Customs Declaration: What You Must Declare and What Is Restricted

A Japan customs declaration is the arrival form every passenger completes before leaving the airport, and it decides which inspection lane you take.¹

Get it right and the process takes minutes. Get it wrong, usually by under-declaring goods or packing a restricted medication, and you face delays, duty bills, or confiscation at the counter.¹

Confirm current details with official sources

Fees, rules, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at Japan Customs. This article is general information, not medical advice; for your specific medication, consult a licensed physician or pharmacist before you fly.

Last verified: 2026-09.

Overview

Every person entering Japan declares their belongings to 税関 (zeikan, "Japan Customs"), the customs arm of the Ministry of Finance.¹ The declaration covers accompanied baggage, unaccompanied baggage arriving separately, and any cash or valuables over the reporting line.¹

The system is national and uniform. Allowances, thresholds, and prohibited categories apply identically at every airport and seaport, with no municipal or nationality variation.¹ Medication quantity bands are the one personal axis: they are measured against your own supply, not a flat per-traveler figure.¹

How the declaration works

Japan Customs recommends declaring electronically, and keeps the paper form as a full fallback. Either path produces the same declaration; pick one before you reach the inspection area.²

Electronic declaration through Visit Japan Web

Visit Japan Web is the digital entry service where travelers enter declaration information before arrival. After entry, the service generates a 2D code that you hold over the scanner together with your IC passport at the electronic declaration terminal in the customs inspection area.²

The 2D-code system was unified for immigration and customs on January 25, 2024. Codes from the older standalone Customs Declaration App no longer work, so complete the electronic path inside Visit Japan Web itself.²

Electronic declaration gates are available at 7 international airports.² Electronic filing does not exempt baggage from inspection; officers may still select any bag for examination.²

The paper form fallback

The paper Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles remains fully valid. Forms are distributed on the plane and the ship, stocked at Customs, and printable in advance on A4 paper.²

The form is issued in many languages, including English (form C-5360-B) alongside Korean, Chinese, French, Spanish, Indonesian, Thai, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Portuguese, and Malay versions.²

Unaccompanied baggage

Baggage arriving separately from you needs its own paperwork at entry. List unaccompanied articles on the declaration and submit the form in duplicate; the officer returns one copy with a certification seal.¹

That sealed copy is your clearance document. The baggage must come into your custody within six months after your arrival, and you present the sealed declaration when it clears.¹ Parcels mailed to Japan need the words "unaccompanied baggage" marked on the outside and an entry on your declaration.¹

Duty-free allowances

Allowances below are snapshots dated to the Japan Customs guidance fetch, not permanent figures. The first threshold carries the full currency note; the rest carry the short form, and each table dates every row (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with Japan Customs).¹

Alcohol, tobacco, and perfume limits

An adult traveler may bring 3 bottles of alcohol of approximately 760cc each within the allowance (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with Japan Customs).¹ Tobacco allowances run per product type: 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, or 250 grams of other tobacco (as of 2026-09).¹ Heat-not-burn tobacco is capped at 10 individual packages, with published equivalents of 200 pieces for IQOS, 200 pieces for glo, and 50 capsules for Ploom TECH (as of 2026-09).¹

Bringers of mixed tobacco types share one combined ceiling equivalent to 250 grams (as of 2026-09).¹ Perfume is capped at 2 ounces, about 28ml per ounce (as of 2026-09).¹

Item	Amount	As of	Notes
Alcohol	3 bottles, approx. 760cc each	2026-091	Adult allowance
Cigarettes	200 cigarettes	2026-091	Combined ceiling applies if mixed
Cigars	50 cigars	2026-091	Combined ceiling applies if mixed
Heat-not-burn tobacco	10 individual packages	2026-091	IQOS 200 pcs; glo 200 pcs; Ploom TECH 50 capsules
Other tobacco	250 grams	2026-091	Combined mixed-type ceiling: 250g equivalent
Perfume	2 ounces	2026-091	About 28ml per ounce

Figures in this table reflect Japan Customs guidance (as of 2026-09).¹

Heat-not-burn equivalents save arithmetic at the counter

Customs publishes piece counts per brand family, so travelers carrying IQOS or glo sticks can check the count directly instead of converting grams.¹

