We are now slowly heading into February, widely regarded by many as the coldest time of year in Japan. Unfortunately, this time of year also marks the dreaded flu season, with temperatures in the single digits. However, a more troublesome issue is the runny nose, congestion, cough and headaches that seem almost inevitable at this time of year.
Here are some OTC Japanese medicines for flu season you may want to consider if you’re suffering from any of the symptoms above and you can’t afford an extended absence from work. Please be sure to double-check the correct dosage and do not mix similar types of medicine.
2. Precol Extended Release Capsule
1. Contac Z

Contac Z is designed to treat the most common symptoms of allergic rhinitis and the like. Unlike other Japanese medicines, Contact Z only requires one tablet a day and won’t make you sleepy. This makes it a favorite for people struggling to get through the working day before resting and recovering at home. Children ages 15 shouldn’t take this medicine.
Symptoms: Congestion, runny nose
2. Precol Extended Release Capsule

One of the strongest cold and flu relief medications available without prescription in Japan, Precol also has the added benefit of providing sustained relief over an extended period of time. However, given its higher dosages, it’s important not to mix it with other similar medications. Take two tablets twice a day after breakfast and dinner. This medicine is not recommended for anyone under the age of 15.
Symptoms: Fever, congestion, cough and sore throat.
3. Stona Gel Sinus EX

Stona Gel Sinus EX is an effective remedy that combats flu symptoms like congestion and throat pain while also relieving aches and pains commonly associated with a bout of flu. Take two tablets thrice a day within 30 minutes after meals. Do not take this medicine if you are under 15 years of age.
Symptoms: Runny nose, headache, cough, fever, muscle pain
4. Pabron S Gold W

Pabron S Gold W uses acetaminophen, a pain reliever and fever reducer as well as ambroxol hydrochloride, which helps reduce phlegm. Take two tablets thrice a day after meals. Don’t take it with any similar medicine containing similar ingredients. Children under 12 years of age should not take this medicine.
Symptoms: Cough, mucus, sore throat, runny nose, chills, fever, headache, body aches
5. SS Bron

