Taxes on exporting and importing (customs duties and internal excise taxes)
Required conditions for duty-free qualification
If the following conditions are met, your sea and air shipments will be treated as duty-free.
They have been declared as unaccompanied goods (sea and air shipments for your relocation).
You are importing them within 6 months after returning to Japan (immigration).
They must be recognized by customs as being for personal use (as a general rule, personal effects that have been used for more than one year). However, souvenirs and new items are also duty-free if they are within the following limits.
Duty-free limits (per one adult)
| Item name | Quantity or price | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | 3 bottles | 760ml per 1 bottle | |
| Cigarettes | For paper cigarettes only | 200 cigarettes | On October 1, 2018, the duty-free limitations for cigarettes changed, and the resident and non-resident categories and Japanese-produced and foreign-produced categories were eliminated. |
| For heated tobacco products only | 10 individually wrapped, etc. An amount for which the quantity of one box is equivalent to 20 paper rolled cigarettes |
||
| For cigars only | 50 cigars | ||
| Other formats | 250g | ||
| Perfume | 2 ounces | 1 ounce is approx. 28ml (Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, and Eau de Cologne are not included) Only Parfum is taxable. |
|
| Other types of items | Souvenirs and new items purchased abroad, etc. | 200,000 yen (total amount of overseas market value) |
1. If the total amount exceeds 200,000 yen, the items within 200,000 yen are duty-free, and the exceeding items will be taxed. Customs will apply taxes on items that are duty-free in such a way as to benefit individuals who have made a declaration. 2. If any single item exceeds 200,000 yen, such as a 250,000-yen-bag for example, the entire 250,000 yen will be taxed. 3. If the total overseas market value of a single type of item is 10,000 yen or less, then as a general rule, those items are duty-free. |
If you have both accompanied articles and unaccompanied articles, the calculation is the sum of both.
For minors, alcohol and cigarettes are not duty-free.
For children under 6 years of age, all items other than those which can clearly be judged as being for use by the child, such as toys, etc., are not duty-free.
Personal belongings you used during your overseas stay, such as clothing, etc. and portable devices required for work (excluding those acquired overseas) are, as a general rule, duty-free, regardless of the table above.
The overseas market value means the normal retail purchase price in a foreign country.
If you forgot to obtain a Declaration of Accompanied Articles and Unaccompanied Articles, or if your items are judged by a customs officer to exceed the personal consumption amount, the items may be required to pass through the same importing customs clearance as general commercial cargo.
Items which incur a simplified duty rate
(Customs duties, internal excise taxes, and regional consumption tax are included.)
Items which incur a simplified duty rate
| Type | Duty rate | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol | (1) Whiskey and brandy | 800 yen/liter | |
| (2) Rum, gin, and vodka | 500 yen/liter | ||
| (3) Liqueur | 400 yen/liter | ||
| (4) Shochu | 300 yen/liter | ||
| (5) Other (wine, beer, etc.) | 200 yen/liter | ||
| Paper wrapped cigarettes | 15 yen/1 cigarette (*1) | ||
| Other items (excluding items for which customs duty is not taxed (*2)) | 15％ | ||
(*1) Including the special tobacco surtax of 0.5 yen/cigarette
(*2) Concerning items for which customs duty is not taxed and other items, a consumption tax of either the reduced rate of 8% or the standard rate of 10% applies depending on the category.
Items which incur the general customs duty rate
(In addition to customs duties, consumption tax and regional consumption tax also apply.)
- Items for which the taxable price exceeds 100,000 yen for 1 item (or 1 set).
- Rice (fee payment and inspection certificate are required), edible seaweed, pineapple products, konjac, cigarettes other than paper wrapped cigarettes, and hunting rifles
- All items which the traveler carries or imports in a separate shipment when requesting to customs that the items not have the simplified duty rate applied, etc.
Items for which only consumption tax and regional consumption tax are taxed
(Items which are not taxed with customs duties)
Items for which customs duties are not imposed, such as wristwatches, fountain pens made from precious metals, precious stones (loose), golf clubs, shoga calligraphy paintings, sculptures, and computers are only taxed with a consumption tax and regional consumption tax (10％ total) on the taxable price.
As of October 2019