What To Declare?
 

Hello all,

Please forgive my ignorance. I am traveling solo to Tokyo(NRT) in this coming June. My greatest fear is something going terribly wrong when I'm getting ready to enter the country. I know the process(quarantine, immigration, then customs) but I am afraid that I'm not sure what I should declare. I have read many of the provided documents at http://www.customs.go.jp/english/index.htm but I find myself confused when it comes to the items that I should declare.

Besides clothes and other regular baggage items that will be in my checked baggage, I have many personal items that will be on my person at all times during my time in the airport. Mainly I have have camera equipment worth a net total of about $3000-$3500. Although I read the Japanese customs and declarations form, I am not fully understanding what is considered "duty-free" and what isn't. Among the mentioned camera equipment is:
1 Mirrorless camera
1 GoPro
1 camera bag
7 camera lenses
2 tripods
and several camera accessories(SD cards, batteries, etc.)

I read the customs declaration form's instructions stating that "Goods for personal use that were purchased abroad with a total market value not exceeding ￥200,000" was considered duty-free. However, just my lenses cost more than that.

That said, can anyone offer any insight on what I should be declaring? Is it everything in my carry-on(accessories included)? Is it just the things that make up the difference exceeding ￥200,000? Most importantly, will I owe any money? If so why?

Sorry for being so clueless, I just want to avoid a catastrophe by being properly informed. Never traveled to Japan before so I'm kinda getting psyched out over every little thing that I don't know.

Thanks in advance,

-KingK

Isn't it remarkably inconvenient to lug around so much gear for a vacation?

Anyway I've only visited Japan 4 times, but I've never ever bothered declaring anything (just ticked "no" to all the questions on the main side of the form) even with camera gear in excess of ¥200k when new. Haven't gotten into any problems so far. My reasoning being: The current market value of the gear thanks to old age is below the threshold, therefore no declaration needed :P

Disclaimer: Your Mileage May Vary.

Are you traveling to Japan on business or vacation? I asked because you will be carrying seven lenses. I am a photo enthusiast myself, have 35 mm film camera and done dark room work by myself. So I do not think anything unusual about carrying seven lenses on a trip.

If you are on a business and if you are a photographer, then I think there may be slightly bigger chance that at customs your items will be examined.

Regardless of the purpose of your trip, if you want to play it safe then bring receipts for camera equipment you will be carrying to Japan. Do you have receipts for insurance purpose? Receipts will prove that you have purchased items outside of Japan. Your stay at Japan is short, and taking all camera equipment with you when you leave Japan.

I say do not worry too much. 35 mm film camera I have did cost $2,000 - $3,000 total with lenses, flash, etc. I have carried those between the U.S. and Japan many times over past 20 or so years and never once I was asked to pay duty or show receipts. I have a dedicated silver stainless steel carry-on size suite case looking camera case, beside my carry-on bags to carry other personal items. May be once or twice I was asked what was in the stainless steel suite case, and opened to show the content. Never asked about the value and never asked about declaring at customs.

My feeling is if it is your personal items for personal use, then customs officers may not care. Movie and TV crews traveling for business to Japan will be carrying far more items with value far exceeding then that. I am not sure if those people were asked to pay duty every time they travel to Japan. My guess is they do not pay any duty.

Thanks for your responses. To answer a few of the questions asked, I am a photographer but I will not be going to Japan for work just leisure. As any other photographer would know, having the right glass in the right moment is critical. I'm a stickler for quality when it comes to my work:p The 7 lenses I plan to take are just a mere fraction of all the ones I own. So don't think I'm taking all my gear.

Some of the lenses were purchased online so the proof of purchase is easy there. As for the ones that I bought in a retail store, the receipts can be obtained fortunately. Never thought it would come to this though lol. If it did come to that, however, it would be simple for the customs officer to see the ￥200k+ price tag for all of my items:(

As said before, I'm trying to do everything the right way. I don't want to be that one guy that gets reprimanded for not following the rules. That would be such a horrible way to start my vacation.

I don't think you have to declare anything. You own the lenses. I assume that they're not brand new in boxes. I assume that you're bringing the to Japan and then bringing them back to wherever you live. I brought a laptop with me to Japan last month, but I never considered its value when I was filling out my customs form. Either you're overthinking things or I don't understand customs forms :)

Way over thinking the customs to declare. As a photographer myself I couldn't imagine taking 7 lenses on Holiday. I can shoot all my jobs with 3.

I would be more worried about getting pulled aside with that much gear and then thinking you're actually there to work (make $/have jobs booked) and not on Holiday with so much gear.

