As a visitor to Japan you are required to perform certain Customs procedures which are an important part of entry into and departure from the country. This information is prepared by Japan Customs to assist foreign visitors coming to Japan by providing information about Customs regulations and procedures. The following knowledge will be helpful during Customs examination.
If you have any question, please feel free to ask a Customs officer.
Personal effects and unaccompanied baggage for personal use are free of duty and/or tax within the allowance specified below. (As for rice, the limit is 100KG a year.) If you have both personal effects and unaccompanied baggage, please consider them together and refer to the allowance.
-Personal Effects and Professional Equipment Clothes, toiletries, and other personal effects for your personal use, as well as portable professional equipment that will be used during your stay in Japan, are all free of duty and/or tax, if they are considered quantitatively appropriate and are not for sale.
-Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco Products, Perfume, etc Moreover, allowances will be made for certain other articles within the limits specified below.
-Household Effects (including Automobiles) If you are to move to Japan and to stay for more than one year, your or your family's household effects being used by the members of your family may be imported free of duty and/or tax within the limit deemed reasonable.
Such household effects may include automobiles, boats, and other vehicles, provided that a registration certificates or sales receipts are presented to prove that the automobiles are used and that the boats have been in use for more than one year prior to its arrival in Japan.
Automobiles and other vehicles may be imported temporarily free of duty and/or tax provided they are subsequently exported.
Item | Allowance (for an adult) | Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|
Alcoholic Beverages | 3 bottles | A bottle contains approximately 760cc | |
Tobacco Products | Cigars | 50 cigars | If a visitor brings in more than one kind of tobacco product, the total allowance is equivalent to 250 grams. |
Examples of the allowance for heat-not-burn tobacco
10 individual packages,etc
(Notes)
*1 Commodities and commercial samples are subject to duty and/or tax since they are not regarded as being for personal use.
*2 In the case of applying duty-free allowance for rice, please submit a "Report for the Import of Rice" to the Local Food Office or other competent organization, then submit one of the copies which are returned to you to the Customs Office.
*3 For additional information of the new exemption of tobacco, please see the brochure(Announcement[PDF:464KB]).
When your belongings exceed the limit of the allowances, the following simplified Customs duty and tax rates will be applied, in most cases, to that amount which is in excess.
Item | Rate | ||
---|---|---|---|
Alcoholic Beverages | Whisky, Brandy | 800yen per liter | |
Rum, Gin, Vodka | 500yen per liter | ||
Liquor | 400yen per liter | ||
Distilled alcoholic beverages | 300yen per liter | ||
Wine, beer, and other liquor | 200yen per liter | ||
Tobacco Products | Cigarettes | 15yen per cigarette | |
Heat-not-burn tobacco | ⑴ Products that use tobacco sticks (Example: IQOS, glo,etc.) | 15yen per stick | |
⑵ Products sold as a packaged set of tobacco capsules and liquid cartridges, etc. *Also includes products sold as a packaged set of liquid cartridges only. (Example: Ploom TECH,etc.) | 50yen per capsule |
When you have unaccompanied baggage, two copies of written declaration forms are required to submit at the time of your entry, one of which will be returned to you with the seal of certification by a Customs officer. Such declaration is necessary to obtain duty and/or tax exemption status.
Such unaccompanied baggage must be in your custody within six months after your arrival. The sealed declaration must be presented at the time of clearance of the unaccompanied goods.
If baggage is imported by mail, you are required to list this unaccompanied baggage on your declaration, and you should identify the parcel by placing the words "unaccompanied baggage" on the parcel.
If you are carrying cash or other means of payment exceeding 1 million yen(*0.1million JPY in a case that you are bound for North Korea), you are required to declare to Customs. Please ask a Customs officer at seaport or airport for a blank form.
What you have to declare:
When carrying gold bullion or gold products into Japan, please check“Yes”for the question “1. ③ Gold bullion or products of gold” on the “Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles”regardless of their quantity, wight, value, or whether they are new or not.
When carrying more than 1kg of gold bullion of 90% or more of purity into Japan, “Declaration of Carrying of Means of Payment, etc.” must be submitted in addition to “Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles”.
If the quantity and value of gold exceeds the scope of “Customs Clearance for Traveler’s Baggage”, general import declaration procedures are required.
The following articles are prohibited from entry by law:
Some other goods are restricted by other laws and regulations. When you import such goods, permits and approval under laws and regulations other than the Customs Law are required, or the goods must be examined by a government agency, as the case may be.
Major restricted items are listed below:
You are required to export the tax-free goods. Do not transfer or consume the tax-free goods in Japan.
When leaving Japan, at the airport or seaport of departure,
Customs inspect your possession of the tax-free goods as necessary.
If you DO NOT EXPORT the tax-free goods, you have to pay the consumption tax at customs.