Click here to read more.
- External Link
- https://gaijinpot.com/
19 Comments
virusrex
Also necessary is to have zero consideration of others and feel no remorse to expose them to risk that can heavily impact their health or worse.
Because anybody with even a tiny amount of responsibility and empathy would take medicines or go to a doctor the same, but would ALSO take absence of work. After 2020 it is unthinkable people still feel justified in recommending others to expose countless other people.
Jay
Otherwise known as five different ways to suppress your body's NATURAL DEFENSES so Big Pharma can sell you a Band-Aid for a bullet wound. Does anyone still believe popping a pill will help you beat the flu while your immune system sits there wondering why it's been benched?
virusrex
Treating symptoms is not even remotely the same as suppressing defenses. And in cases where medical interventions do it, can be for the benefit of the patient.
Symptomatic treatment (when appropriately done) regularly helps solving the medical problem faster
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10379023/
Doctors do, and they can show the data that proves this possibility is real and frequent, mostly because symptomatic treatment do not depend on weakening the immune response.
JeffLee
My fellow Tokyo train commuters need to read this article. Based on their incessant sounds of coughing, hacking, sniffing, snorting and sneezing, they’ve never heard of decongestants, anti-histines or even tissues.
I go for the ones with decent doses of ibuprofen and without caffeine.
Zaphod
virusrex
Says who? Please quote one of your "world-wide experts" who claims that e.g. feber is not part of the natural healing response of the body.
Jay
The familiar pitch: "Treat the symptoms, not the cause, and call it 'benefit to the patient!'" Cold/Flu medicines don't-cure; they mask symptoms, tricking people into thinking they're better while the virus lingers longer. By suppressing natural fever responses - your body's way of fighting infection - you're prolonging the illness for the sake of temporary comfort.
But of course, why let the body do its job when you can keep buying overpriced pills that just keep you sick longer? It's a genius business model, really.
Bad Haircut
I try to avoid them as much as possible unless the symptoms get too bad, but working from home makes the choice easier. At the first sign of a sore throat I'll gargle some iodine solution (Isodine, I think) a few times a day. That usually knocks it out pretty fast. Throat drops wth Manuka honey can help as well, depending on the potency of the honey.
If the nasal blockage gets too bad I'll use a spray to clear it out, but those should really only be used for a few days as they can harm the nasal lining if used for too long. And they can give me a headache sometimes.
I don't think I've taken a chest decongestant since I was a teenager, thanks to almost never getting a chest infection.
falseflagsteve
Virusrex seems unaware of how the work culture operates in Japan. Calling people selfish for going to work when aging cold or flu symptoms. Do you think they have the choices afforded in some nations or stay in home for a week or so? Most employers will not tolerate that in Japan and will expect you to attend unless you are on your deathbed.
virusrex
What is the point of pretending not to notice the reference already there in the comment? to appear irrational?
When the problem are the symptoms then it is perfectly valid to do it. What evidence do you have against the reference provided that clearly explains how this is beneficial for the patients? obviously expecting people to just trust your personal opinion must be correct is not rational, you would need at least the same degree of evidence to disprove what is already there.
Not necessarily, and also not all symptomatic treatments are based on antipyretics. You keep trying to generalize things as if there was one single way to treat symptoms when that is definitely not the case.
The confusion you have is thinking that infection and sickness are the same, they are not. If treatment solves the symptoms (the patient becomes asymptomatic) that means it solved the sickness even if he is still infected. If that prevents complications that is perfectly valid objective for the treatment.
Not at all, I am talking about what SHOULD be part of recommendations to the public, not what people will actually do frequently. Going to work with a flu may be the reality but it is still something unacceptable and that should not be recommended in an article of the health section.
wallace
My course of action is a bed, honey lemon ginger tea, Chinese remedy, water, Tylenol, and nasal spray.
falseflagsteve
Virus
Incorrect and you’re changing your stance, you were putting all the blame of being selfish on the worker, there was no mention of the employers or the workers feeling obliged to attend the workplace.
Wallace
I like a nice bowl of chicken soup. Also if congested, hot milk with turmeric, honey and black pepper is a remedy I have used. Quite a common remedy in India where other ingredients can also be added. Worked wonders when I had chronic bronchitis a few years back, better relief than anything I was prescribed.
Jay
No, you're ignoring centuries of evolutionary biology because your corporate-funded "reference" says it’s "beneficial."
The fact is: masking symptoms with meds doesn't cure anything - which is the entire point - it just prolongs the illness by preventing your body from doing its job.
The only thing "perfectly valid" here is Big Pharma's business model: keep you sick, keep you dependent, and keep their profits soaring.
virusrex
No, not the worker but the person responsible for the sick to spread the disease. If the worker itself is the one that takes that decision then he is the one that can be blamed, if he is being forced then the one that is putting pressure is the one that is in the wrong. It takes very little common sense to understand that being forced to act wrong is not the same as doing it for personal convenience.
No, not at all, "centuries of evolution" do not contradict the fact that medicating symptoms properly helps making the disease be solved in shorter times and with less risk of complications. You are the one making that claim without supporting it with any evidence, precisely because you have been completely unable to support your personal opinion with actual evidence it becomes clear it is just that misunderstanding the role of pharmacological interventions and pretending they must have always a negative effect when it was very easy to prove otherwise.
You have not yet refuted the reference provided either. You just repeat your claims as if that would magically support them, that is not the case.
Jay
No, you're conflating "medicating symptoms" with "curing the disease" while conveniently ignoring how masking symptoms can actually prolong the illness. Centuries of evolution have given us immune systems that work remarkably well... until we interfere with the kind of overmedication that you seem to be advocating, which suppresses natural responses like fever, fighting infection.
Evidence? Studies show that fever reducers can increase viral shedding, making the illness last longer.
And as for your "references," we know they're cherry-picked industry-funded studies that conveniently ignore long-term impacts. Unfortunately facts are not on your side - they're on the side of REAL health, not symptom-masking profit schemes.
Namahage
When I was a kid,we were bombarded by various remedies from our grannies,like wearing a sweaty old sock filled with mustard powder around ones neck, putting brown paper covered in vinegar on ones chest,the old staple of a hot toddy, chopped eggs in a cup.
As we were a large family,my mother,as soon as one family member got the 'flu,made us all sleep in one bed,so we all got it and recovered as soon as possible,to avoid having to take unpaid days off.
virusrex
When the disease is about the symptoms then curing the symptoms is curing the disease, this applies without problems to a cold. The article is not talking about medicines for cancer or hepatitis but again diseases that consist on headatches, running nose, etc.
Both wrong, first because we now enjoy longer and healthier lives than ever before, and because treating the symptoms is not necessarily overmedicating as you are misrepresenting.
Unless you can bring studies that show that antipyretics ALWAYS make the disease las longer that is not something that support your claim. After all I already provided a study that explicitly say that medicating the symptoms frequently causes the disease to solve quicker.
Well, you have not been able to refute the reference provided, nor defend this new claim that is cherry picked or ignore long term impact, once again you are just baselessly claiming so without arguing how it is supposedly the case. The reference still refutes your claim.
Jay
You're still not getting it. Here's your problem: Big Pharma-funded "studies" can't cover up the fact that fever, for example, helps your body fight infection. Antipyretics, by suppressing this natural defense, increase viral replication and prolong illness, as shown in multiple independent studies - not the cherry-picked, industry-approved ones you cling to.
iron man
Fever is good, higher temps allow the natural antibodies to deal with bacterial infections more rapidly. For me a stomach full of fresh steamed veg and fish (followed by a can of strong stout) and then some good quilts to let the body sleep and sweat it out (worry about the laundry when you wake up with energy). i.e. Feed the Fever.
virusrex
Making up imaginary things is not an argument, the study provided is not funded by any company, so your criticism is irrelevant.
Except that this is not something inevitable and as the reference proved it is common that they can make the illness resolve faster. You still have not provided any argument against the reference provided, so it remains valid and proves your claim is wrong. Just made up a conspiracy about it being funded by pharma, which of course is not something you provide any evidence and it would be easily refuted by other authors saying the study is wrong, but "strangely" this does not happen, even if the article is available for any doctor or scientist in the world to see and refute. Obviously you are not expecting people to think every single one is in the conspiracy and the reference remains unchallenged because of that.
Infnluenza, covid, the common cold, etc. are not caused by bacteria.