Medication for a Long Stay in Japan: Carry, Mail or Refill

Three routes

A temporary visitor can carry up to one month of ordinary prescription medicine into Japan with no procedure. For the second and third months, there are three routes: carry the larger amount with an import confirmation, have it mailed, or see a doctor in Japan. Most long stays combine two of them, and some medicines allow only one.

The table sets the routes side by side. The details of each follow, and the exact one-month counting rules stay in our guide to bringing medication to Japan.

Sort by medicine type

The route depends on the category of each medicine, so sort the list before you plan. Ask the prescribing doctor for the generic name and strength of every item, because the categories are defined by ingredient, not by brand.

Import confirmation

The import confirmation (yunyu kakunin-sho, formerly yakkan shoumei, 薬監証明) is the certificate for personal-use medicine above the one-month line. The ministry's Q&A says to apply online before entering Japan, and its English page says to receive the certificate before you leave home. The certificate arrives by email as a PDF if the application has no problems.

The Q&A lists two documents. One is a valid prescription or doctor's note that shows the patient, the medicine and the doctor's name, for every medicine or device on the application. The other is a document from the airline showing arrival date, arrival airport, flight number and the passenger's name, such as the itinerary or a copy of the ticket. The Q&A says the certificate is normally issued within a few business days, not counting weekends and holidays, if the form is complete.

Our suggestion is to apply as soon as the flight is booked, not in the last week. The ministry sets no fixed lead time, and a returned application costs days. Do not edit the certificate, because the Q&A warns that a corrected certificate becomes invalid. Carry it with the medicines and show it to customs if asked.

Because the application names the passenger, the medicine travels with that person. A relative who flies out later is not covered by the Q&A, so ask the Pharmaceutical Inspector for the arrival airport before relying on a second carrier. The inspector contacts are listed in the Q&A, and the ministry's Japanese page gives the two bureau telephone numbers for procedure questions.

Narcotics and psychotropics

These categories have their own office, the Narcotics Control Department (NCD) of the Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare. Its page says narcotics and stimulant raw materials need advance permission for medical use. Its examples include morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone for narcotics, and lisdexamfetamine for stimulant raw materials. Tramadol is described there as not a narcotic.

The NCD asks you to apply at least 14 days before travel, to the office for your arrival airport, with an application form, a medical certificate from the prescribing doctor and photos of the packaging. The certificate must give a specific reason for the medicine, not a phrase such as personal use, and must be issued within three months. The NCD also states that you must carry the medicine yourself. You cannot send it, and you cannot hand it to a relative to carry. A long stay adds one step: if you plan to take leftovers home, the NCD asks for an export application as well.

Psychotropics follow a lighter rule. The NCD page lists methylphenidate, zolpidem, alprazolam, clonazepam and diazepam among them. Up to the amount in its table, no permission and no doctor's certificate is needed. Above the table, or in injection form, you need a certificate from your doctor. The table gives an amount in milligrams or grams for each substance, for example 300 mg of zolpidem or zopiclone and 1.2 g of diazepam. The table amount is a total, so compare it with the whole stay. If the supply is more than one month, the NCD page says to email the ministry address it gives. Some sleep and anxiety medicines fall here, so check them before you decide to bring a three-month supply.

Some substances cannot come in at all. The NCD lists heroin, opium powder, methamphetamine, amphetamine and methaqualone as barred even when prescribed at home. Its FAQ answers No for Adderall, whose ingredient is amphetamine. A person on such a medicine needs a plan from the prescribing doctor before the trip, not a workaround.

What parcels allow

The ministry's Q&A treats sending and bringing together. Ordinary prescription medicine for personal use can be sent with no special procedure, within one month's supply. Psychotropics, narcotics and stimulant raw materials cannot be sent.

The Q&A does not say how repeated parcels are counted, or what happens to a single parcel above one month. Its inspector contact is meant for questions such as this, and the message should name the airport or port, the product, the active ingredient and strength, the form, and the amount in months or tablets. Until the inspector answers, treat a top-up parcel as unconfirmed and keep a carried reserve.

