Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare treats personal medication as something to arrange before departure, not something to sort out at the airport. Its process has a name — Import Confirmation — and quantity thresholds that determine whether you need it at all.
The core rule: some medicines need approval obtained before you leave home
The ministry states the requirement in a single sentence, and its sequence matters: “when you bring medicines for personal use into Japan, you have to apply for Import Confirmation, and receive it before you leave home, and show it to the officer at customs.” This is not a form you fill out on the plane or at the arrival hall. It has to be applied for and actually received before departure, then presented to a customs officer on arrival.
Below these quantities, you don’t need Import Confirmation at all
For medication under specific thresholds, the ministry does not require the Import Confirmation process. The published limits are quantity-specific and vary by category:
- Poison, deadly poison, or prescription drugs: up to a 1-month supply — “Poison, Deadly poison, Prescription drug : Up to 1 month supply.”
- Non-prescription external-use drugs: up to 24 units per item — “Drug for external use (excluding Poison, Deadly poison, Prescription drug) : Up to 24 per one item.”
- Injectable drugs and syringes for the drug: up to a 1-month supply — “Injectable drug and Syringe for the drug: Up to 1 month supply.”
- Other drugs and quasi-drugs: up to a 2-month supply — “Other Drugs, Quasi drugs : Up to 2 month supply.”
These are the ceilings for skipping Import Confirmation, not a description of what qualifies as each category. The ministry’s page does not tell us which specific drugs sit in “poison” versus “prescription drug” versus “other” — that classification depends on the medicine itself, not on anything printed here. If you are not sure which category your medication falls into, that is a question for the ministry’s own guidance or your prescribing doctor, not something to guess from a category label.
Narcotics and stimulants are a separate, much stricter category
Outside the quantity thresholds above, the ministry states an outright prohibition for one category: “It is strictly prohibited to import narcotics and Stimulants’ Raw Materials into Japan except in the case of prescribed narcotics and Stimulants’ Raw Materials for a specific patient bringing them with permission before you enter Japan.” The exception is narrow and specific — a named patient, a prescribed narcotic, and permission obtained before entry. There is no quantity threshold that lets a narcotic or stimulant raw material in without that permission.
This is the category that catches American travelers most often, because a medication that is an ordinary prescription at home can fall under Japan’s narcotics or stimulants classification without the traveler realizing it. The ministry’s page does not name which specific medications fall under this heading — it states the category and the permission process, not a list of drug names. Check your own prescription against this category specifically, through the ministry’s guidance or your consulate, before assuming a familiar medication is covered by the ordinary prescription-drug allowance above.
Cosmetics have their own personal-use allowance
Separately from medicines, the ministry states that personal-use cosmetics also have an allowance for skipping Import Confirmation: “When you bring cosmetics for personal use into Japan up to the amount described below, you do not have to apply for Import Confirmation.” The specific unit limit for cosmetics sits in a table on the source page that our own verified quote does not capture, so we are not printing a number for cosmetics here — check the ministry’s page directly for that figure.
No drug names are matched to these categories
The ministry’s page gives quantity thresholds and a prohibition, but it does not define which named medications fall into “poison,” “deadly poison,” “prescription drug,” or the narcotics and stimulants category. It also does not state a penalty for arriving without Import Confirmation when it was required. If any part of your regimen is a controlled substance, a stimulant, or an injectable, the responsible step is to apply for Import Confirmation well before your flight and confirm your medication’s classification with the ministry directly — not to assume it falls under the ordinary allowance because it is an ordinary prescription at home.