Bringing things in
The allowance is quoted everywhere. The two rules under it are not, and they are what decide whether your bag is over.
The allowance, for an adult
- Alcohol
- 3 bottles, about 760 ml each
- Cigarettes
- 200
- Heated tobacco
- 200 pieces (IQOS, glo); Ploom TECH 50 capsules
- Cigars
- 50
- More than one kind of tobacco
- 250 g in total
- Perfume
- 2 ounces
- Everything else
- 200,000 yen of overseas market value
Japan Customs gives these for an adult. Alcohol and tobacco are not allowed to a minor in any quantity. Japan Customs
The two rules
- 1 Under 10,000 yen an item does not countAn item whose overseas market value is under 10,000 yen is free of duty and tax, and it is left out of the 200,000 total altogether.
- 2 Over 200,000 yen for one thing gets nothingThere is no allowance at all for an article, or a set, worth more than 200,000 yen. Not the first 200,000: none of it.
Cash
Carrying cash or other means of payment over 1,000,000 yen means a declaration. There is a lower figure, 100,000 yen, for someone departing for North Korea. Japan Customs
The declaration itself
Visit Japan Web, run by Japan's Digital Agency, is "a service that allows you to perform arrival procedures (immigration, customs) and Tax-free shopping service online". It is for returning residents as well as arriving visitors. Digital Agency
The agency page does not say it is compulsory, so this page does not say so either.
What is banned is the agency's list
Prohibited and restricted goods are long, legal and the agency's to keep. This page links it rather than paraphrasing it, because a paraphrase of a legal list is the kind of thing that is right until it is not.
Sources
- Japan Customs: passenger clearance (English)
- Japan Customs: duty-free allowance (Japanese)
- Digital Agency: Visit Japan Web
Read 2026-09-24. A first machine read of the Japanese allowance page came back with one bottle and 20,000 yen, which is wrong by three and by ten. Every figure here was taken off the customs pages and checked against both language versions before it was written down.