Originally Posted by Steve M

I went through NRT last month, and the procedures have changed. There are now signs in the departure immigration hall that say that if you have a tax exempt form stapled in your passport, you must go to the Customs counter before going through exit Immigration. As a result, what used to be a Customs counter with one person staffing it that never seemed to do anything now does a brisk business, with more than one officer and a roped-off area for a queue to form. There were a couple of people in line waiting for their turn when I passed by.