Start from the pharmacy (free account) or from your own drawing. Some rooms in Japan have a size the law sets for the room itself, whatever the people in it: a pharmacy and its dispensing room, a therapy clinic's treatment room. This article checks a synthetic 100 m² pharmacy, with the same tool your AI calls over MCP. Every number below comes from that run.
What the standards ask
From e-Gov:
- A pharmacy is roughly 19.8 m² or more (おおむね), and has a dispensing room of at least 6.6 m² (薬局等構造設備規則, article 1). A drugstore (店舗販売業) is roughly 13.2 m² or more (article 2).
- A judo therapy, acupuncture or massage clinic has its own treatment room of at least 6.6 m² and a waiting room of at least 3.3 m² (柔道整復師法施行規則 article 18; あん摩マツサージ指圧師、はり師、きゆう師等に関する法律施行規則 article 25).
- A dementia group home's bedroom is at least 7.43 m² (指定地域密着型サービスの事業の人員、設備及び運営に関する基準 article 93).
- A ward gives each patient 6.4 m² in a hospital, and in a clinic's long-term care ward (療養病床) too; in a clinic's other wards, 6.3 m² to a patient alone and 4.3 m² each to two or more (医療法施行規則 article 16), measured inside the walls.
For a rule of a room's own size, check_space with areaPerPerson needs only the room and the rule. A pharmacy's or a drugstore's size is its rooms together (zones); a dispensing room, a treatment or waiting room, a group home's bedroom and a ward are each checked on its own. For a ward, people: "beds" counts its beds.
1. The pharmacy and its dispensing room
| Floor | Needs | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The pharmacy: the sales and waiting area, the counter area, the dispensing room and the stock room together | 81.39 m² | roughly 19.8 m² | enough |
| The dispensing room | 11.20 m² | 6.6 m² | enough |
| The dispensing room, clear of its shelf, fridge, table and sink | 8.49 m² | ||
| The waiting and sales area alone, as a drugstore | 48.36 m² | roughly 13.2 m² | enough |
The staff room and the toilet are left out of the pharmacy's size, as health centres count it (Chiba City, for one, leaves out rest rooms, changing rooms, toilets and offices). The standard asks the dispensing room's floor; with its fittings in it, 8.49 m² is left to work in. The floor check (check_space) finds no issues, and from the entrance a person reaches every room.
2. How to use these numbers
- They compare floor areas with the standards' figures; they are not a licence. Which rooms count toward a pharmacy's size, and how they are measured, is for the health centre: list the rooms that count, each drawn to its inner faces.
- A pharmacy's other rules (ventilation, light, a lockable store, keeping it apart from a home) and a therapy clinic's windows opening to a seventh of its treatment room are not checked.
- The same rules check a therapy clinic (
therapy_room,therapy_waiting), a group home's bedrooms (group_home_room) and wards by their beds (hospital_ward,clinic_ward).