Used items that you plan to take with you when you leave usually aren't a problem and their current market valuations can be 10% or less of their prices when new (for example, clothing).

For some countries, including Japan, the stuff that might worry me would be certain ingredients in medicine that's OTC here but possibly forbidden or considered to be a serious scheduled narcotic in some foreign countries. There was a case recently involving oxycontin in Japan, although some mid eastern countries and Australia are especially strict on this.

I agree that your gear might raise questions of needing some sort of a work visa.

Certain stuff might cause suspicion that you plan to sell it during your trip. Items of this sort would be new electronics and anything which is especially expensive in Japan, perhaps due to high duty rates or other protectionist policies. Multiple identical or similar items or things in the original packaging could be viewed as red flags.

I wouldn't worry, either. These are your personal things that you've had for a while and are taking back with you. Many folks wear expensive jewelry. You're not going to declare your wedding ring.

I have traveled to Japan many times, nearly always for photography, some freelance-paid and some not. I have never declared my gear but do take receipts for anything that "looks new." Of course, I have never taken 7 lenses and 2 full-sized tripods, which seems excessive but whatever floats your boat. My gear tends to be more along the lines of 2 mirrorless bodies, 2 pro zooms and 2 other lenses, 1 tripod and 1 RRS Pocket Pod. When traveling strictly for leisure, the big tripod and one of the bodies stay home. Everything except the tripod goes in a bag insert in a medium-small backpack along with laptop, electronics, other valuables, meds and miscellaneous stuff. The tripod goes in my roll-aboard carry-on bag. I've never had any of it questioned.

Again, thanks for the replies. As someone stated above perhaps I'm overthinking it. I welcome that view. Actually, to me that's good to hear. Whenever I do that nothing tends to happen anyway haha. Its kinda bad that I have the tendency to frequently do so, however.

Hopefully I don't get hit in the head with the whole 'I need a work visa' thing. That could get messy. Good thing is I have time on my side, for now. Just enough time to perhaps talk myself into taking less gear:D

Oh and just to clarify about the tripods, I'm not taking 2 full sized ones, just one full sized. The other is a small macro photography tripod(which I may actually use more). So yeah it isn't completely ridiculous to assume at this point that I actually may end up going with less gear, especially if it potentially saves me from a whole different beast of a problem. Looks like I've got some thinking to do. Thanks to this forum I've got great insider recommendations on where to go when I'm there. Looking forward to it alot:)

You should think logically about the scenario for any country. Bringing camera equipment to Japan is "coals to Newcastle". This equipment is probably cheaper in Japan than anywhere else. Furthermore, for non-contraband goods then customs generally targets its own citizens who are trying to circumvent taxes and duties, and camera equipment would not even be on their radar since its relatively cheap in Japan and the only tax on such equipment in Japan is 8% sales tax.

There are plenty of fanatical hobbyist photographers in Japan. I doubt that your seven lenses will raise an eyebrow. If you do face any questions, just stick to your true story - You're a professional photographer who happens to be visiting Japan as a tourist. You will not be doing any paid work. You enjoy photographing things. You aren't planning to leave any of your equipment in Japan. End of story. Don't deviate.

Originally I thought exactly that. However, since I overthink things, I got kinda worried;)

That's GG advice. I have nothing to hide anyways:D

>> "Goods for personal use that were purchased abroad with a total market value not exceeding ￥200,000" was considered duty-free.

Only if you are leaving the stuff behind in Japan. Most countries (including Japan) allow you to bring reasonable amount of personal effects with you (with no specific value limit) when you enter the country duty free, as long as you take them with you when you leave.

If you are bringing a lot, they may suspect that you plan to work in the country, or you plan to sell/gift them away. It's up to you to prove your purpose of visit, and why you need that much equipment.

You can learn all these from watching those reality "border security" TV shows.

>> can anyone offer any insight on what I should be declaring?

Only stuff you plan to leave behind when you finish your trip.

In some countries, such as China, bringing that much equipment will be problematic because they think you are a journalist(big red flag) and you don't have the proper visa. In Japan they may or may not think you are going there to work.

To put that in a perspective that a photographer understands when I go to the F1 in Japan it's quite common to see the spectators using lenses like a 400 f2.8L. 7 lenses and a mirror less body is very much in the 'travel gear' domain.

Photographers need help with perspective?

The other pharmaceutical no-no is anything with pseudo-ephedrine, such as decongestants or the pseudo-ephedrine-laced versions of cold, allergy, or sinus medicines.

