Taking your pet to Japan: the 180 days that set your departure date

With most moving steps you can lose a week without consequences. Not with this one. For dogs and cats from the Netherlands Japan applies a waiting period of 180 days, and that clock starts not at your application but at the blood sample for the titre test. Count back from your intended moving date and you see the problem: whoever only sorts out the animal once the job is settled leaves without it — or pays the difference in quarantine days.

Why so strict: to Japan, the Netherlands is not a rabies-free country

Japan is itself rabies-free and wants to stay that way. Only animals from a handful of designated regions — Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and Guam — may enter via the shortened route. The Netherlands is not on that list, so the full procedure of the Animal Quarantine Service (AQS) applies.

The chain, in the compulsory order

First the microchip (ISO standard). Everything that comes after it only counts if the chip is already in.

Then two rabies vaccinations, both given after the chipping. One valid vaccination is not enough for Japan.

Then the titre test: a blood sample, examined by an approved laboratory, with a result of at least 0.5 IU/ml. And here the big clock starts: the animal may only enter Japan 180 days after the date of the blood sample. If it arrives earlier, it spends the remaining days in quarantine — at your expense.

Then the notification to the AQS, at least 40 days before arrival, with the flight details. And just before departure the clinical examination and the health certificate from the NVWA.

If everything is in order, the import inspection on arrival is a matter of hours. If something is wrong, the quarantine can run up to 180 days — or the animal is sent back.

This is how you plan it

Start with the animal, not with yourself: chip and vaccinations can be done today, the blood sample as soon as the second vaccination is in. That fixes the earliest possible travel date for your pet — well over half a year away — and lets you plan the rest of the move around it. Many families therefore have the animal come over a little later than themselves, or turn it around: first the titre test, only then apply for jobs. Both fine, as long as the order within the chain is right. And book the flight with an airline that carries animals in the season you're travelling — the Japanese summer is hot enough for embargoes to occur.

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