Hello everyone!
I (27F) used to be a regular blood donor in France and I tried to find some information to give it also here in Tokyo but I struggle to find recent ones.
Did someone have the experience here? I speak a little bit of japanese but I worry about the medical vocabulary.
Have a good day/night !
7 comments
I donated blood for the first time to Japanese Red Cross actually just a few weeks ago. I was going for a walk and happened to see the Red Cross in front of the station. If you check the website, there will be information about donation locations there but it will probably be in Japanese. It’s easier if you have a good level of Japanese since you’ll be asked to fill out various forms when you donate blood.
If you’re French (more specifically, if you have spent more than 6 months between 1980-2004 in France), the answer will be that you can’t due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
More info [here](https://ajet.net/jet-community/volunteering-charity/donating-blood-in-japan/).
If you read Japanese (or use a translation site), check out the Japanese Red Cross’ [FAQ](https://www.jrc.or.jp/donation/qa/), specifically the bit about “if I have travelled abroad” and the subsection on vCJD.
Edit: added Japanese Red Cross FAQ page
Just a heads up in case you’ve lived in France (or Europe) between your year of birth and 2004: Blood donations from people who have lived more than 6 months in Europe between 1980~2004 are generally refused due to the risk of being infected with vCJD (aka mad cow disease/Creutzfeldt–Jakob). However, even though, in my case, I have been rejected by the Japanese Red Cross in Fukuoka for the above reason, I have seen testimonies on Reddit of people who successfully donated their blood in Japan despite having lived in Europe during the timeframe mentioned above. So, I would still encourage you to go to a blood donation center and see what they tell you  (If you want more info on the restricted countries (in Japanese): [https://www.jrc.or.jp/donation/about/refrain/detail_10/](https://www.jrc.or.jp/donation/about/refrain/detail_10/) on the 変異型クロイツフェルト・ヤコブ病（vCJD）について section)
If you lived in France (or most other Western European countries) before 2004, you’re a potential CJD (mad cow disease) carrier, so you cannot donate, sadly.
Google “CJD Japan donating blood” and hopefully the first link takes you to an ajet web page with the rules.
The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy restrictions have been made less sweeping in the last 30 years. I was prevented from donating the first couple of times I tried because of a couple of short stays in the UK in the 1980s (even though I was vegan), but then was allowed to donate.
As long as you can recognize where to fill in your name and address, most of the Japanese won’t cause a problem. There’s a survey you have to fill out about history various diseases and medicines you might be taking, but you can ask a staff member if you cannot read which diseases are being referred to.
(I’m currently banned from donating again because of cancer. You have to have five years of no occurrences after a cancer diagnosis.)
Depends, as others have said. There is no anti-foreign blood movement; they just want to make sure you are not a possible risk.
I do it when I can. Known people who needed transfusions–so it some small way to pay it back.
There’s a blood donation center in the Basement mall of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office in Shinjuku I saw the other day.