Entering Japan with a marijuana charge?
 

Hi forum,

Posting for a friend, she will have a 20 hour layover in NRT and of course wants to leave the airport, but has a marijuana charge and conviction that is less than 10 years old from the USA, has anyone had experience with this? Were you denied entry? Or possible to call the embassy to make arrangements before hand to assure entry? To double down the marijuana charge was with a DUI. :(

Bonus question, other than Canada and some countries in the middle east, do you know of any places where this will be an issue?

Thanks as always to anyone who replies.

Your friend will almost certainly be denied entry.

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Article 5　(1)　A Foreign National who falls under any of the following items is denied permission to land in Japan:

(v)　a person who has been convicted of a violation of any law or regulation of Japan or of any other country relating to the control of narcotics, marijuana, opium, stimulants or psychotropic substances, and has been sentenced to a penalty;

Previous discussions that might be useful

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japa...al-record.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japa...ug-charge.html

The Japanese Consulate cannot do anything to help.

https://ccresourcecenter.org/2016/04...rs-from-entry/

This is from Japanese Embassy in New Zealand.

https://www.nz.emb-japan.go.jp/visit...to%20Japan.pdf

Well, I have to just ask, what recourse do the Japanese immigration authorities to detect whether you actually have a conviction for a crime, if you check the "no" box?

Then they'll deport you if they find out (some countries do share records)

You have a deportation on record. Many countries ask whether you have been deported or refused entry to another country. Your recourse if you still want to say no

Computers are wonderful things. Law enforcement and Immigration authorities are linked between close allies. Lying on a declaration form would get you in worse trouble than the original problem. Not worth it to lie to Immigration.

None. Know people who have travelled to several countries (including Japan, US and Canada) without any issue.

Name a single example of a pair of countries that share historical marijuana-level offences with the other country's immigration staff.

Depending on the specific state in which the friend was convicted, the data may well be part of any number of commercial databases. More often than not, convictions (as opposed to arrests, conditional dismissals, and other odd bits) are public records and are trapped by routine services employed worldwide by business & government.

The specifics of this individual's conviction (and whether it remains) will matter.

One would hope that the worst the friend would face is being relegated to transit for 20 hours as the friend has an onwards connection, presumably to a place which won't deny entry.

That's true. So to answer my question, which immigration services make use of any of these commercial databases (which are not guaranteed against errors)?

this is a very cut and dry situation

1) will you be denied entry > yes
2) will japan authorities know if you don't tell them? > possible, but unlikely
3) are you comfortable lying to customs and risking permanent ban from japan? > only you can answer that question

for a measly 20 hour stopover, in my opinion the benefits do not outweigh the risks.

1. Unless you don't tell them...
3. Risking something you don't have unless you do this.

yes, to clarify, that is under the presumption that they find out, either from you or somewhere else.

will it pop up on their computer screen as you pass through immigration? I suspect not. however, can they find it with a few minutes of digging? probably.

Even for cases in the US, is it really possible to find out a minor marijuana conviction from Japan in a few minutes of digging (let alone issues of reliability/mistaken identity)? For the other 99% of the world, it isn't.