Leaving Japan With Medication: Leftover Medicine and Multi-Country Trips

Leaving Japan with medication: do leftovers need paperwork?

Most people plan carefully for arrival but forget the return leg. However, when leaving Japan with medication, Japan checks controlled medicine in both directions, and the rules on the way out depend on the active ingredient, not on what you did at arrival.

Narcotics and stimulant raw materials: the export permission for leftovers

If you were given NCD permission to bring in a narcotic (such as oxycodone or tapentadol) or a stimulant raw material (such as lisdexamfetamine), plan the exit permission at the same time.

1. Apply for import and export togetherNCD’s guide covers bringing narcotics in and taking the remainder out again: you send the doctor’s certificate with both the import form and the export form. Narcotics and stimulant raw materials need separate forms; they cannot share one.
2. State the leftover as an upper limitIf you cannot know the exact amount left, NCD allows the export quantity to be written as “up to” a number of tablets or milligrams.
3. Choose the right reason for leavingNCD asks for “To return home” or “To go to another country”. It warns that answers such as “For vacation” slow processing.
4. Send it to the right office, 14 days aheadVisitors apply to the NCD office covering their arrival airport (even if they leave from a different airport). Residents apply to the office covering their home address, or their hospital if admitted. The deadline is two weeks before the entry or departure date.
5. Show the permit at customs as you leaveApproved applicants receive a Japanese permit and an English certificate to show customs on entry and exit.
6. Carry the medicine yourselfOnly the patient named on the permission may carry it. It cannot be posted, couriered or handed to someone else.

If your doctor’s certificate is in German, French or Arabic, a medical document translation into English or Japanese keeps ingredient names, strengths and quantities identical across the import and export forms.

Leaving Japan with medication and coming back on the same trip

Side trips are common, for example Tokyo to Seoul for a weekend, or Osaka to Taipei and back. As a result, every time you return you are arriving in Japan again with medicine.

• Narcotics and stimulant raw materials: NCD’s guide also covers leaving with medicine and bringing the remainder back. Therefore, if you will leave Japan and come back, include both the export and the re-import in your application. If you cannot know the quantity you will bring back, NCD allows an upper limit such as “up to 20 tablets”.
• Ordinary medicines: the one-month (prescription) and two-month (other) personal allowances are judged on what you carry at each arrival. Japanese guidance does not spell out how an existing Import Confirmation applies to a second arrival, so ask the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare before you go (per Japan Customs: Kanto-Shinetsu Bureau 048-740-0800 for arrivals under Hakodate, Tokyo or Yokohama Customs; Kinki Bureau 06-6942-4096 for arrivals under Nagoya Customs and further west).
• Psychotropics: apply the NCD quantity table again to the amount you carry back in.

Multi-country trips: leaving Japan with medication for Korea, Taiwan or China

A popular route is Korea, then Japan, then Taiwan or mainland China. Each border is a separate legal check. NCD says plainly that a Japanese permission does not guarantee you can carry the medicine into another country. Equally, a permit from another country is not a Japanese permission.

Planning tips for a multi-country route

• Check the strictest country first. For example, a medicine allowed in Korea may be a narcotic or stimulant raw material in Japan, or banned outright. If Japan refuses it, it does not matter what Taiwan allows.
• Check the rules at each border. In addition, China’s single-prescription cap and Japan’s one-month allowance can be smaller than a long trip needs, so plan the paperwork or local prescriptions before you go.
• Use one consistent set of documents. The same ingredient names, strengths and daily doses on your prescription, doctor’s certificate and every application avoids questions at each border.
• Keep medicine in its original packaging and in your carry-on, with copies of each permit and certificate.

Before-you-book checklist

1. List every medicine by active ingredientBrand names differ by country; the ingredient decides the category.
2. Classify each ingredient in JapanOrdinary, psychotropic, narcotic, stimulant raw material or prohibited.
3. Map every border on your routeWrite down each arrival and departure, including side trips and stopovers.
4. Apply for entry and exit togetherFor narcotics and stimulant raw materials, send import and export forms in one go, at least 14 days ahead.
5. Check each other country’s official rulesUse the regulator or customs authority, or the country’s embassy in Japan, as NCD suggests.
6. Carry the documents with the medicinePermits, the English certificate, prescriptions and translated doctor’s letters, in your hand luggage.

Common mistakes

• Assuming the NCD import permission also covers leaving Japan with the leftovers.
• Writing “For vacation” as the reason for leaving, which NCD says slows processing.
• Planning to post leftover controlled medicine home instead of carrying it.
• Using a permit from Korea, Taiwan or your home country as proof for Japanese customs.
• Forgetting that a weekend trip out of Japan means a fresh arrival on the way back.
• Different doses or spellings across the prescription, the certificate and the forms.