Home · 薬の持ち込み判定
Medication Import Checker 薬の持ち込み判定
You take a medicine at home and you are coming to Japan. Can you bring it? Type the name, how many days' supply you are carrying, and what form it is in. This page tells you whether it can come in as it is, whether you need a certificate before you fly, or whether it cannot come in at all — and why.
1Your medicine 薬の名前・日数・剤形
Days' supply means at your prescribed dose: a 90-tablet bottle taken once a day is 90 days, taken three times a day it is 30 days. Inhalers and suppositories have no separate allowance on the ministry's list, so this page applies the stricter days rule to them. Where you land decides which office you write to, so choose your airport if you know it — the verdict below then names the office, with its telephone, fax and email.
2Verdict 判定
This is general information, not legal advice. The rules change, the final decision at the border belongs to the officer in front of you, and this page cannot see your actual product. Before you travel, confirm with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare or Japan Customs — the ministry's own page is here (MHLW, in Japanese with English sections).
- Whether your dose is right — that is between you and your prescriber. Once you are here, the prescription decoder helps you compare Japanese strengths.
- What the Japanese equivalent is — use the medicine finder.
- How to keep getting it once your supply runs out — read managing a chronic condition in Japan and why prescriptions here are so short.
3The rules behind the verdict 個人輸入の一般則
Quantities you may carry without paperwork, by the Japanese legal category of the ingredient. The category is decided by Japanese law, not by how the drug is sold where you live — which is why a familiar prescription can land in an unexpected row.
| Japanese category | Without paperwork | Beyond that |
|---|---|---|
| Prescription medicine, poison or powerful drug 処方箋医薬品・毒薬・劇薬 | 1 month's supply at your dose | Import certificate 輸入確認証 |
| Other medicines (over-the-counter) それ以外の医薬品 | 2 months' supply This page does not currently apply this row, because it cannot verify Japanese OTC status — “over the counter” means over the counter in Japan, and a drug that is OTC at home may be prescription-only here. Unverified drugs are held to the one-month row above. | Import certificate |
| External medicines that are not prescription-only 外用剤（毒薬・劇薬・処方箋医薬品を除く） | 24 units per product Not applied by this page, for the same reason. | Import certificate |
| Psychotropics 医療用向精神薬 | Up to 1 month's supply, and a total (in mg of the ingredient) within the published cap for that ingredient — not for injectables Two separate checks: the total amount, and the length of supply. | Above the cap, or injectable: carry a copy of your prescription or a doctor's letter with the medicine — it is not submitted anywhere. More than 1 month's supply — and, according to the Ministry of Health, an injectable in any amount: import certificate 輸入確認証 from the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare for your arrival airport. There is no permit to apply for |
| Narcotics 麻薬 | Nothing — any quantity needs a permit | Narcotics carry-in permit 麻薬携帯輸入許可 from the Narcotics Control Department, two weeks before entry. Separate from the import certificate |
| Stimulant raw materials 覚醒剤原料 | Nothing — any quantity needs a permit | Stimulant raw material carry-in permit 覚醒剤原料携帯輸入許可 from the Narcotics Control Department, two weeks before entry. You must carry it yourself |
| Stimulants 覚醒剤 | Cannot be brought in. No permit exists for personal use. | |
Three different documents, two different offices. The import certificate (輸入確認証, Yunyu Kakunin-sho, formerly the Yakkan Shōmei 薬監証明) is issued by the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare (地方厚生局); since July 2025 the application is, as a rule, made online. According to the ministry's Q&A on import procedures (30 June 2025 edition), issuing it takes about two to three business days through the online system. Apply early: two to three weeks before you fly leaves time for questions or a missing document. The narcotics and stimulant-raw-material carry-in permits are issued by the bureau's Narcotics Control Department (麻薬取締部) and must be applied for at least two weeks before you enter Japan. None of them is issued at the airport. A psychotropic needs neither permit: the only application is the import certificate, for more than a month's supply or an injectable; above the cap you also carry a copy of your prescription or a doctor's letter with the medicine, which is not submitted anywhere. Whatever the category, carry medicines in their original labelled packaging with a copy of the prescription.
General information, not legal advice. This page applies the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's published personal-import limits to a list of 376 common medicines. Where the Japanese legal category of a medicine has been checked against MHLW sources it says so; where it has only been estimated from how the drug is sold abroad, it says that too, and for anything in a tightly regulated family it deliberately tells you to check rather than guessing. Regulations change and are applied by the officer at the border, not by this page. Confirm with MHLW or Japan Customs before you travel. Rules current as of 2026-09-15. Something missing or wrong? Tell us.