical staff determine if you are able to receive the vaccine. I think you really need to be completing this questionnaire before you arrive at the vaccination site, otherwise you could cause a bit of a hold up. 

My understanding is that only the Japanese version of this questionnaire is valid. However, there are thorough translations of the questionnaire to help you understand what’s going on. Again, these can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. 

*Note: In my experience, the field asking you to detail your body temperature on the day of being vaccinated is filled in by staff at the site who take your temperature.  

*Note: Do check the fields “Signature and seal of doctor,” “Medical institution code,” “Vaccination location,” and “Name of doctor,” as this information was already pre-printed onto the form I was issued. I suspect, in my case, losing this form and just downloading a blank one from the ministry website might have led to some problems. 

*Note: The Prevaccination Screening Questionnaire for COVID-19 vaccine I received from my municipality of residence (in Japanese) looks a little different from that which can be downloaded from the ministry website. I think it largely covers the same content but still, you’d like there to be more consistency in this kind of thing, wouldn’t you?  

On municipality-issued instructions it reads, “For non-Japanese speakers, download the multilingual pre-examination form and fill it in,” before being directed to the forms I’ve linked to above. Except on those forms there’s a message (in Japanese) that says something along the lines of the form not being for use during the vaccination process - use the Japanese version for that.  

Vaccination ticket / coupon or Record of Vaccination for COVID-19 - Two options here. Those without one of the “vaccination coupons” issued by their municipality of residence were asked to fill in and bring along the Record of Vaccination for COVID-19. The “record” is essentially just a bit of a form that anyone with a computer and printer could knock up. You fill in your name, address and date of birth and let the on-site staff do the rest.

*Note: In the handling of your name in all matters relating to getting vaccinated here in Japan, I think it best to write it as it would be written on your family register certificate (koseki tohon). 

Those people who had yet to receive their municipality-issued vaccination coupons were told to hand them into their head of department as soon as they received them.

As it turns out, I received my coupons just in time and so was able to bring them along for the vaccination. Prior to receiving the vaccination there is nothing I needed to do with these coupons other than remember to bring them. 

I.D. - I used my Japanese driver's license. 

About documents from the municipality

Along with vaccination coupons, I received a basic multilingual guide on the vaccination procedures, information about the vaccine (in Japanese), questionnaire (in Japanese), list of vaccination sites (in Japanese), and notice of vaccination (in Japanese) which contained information about the order / timing in which they were accepting appointments based on age.

On the day of the vaccination: flow

I was done with everything within about 30 minutes. 

1 - Go to the site (in the office) and wait on socially distanced chairs in the order of arrival. (They had a number of people for each appointment slot.) Have your documents to hand. Wait to be called in. 

2 - After being called in (one at a time), it was a temperature check, document check and I.D. check. All documents were handed back.  

3 - “Have you ever had an adverse reaction to a vaccine?” - Medical staff asked me this. I haven’t. I suspect if I had, I would have been filed off in a different direction. As it was, I was moved on to see the doctor. 

4 - Consultation. The doctor went down the list of questions on my questionnaire. There was little to consult about as I have no known allergies or medical issues. I had indicated that I wanted to ask a question about the vaccine so the doctor heard me out -- “Can I take regular, over-the-counter medication if I feel feverish / have a headache after being jabbed?”

The doctor stamped their approval on my questionnaire, and peeled off one of the stickers that comprised my vaccination coupon and stuck it to the questionnaire, which they then added to the pile of other questionnaires. I did not see this questionnaire again.

5 - Nurse. Sit down and tell them if you are left or right handed (the jab goes in the other one). The nurse told me to let my arm relax otherwise the jab may hurt a little. I did and then turned my head away from what was going on. I felt a gentle pinching and that was it. Honestly, I didn’t feel any kind of jab. I was surprised to hear that they were finished. 

6 - Wait. I’ve got what’s left of my vaccination coupons and now have a ministry-issued information sheet about the side-effects of the Moderna vaccine (in Japanese) and a kitchen timer counting down from 15 minutes. There were a bunch of us waiting on socially distanced chairs, playing with phones while waiting for alarms to ring. 