They are no longer easy to obtain in the U.S., but they are freely available in many other countries.

As far as cameras are concerned, I bought a very nice SLR with interchangeable lenses when I was a student in Japan in the 1970s. While I never took any other equipment, I did take the camera back and forth to Japan several times until 1991, when pieces started falling off of it. Customs never even noticed.

You do seem a bit over-equipped for tourist photos, though.

You'll be okay unless there is something obviously suspicious in how you present and hold yourself. I'm sure not everyone with a fancy watch, Macbook Pro, or highend DSLR declares those when they're just going on a personal vacation.

Hopefully the customs officer will not see things that way. The only thing I'm guilty of loving to take photos;)

Definitely not leaving any of equipment in Japan. So I guess I have no worries about declaration of my items, or duties to pay. I'm still deciding whether or not to take all the gear I listed, for convenience now.

7 lenses doesn't sound outrageous to me but is does depend on what mirror less body you're talking about. If it's a Sony or a canon mirrorless then that might be pretty significant, if it's m43 then that's not too much at all IMO, especially if it's mainly primes (which I assume to be honest). My last trip to Japan I had a mirrorless body and 6 lenses.

To re-emphasize what someone else pointed out, the JPY200,000 limit applies to "market value," not what you paid for them. Unless they are new and in the original packaging, you need only consider their current value on the resale market.

You don't say what country you're from. Assuming it's the US, here's another Customs issue to think about, assuming you want to cover all angles or are paranoid: returning to the US. If US Customs gets the sense that any of your items were acquired abroad, they may require you to pay import duty when returning to the US. Purchase receipts would help in such a situation, but for the ultra-paranoid, the only sure thing is to register your items with Customs before you leave. You can do this at the airport at the port of exit from the US: you present your items to them, and they'll catalog them onto a form to establish that you had them with you before you left the US.

I do see where you're coming from with your original question. For those without country-specific experience, it's sometimes hard to tell which of the stated regulations are strictly enforced, and which are largely ignored. In many countries, low import duty limits for visitors get added at a time in history when there are high import duties in general, and thus a thriving black market involving people bringing in goods for resale. Then the economic situation changes, tariffs go away, and this is no longer a big concern, but the Customs rules including the declaration remain in place, but are just not enforced. How is one to know? I remember the first time I visited South Korea. The paperwork made it sound like they were very concerned about this, including items like expensive cameras and laptop computers. According to the rules, my laptop had to be declared (not for taxes, but so that it could be registered and then verified that I had it with me when I left, else there would be taxes at that point). Customs, at least at the time, was a Green Lane / Red Lane setup. Green Lane people were just waved through without inspection. They had to open up a Red Lane for me, as I was the only one trying to use it. When they saw that I was just declaring my laptop, they just kind of laughed and waved me through. But how was I to know? On my next visit, I knew what the real rules were, even if the form still technically directed me to the red lane for a laptop.

Some glass has better depth of field than other...


ahem.

Regarding prescription and OTC medications...

Do I have to declare any of the following medications?
Temazepam 30 mg tabs - for insomnia
Meclizine 12.5 mg tabs - for motion sickness
Ibuprofen 200 mg tabs - for pain
Docusate sodium 100 mg tabs - for constipation

I'm staying in Japan for 4 nights and will bring just a few tabs of each. I've read the info on the Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as well as the US Embassy, and I believe that I do not have to declare these medications. Can someone confirm this? I'm a little paranoid as I do not want to be arrested on arrival.

ERQ

I carry usually about a week's supply of some of the same things plus BP medications & an anti-coagulant. Have had no problem or even any questions over the course of 5+ trips over the past few years.

As long as they are not banned stimulants etc you'll be fine.

The only priviso with prescription meds is that you don't carry more than what you need for your stay.

If you want to cover yourself make sure you carry them in original box / bottle with the prescription label and / or a copy of your prescription to show they have been prescribed by a physician but this should never normally be an issue just a *just in case* scenario.

None of the above are controlled substances, except for temazepam which is a benzo. However, it says here that you're allowed to bring in up to 900mg of temazepam without any special clarification or permit. So I wouldn't worry. Nothing to declare.


Well, officially speaking, it's not that simple.

As a general comment, customs in Japan is VERY lax. They almost never look through your stuff, as long as you check "no" to all the questions. In all my visits only once did they ask me to open the bag, and it was like the way security checks your stuff at a museum - open it up, quick peek in, and done. I wouldn't worry about it at all.