What Can I Bring or Mail to Japan

Due to the wide variety of products, we recommend checking the Japan Customs search tool before arrival to see whether your items are permitted entry. The following is a partial list of commonly carried or mailed goods — it does not mean they are all legally importable.

Many customers ask us why they were able to mail food and medicine via China Post sea or air freight without any issues, yet our consolidation service cannot ship the same items.

Firstly, China Post does not proactively declare goods — the Universal Postal Union clearance method means postal parcels have a lower chance of being inspected by customs. Secondly, some forwarding agents do not declare goods truthfully in order to ship more parcels. If you mail goods that are not permitted for import, customs will seize your items and send you a notice of prohibited goods seizure, stating what was seized and why. If you can provide the relevant import permits and approvals, customs will release the goods. If you cannot, the recipient bears the responsibility and consequences of mailing prohibited items — the sender is generally not held liable.

All warehouses under Ebaoguo Global Forwarding manually open and inspect parcels upon receipt. While this takes time, we do our utmost to comply with the laws and regulations of all import and export countries, in the interest of long-term sustainable operations.

None of Ebaoguo’s warehouses have any channel available to mail tobacco products to Japan.

Japan Customs allows a maximum of 200 cigarettes, or 50 cigars, or 250g of tobacco products to be carried in.

Failure to declare tobacco or carrying more than the permitted quantity may result in penalties, prosecution, or cancellation of your visa. The consequences will depend on the quantity of undeclared excess tobacco or goods found on you.

It is possible to mail tobacco to Japan — up to two cartons of cigarettes. However, we do not offer this service!

Ebaoguo Global Forwarding — all warehouses will refuse to accept tobacco products.

If you intend to ship tobacco products or prohibited items through us, please do not register as a member — we’d really appreciate it. No amount of money will make us ship them. Thanks but no thanks!

Any food provided on the plane should be left on board or disposed of in the bins provided at the entry point. If a quarantine officer finds undeclared meat products or other livestock products in your carry-on luggage, the person carrying them will be subject to penalties. Japan’s penalties are very strict — forgetting to declare can cause serious trouble. Therefore, we do not recommend carrying or mailing meat-based food products into Japan. Japan has strict biosecurity procedures. Under Japan Customs requirements, certain foods brought into Japan — particularly meat, eggs, and dairy — must be declared. This covers items in any form, including fresh, chilled, frozen, or heat-processed products.

Under Japan’s Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, bringing livestock products into Japan without undergoing an import inspection may result in imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to 1,000,000 yen.

Japan has very strict controls on meat. In principle, meat can be cleared through customs, but it must be declared and pass quarantine inspection. For detailed classifications of various food items, Japan Customs provides a comprehensive guide: https://www.customs.go.jp/english/classification/index.htm#04

To save you time, we have compiled a summary of common food import restrictions based on Japan Customs regulations and our own understanding.

• The destination country’s customs will refer to the declared value provided by the customer, but is not obliged to use the declared value as the basis for taxation;
• Customs reserves the right to assess the taxable value based on its own commodity valuation database or reference prices;
• The actual tax amount, whether duties are levied, and whether an inspection is conducted are entirely at the discretion of the destination country’s customs — Ebaoguo cannot make any prior guarantees;
• The content on this page does not constitute a basis for customs duty assessment and cannot be used as evidence in any customs appeal;
• All customs duties, VAT, excise taxes, and surcharges are payable directly by the recipient at the destination (DDU) — Ebaoguo does not collect or pre-pay these on your behalf.