*Note: I couldn’t comprehensively read the information I was given. In regards to the 15-minute wait, I’ll just copy and paste what it says on the ministry translation of the Instructions for the COVID-19 vaccination: 

“After receiving this vaccine, please wait at the facility where you received the vaccine for at least 15 minutes (at least 30 minutes for those who have experienced severe allergic symptoms including anaphylaxis in the past, or those who have felt sick or fainted, etc.), and if you feel unwell, please contact your doctor immediately. (This makes it possible to respond

to sudden side effects.)”

7 - After my alarm went off, I went to another kind of reception desk and handed staff my vaccination coupons. They added a vaccine seal in the field “Certificate of Vaccination for COVID-19.” Around the seal there are fields in which you can add the date and location of vaccination. Nobody filled that in for me. Maybe they’ll do it the second time round. Maybe I should do it. 

Done. Super smooth. Very impressive. No longer than 30 minutes, I think. 

I walked out with what was left of my vaccination coupons (plus vaccine sticker), the information about side effects, and a notice about when the second-dose vaccinations are to be scheduled.

How does it feel? Reactions, side effects now and then 

According to the information sheet we were handed while we waited for 15 minutes after our jab, more than fifty percent of people experience one or more of the following after being vaccinated - some pain around the injection spot, tiredness, headaches, and / or tired muscles.

10 - 50% experience pain in the joints, chills, vomiting or the feeling of wanting to vomit, fever, swelling around the injection spot, redness, and / or lymphadenitis - I’ll let you look that last one up for yourselves. 

1 - 10% experience some of the above for up to seven days after injection. 

Immediately after vaccination

While I didn’t feel the jab itself, around the point of entry my arm started to ache a little almost immediately. This increased throughout the rest of the day (my appointment was at 15:40.) but never got to be particularly uncomfortable. I was able to make the commute home as normal. 

The next morning

I had no trouble (any more than usual anyway) sleeping but I woke the next morning feeling plenty more tired than I usually do but not enough to, say, not work (from home at least). Going about making breakfast and my morning routine I felt a little bit out of it, slightly fuzzy headed, if you will, but in quite a pleasant way actually, like I was more relaxed than usual. This stayed with me throughout the morning. 

As for my arm, the slight ache around the jab entry point was still there and certain movements brought about a slightly stronger twinge of pain. Faint redness around the jab started to show. 

I didn’t want to sleep on the “jab” side. No morning exercise routine.

The day after the day after

Certain arm movements still bring about a heightened pain but I felt fine to do a lighter version of my morning exercise routine. 

Arm still slightly red around the jab point. Otherwise feeling absolutely fine. 

Over a week later

It’s been about 10 days since receiving my first dose of the Moderna COVID vaccine. I’m operating as “business as usual,” so to speak, feeling no side effects at all. However, my arm is still a little red around the jab point. This picture was taken this morning: 

(Photo taken around 10 days after first dose of Moderna vaccine, unedited, muscles clenched for reasons of terrible insecurity!  Grrrrrh!)

You can’t really see it in this image but at some point over the last week I also got a kind of dirty but faint yellow bruising color around what I think is the jab point -- I can no longer tell. No pain though. I have full movement and have been able to do a whole bunch of exercise and activities without any issues.  

Other experiences

My Japanese partner is a healthcare professional and as such received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine some weeks ago now. After the first dose they had similar arm issues to me. The second dose hit them harder, the following day. That morning they were pretty much laid up with flu-like symptoms -- fever, very tired, headache. Things started to improve throughout the day though and by the end of the day they were feeling much better. They were able to work the next day without any issues. 

Unanswered questions

Being vaccinated through work, I’m unsure as to how my municipality of residence is informed about my having been vaccinated. I don’t care that much. I just want to feel confident that I can get whatever bit of paper it is that serves as a kind of “vaccination passport,” which in my understanding is issued by the municipality. 

What is the flow of things if on the day between you and the doctor it is decided that it is unsuitable for you to be vaccinated at that time? I don’t know what happens in this case. What if, at a later stage, you want to try again? I have seen on the website of the municipality in which I reside a form to fill in to apply for a reissue of the vaccination coupons -- perhaps this is the way to pursue this. 

Anyway, once again I hope the flow of my own experience with receiving the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine here in Japan serves to help those who are wanting to be vaccinated themselves. 

Watch this space for updates!