Your household goods to Japan: duty-free, with one form you cannot redo

Yes, your household goods enter Japan duty-free, and the rules are clear: anyone staying in Japan longer than a year may import used household goods without duties and tax, within what customs considers reasonable, provided the shipment is cleared within six months of your arrival. The whole exemption hangs on one form that you have to get stamped when you yourself land — and that is exactly where it goes wrong.

What can come in duty-free?

Japanese customs calls it household effects for home relocation: the personal effects and professional equipment of you and your family, if you enter Japan to live there. The condition is that you stay longer than a year (or lived abroad longer than a year, for those returning). What falls under it must be in reasonable quantities and for your own use: furniture, kitchenware, clothes, books, your work laptop. For commercial goods and costly items, customs can require the procedure for general cargo.

What	Rule
Used household goods	duty-free if cleared within six months of your arrival
A used car	duty-free as household effects, but via a regular import declaration; do not sell or give it away within two years
Alcohol in your luggage	three bottles of about 760 cc per adult
Cigarettes	200 per adult
Perfume	two ounces
Other items in your suitcase	up to a total value of ¥ 200,000
Cash	declare above ¥ 1 million
Rice	at most 100 kilos a year

Why is that one form so important?

If you send a container or shipments ahead, customs treats them as unaccompanied baggage: baggage that does not travel with you. When you land, you submit the Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles for it in duplicate. The customs officer checks it, stamps one copy and hands it back to you. With that stamped copy you clear the container later, or your mover does it on your behalf.

You cannot have this form stamped again. Japanese customs puts it literally: the procedure cannot be redone for any reason, not even if you forgot it or lose the stamped copy. Fill it in on the plane, hand it in at customs, even if your container only arrives weeks later, and keep it with your passport.

Without the form, your household goods are ordinary imports, with duties and tax. Customs also recommends making the declaration electronically via Visit Japan Web; the forms are also available on the plane and at customs.

How does clearance work when the container arrives?

First make sure the shipment is properly marked: the boxes, the transport documents and the invoice say "unaccompanied baggage", and you yourself are the addressee. When the container arrives, the shipping line or carrier notifies you. For the declaration you need: the stamped form, the transport documents, a list of contents, your passport and any receipts. You can leave this to a customs broker; you then give them the stamped form after your arrival and before clearance. Plants and animals in the shipment first go past the quarantine service.

The six months count from your arrival in Japan, not from the container's departure. A shipment sent on time but cleared too late falls outside the arrangement. Sea freight from Europe takes weeks, so do not ship months before your own departure without your arrival date being fixed.

What is not allowed in, or only with papers?

Prohibited are, among other things, narcotics, firearms and ammunition, explosives, counterfeit money and goods that infringe intellectual property rights. Hunting guns, air guns and swords may only come with a possession permit.

For medicines, a separate rule of the Ministry of Health applies: prescription medicines up to one month's supply may come without application, judged by dosage and usage. If you need more, you apply online in advance for an import confirmation. Medicines belong in your hand luggage, in the original packaging, and not in the container.

And the car?

Formally a used car falls under the same exemption, but the procedure is heavier: a regular import declaration, the exemption form in triplicate, a registration certificate proving the car has been used, and proof that you are moving to Japan. If you sell or give away the car within two years, the exemption lapses. What comes on top of that in Japan is in car and driving licence in Japan.

A pet does not travel as household goods: it has its own chain with a waiting period of 180 days, described in your pet to Japan. What the move costs in total you can see in the cost indication on /japan.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Japan or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.