Japan customs and duty-free: what you can bring in

Declaration and the two channels

Japan Customs states that all passengers entering Japan must declare their belongings, and it recommends submitting the declaration electronically through Visit Japan Web. Electronic customs declaration gates are available at seven international airports, and paper forms are handed out on the plane, on the ship or at customs.

At the inspection point you choose a channel: green if you carry nothing dutiable and nothing prohibited or restricted, and red for everything else. Duties and taxes are paid at the bank inside the customs inspection zone.

Duty-free allowances

Personal effects and professional equipment for your own use are free of duty and tax when they are quantitatively appropriate and not for sale. On top of that, each adult gets allowances: three bottles of alcoholic beverages, each about 760 ml; tobacco of 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250 g, with heat-not-burn examples of 200 IQOS or glo sticks or 50 Ploom TECH capsules; and two ounces of perfume, at about 28 ml per ounce.

For everything else, the total overseas market value of the goods must be under 200,000 yen, items worth under 10,000 yen each are free and left out of that total, and there is no duty-free allowance at all for a single item or set worth more than 200,000 yen. Anything above the allowance is usually charged at simplified rates, for example 15% on general articles and 200 yen per litre on wine and beer.

Cash and gold you must declare

If you carry cash or other means of payment worth more than 1,000,000 yen - 100,000 yen if you are bound for North Korea - you must declare it to customs. The list runs beyond banknotes: cash in any currency, cheques, travellers' cheques, promissory notes, securities, and gold bullion of at least 90% purity weighing more than 1 kg.

Gold has its own line on the arrival form: tick "Yes" for gold bullion or products of gold whatever the quantity, weight, value or condition, and if you carry more than 1 kg of bullion of 90% or higher purity, submit the separate means-of-payment declaration as well. Larger quantities move into general import procedures.

Prohibited, restricted and tax-free goods

Prohibited imports include narcotics such as heroin, cocaine, MDMA, opium, cannabis and stimulants, psychotropic substances, firearms and their ammunition, explosives, chemical-weapon precursors, counterfeit or altered money and forged cards, obscene material, child pornography, and goods that infringe intellectual property rights.

Some goods are restricted rather than banned and need a permit or an inspection: animals and plants must be presented to the quarantine officer before customs inspection, and there are quantity limits on medicine and cosmetics - two months' supply of pharmaceuticals, two months of quasi-drugs, and 24 applications of cosmetics for personal use.

If you buy tax-free goods, you must take them out of the country. Customs can ask to see them at departure, you pay consumption tax if you do not export them, and transferring tax-free goods before you leave can attract a penalty of up to one year's imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 yen.