General goods and the 200,000 yen rule

Ordinary personal effects need no arithmetic. Clothes, toiletries, and other personal-use articles, plus portable professional equipment used during the stay, clear free of duty and tax when the quantity is appropriate and nothing is for sale (as of 2026-09).¹

Everything else faces the total-value test. The combined overseas market value of all remaining articles must sit under 200,000 yen (as of 2026-09).¹ Items valued under 10,000 yen each are free and excluded from that total (as of 2026-09).¹ A single article or set valued over 200,000 yen gets no allowance at all (as of 2026-09).¹

Commodities and commercial samples never qualify as personal use, so they are dutiable from the first yen (as of 2026-09).¹ Dutiable goods over 300,000 yen in value shift out of traveler clearance into commercial-cargo procedures (as of 2026-09).¹ Rice carries its own annual line of 100 kg, handled through a rice-import report to the competent food office (as of 2026-09).¹

Item	Amount	As of	Notes
General goods total	Under 200,000 yen overseas market value	2026-091	Combined total of all non-exempt articles
Per-item exclusion floor	Under 10,000 yen excluded from total	2026-091	Each cheap item ignored in the sum
Single-item ceiling	Over 200,000 yen per item or set: no allowance	2026-091	One expensive item stands alone
Commercial-cargo line	Dutiable goods over 300,000 yen	2026-091	Traveler clearance no longer applies
Rice annual line	100 kg per year	2026-091	Rice-import report required

Figures in this table reflect Japan Customs guidance (as of 2026-09).¹

Goods over the allowance usually face simplified rates rather than full tariff schedules. The common lines are 15 percent on other articles, 15 yen per cigarette, and 200 yen per liter on wine and beer (as of 2026-09).¹

Restricted and prohibited items travelers miss

Prohibited means barred by law; restricted means another agency must clear it before Customs does. Three categories trap first-time visitors because home-country norms differ.¹

Medications: the category system, not a brand list

Japan prohibits entry of heroin, cocaine, MDMA, opium, cannabis, stimulants, psychotropic substances, and other narcotic drugs, except those MHLW ordinance specifically designates.¹ The trap sits one layer below that list: some stimulant-containing and codeine-containing medicines sold over the counter at home fall into Japan's prohibited or permission-required classes.¹³ Separately, quantity bands cap what any traveler may carry. Pharmaceutical products are limited to a 2-month supply, quasi-drugs to a 2-month supply, and cosmetics to 24 applications.¹ Amounts beyond those bands, and specified medicines regardless of quantity, need advance confirmation from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.⁴³

That confirmation runs through the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare, which issues an 輸入確認証 (yunyu kakunin-sho, "import confirmation certificate") before customs clearance.³ This article describes the category system only. Whether your specific product is prohibited, permission-gated, or fine within the bands is an individual determination for a licensed physician or pharmacist, not a packing decision to make from a brand list.¹³

Some home-country medicines are banned regardless of prescription

Stimulant-class prescriptions and cannabis-derived products lawful at home can be prohibited in Japan with serious legal consequences. Check the ingredient class with a pharmacist and complete any import confirmation before flying.¹³

Fresh food, meat, and plant products

Plants and animals must be presented to the plant or animal quarantine officer for inspection before Customs examination.¹ Fresh food, meat, and plant products therefore never ride through inside baggage unexamined; they fall under quarantine laws alongside Customs law, with agency inspection or permits as applicable.¹

Keep claims at that level when packing. Specific item bans were not re-verified against agriculture quarantine primaries in this pass, so anything fresh, raw, or plant-based deserves a direct check before it goes in the bag.¹

Declare fresh items even when they feel trivial

Fruit, homemade food, and agricultural souvenirs trigger the same quarantine presentation duty as commercial produce. When in doubt, declare and let the officer decide.¹

Counterfeit and infringing goods

Articles infringing intellectual property rights are prohibited from entry by law.¹ That covers counterfeit brand goods bought knowingly or as souvenirs, alongside counterfeit or altered currency, bank notes, securities, and forged credit cards.¹

Firearms, ammunition, pistol parts, explosives, and chemical-weapon precursors are likewise prohibited, as are obscene materials and child pornography.¹

The green and red lanes

Two lanes sort travelers at the inspection area. The green channel serves passengers with no dutiable or taxable goods and no prohibited or restricted imports.¹ The red channel serves everyone else.¹

