OBJECTIVES: The Japanese government has recently been promoting home-care. Local community pharmacies have been playing an important role in home-care, but virtually no research has been done to clarify the exact nature of their activities. This study was therefore conducted to elucidate the prescription infrastructure and home visit activities being conducted by community pharmacies. METHODS: In March 2012, questionnaires were mailed to community pharmacies in two cities in Osaka prefecture. The principal items surveyed were the background characteristics of the patients receiving home visit, the number of pharmacists working at the pharmacies, and the pharmacies’ facilities/equipment. RESULTS: We received responses from 90 of the 201 community pharmacies surveyed (response rate: 44.8%). Of these 90 pharmacies, 44 performed home visit. The patients visited at home were 79.7 years old, on average; 31.8% lived alone, and 22.7% lived with a spouse, with no children in the home. The responding pharmacies had an average of 2.2 full-time and 2.5 part-time pharmacists on staff. The mean number of prescriptions filled per day was 80.5, and 91.1% of the pharmacies did not possess sterile compounding equipment. Of the responding pharmacies, 83.1% stocked narcotic drugs, and the mean number of narcotics drugs stocked was 8.7. The parameters that were found to be correlated to the performance of home visit were the number of full-time pharmacists [p = 0.003], the number of narcotic drugs stocked [p = 0.060], and the number of medical instruments/materials possessed [p = 0.057]. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that the patients being visited by pharmacists are more likely to be elderly living alone who need their drug use managed by a pharmacist. Most pharmacies conducting home visit do not have sterile compounding equipment, half of the pharmacists working at these pharmacies are part-time, and not all of these pharmacies necessarily stock narcotic drugs.