Choosing red is a routing decision, not an admission of wrongdoing. Duties and taxes are paid at the bank inside the Customs inspection zone.¹

Cash and means-of-payment declaration

Large cash movements get their own form. Travelers carrying cash or equivalent instruments over 1 million yen must declare to Customs on the Declaration of Carrying of Means of Payment (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with Japan Customs).¹ Covered instruments include foreign currency cash, checks, traveler's checks, promissory notes, and securities (as of 2026-09).¹

Gold follows a parallel rule. Any gold bullion or gold product, regardless of quantity, weight, value, or condition, must be marked Yes on the accompanying-articles declaration.¹ Bullion of 90 percent or higher purity exceeding 1 kg additionally requires the means-of-payment declaration (as of 2026-09).¹

Item	Amount	As of	Notes
Cash and instruments	Over 1,000,000 yen declared	2026-091	Includes foreign currency, checks, securities
High-purity gold bullion	Over 1 kg at 90 percent purity or higher	2026-091	Means-of-payment form plus Yes on arrival form
Any gold product	Any quantity marked Yes	2026-091	Weight and value do not matter

Figures in this table reflect Japan Customs guidance (as of 2026-09).¹

Good to know

Declare when in doubt; the red lane is not a penalty lane

The green lane fits only passengers with nothing dutiable and nothing prohibited or restricted.¹ Travelers who guess green with dutiable goods convert a routine payment into a violation discussion. Uncertain cases belong in red, where officers process declarations all day.¹

Pack medications in original packaging with documentation

Sorting medication paperwork happens before flying, not at the inspection counter. Quantities beyond the 2-month bands and specified medicines need advance MHLW confirmation with an import confirmation certificate in hand.⁴³ Original packaging plus the prescription or medical note lets officers match the product to its paperwork without delay.¹

Fresh snacks from the plane count

Food picked up in flight or received as gifts enters the same quarantine duty as food packed at home.¹ The safest move is declaring every fresh, raw, or plant-based item and letting the quarantine officer clear or seize it. An in-flight sandwich surrendered at inspection costs only the item; an undeclared apple discovered in a bag search costs time and scrutiny.¹

One expensive item can blow the allowance alone

A single article valued over 200,000 yen receives no allowance, and dutiable goods over 300,000 yen leave traveler clearance for commercial-cargo procedures (as of 2026-09).¹ Travelers carrying high-value electronics, jewelry, or watches should price the trip's goods before departure and carry proof of overseas market value.¹

See also

• Medications That Are Restricted or Banned in Japan: The Trap Travelers Don't See Coming
• What to Pack for Japan: Weather, Footwear, and Cash-Carrying Norms
• Biometric Requirements: Fingerprinting and Photographs at Entry

References

Footnotes

1. Japan Customs (税関, Customs and Tariff Bureau, Ministry of Finance). "Procedures of Passenger Clearance". https://www.customs.go.jp/english/summary/passenger.htm ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³ ↩³⁴ ↩³⁵ ↩³⁶ ↩³⁷ ↩³⁸ ↩³⁹ ↩⁴⁰ ↩⁴¹ ↩⁴² ↩⁴³ ↩⁴⁴ ↩⁴⁵ ↩⁴⁶ ↩⁴⁷ ↩⁴⁸ ↩⁴⁹ ↩⁵⁰ ↩⁵¹ ↩⁵² ↩⁵³ ↩⁵⁴ ↩⁵⁵ ↩⁵⁶ ↩⁵⁷ ↩⁵⁸ ↩⁵⁹ ↩⁶⁰ ↩⁶¹ ↩⁶² ↩⁶³ ↩⁶⁴ ↩⁶⁵ ↩⁶⁶ ↩⁶⁷ ↩⁶⁸

2. Japan Customs. "Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles". https://www.customs.go.jp/english/passenger/declaration/declaration_app.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare (関東信越厚生局). "医薬品等の輸入監視等について (On import monitoring of pharmaceuticals)". https://kouseikyoku.mhlw.go.jp/kantoshinetsu/shinsei/iji/iyakuhin_yunyu.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (厚生労働省, MHLW). "医薬品等を海外から購入しようとされる方へ (For those purchasing medicines from abroad)". https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/kenkou_iryou/iyakuhin/kojinyunyu/index.html ↩ ↩²