If a parcel is stopped, the Q&A gives the way back. Apply for an import confirmation online and attach the invoice, the courier's air waybill or the postcard from customs, and the prescription or doctor's note. The importer's name and the patient's name on the prescription must be the same. A relative who posts the box from abroad has to make the invoice and the prescription match the person who will use it.

The delivery address

A bureau guidance document for the Kanto-Shin'etsu region states that sending medicine to a place other than the importer's home, such as a workplace or a post-office hold, is judged by customs as an import for unauthorized sale. That guidance describes a separate procedure with a written reason. It is written for residents and for the paper route.

A visitor in a rented room or a hotel is not covered by that wording, and we know of no official statement for that case. Ask the bureau before you choose an address. If the parcel cannot be delivered where you sleep, a clinic or hotel desk is not a safe substitute without that answer.

A Japanese prescription

The Pharmacists Act, Article 23, allows a pharmacist to dispense for sale or supply only on a prescription from a doctor, dentist or veterinarian. Paragraph 2 bars the pharmacist from changing the prescribed medicine without that prescriber's consent. In practice a refill starts with a doctor in Japan, and a brand that is not sold here goes back to that doctor.

The Act does not say whether a prescription from abroad can be filled. That is why we suggest planning the visit, not testing a counter. Our guide to continuing prescriptions in Japan describes how pharmacies treat them for residents.

A temporary visitor is outside the public insurance system (Enforcement Rule of the National Health Insurance Act, Article 1), so expect to pay in full. The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) guide to seeing a doctor says that medicine is charged separately at the pharmacy, that some institutions dispense in-house, and that clinics generally take cash only. The amount depends on the drug and the clinic. The full payment steps are in seeing a doctor during a long stay in Japan, and the search for English-speaking clinics is in finding English-speaking doctors in Japan.

Prepare the visit

The visit goes better with a one-page summary from the doctor at home. A suggested set follows. None of it is an official requirement.

Book the Japanese appointment while two or three weeks of medicine remain. That margin is our suggestion, and it leaves time for a referral, a second visit or a change of brand. Do not stretch doses to make a supply last. Ask the prescribing doctor first, because changing a dose is a medical decision.

• Generic names, strengths and daily doses of every medicine
• The diagnosis each medicine is for, in plain terms
• The date of the last blood test or check, if the doctor wants it repeated
• A line saying which medicines are not to be changed without calling the prescriber
• The prescriber's clinic phone number and an email address

A ten-week example

Consider a stay of 70 days. The traveler takes a blood pressure tablet and a cholesterol tablet daily, and a sleep tablet at night. Counting by days of dosing, 30 days of each tablet can be carried with no procedure, as long as the sleep tablet stays within the NCD table.

Plan one: apply for an import confirmation for the full 70 days of the two daily tablets, and check the sleep tablet against the NCD table with the doctor. If the total stays within the NCD table, no permission or doctor's certificate is required under the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law. Because the supply exceeds one month, contact the ministry before travel about the import requirements. Above the table, a doctor's certificate is also required. Nothing depends on a Japanese pharmacy, and the paperwork is done before departure.

Plan two: carry 30 days of everything, and arrange a visit to a Japanese doctor in about week three. The doctor decides what to prescribe. The tablets may come in another brand or strength, and the cost is paid in full.

A parcel fits neither plan well. It could top up the two ordinary tablets, but the sleep tablet cannot be mailed, and a parcel above one month is unconfirmed. For a stay of this length, the choice is mainly between plans one and two, with the parcel as a reserve.

If supply runs short

If tablets run out before the plan works, act on the same day. Call the prescribing doctor at home, because that doctor knows what is safe for you. Then book the nearest clinic that takes visitors.

Call 119 for an emergency. A pharmacy can advise on non-prescription products, but it cannot dispense a prescription medicine without a doctor's prescription. Guides on traveling to Japan with a chronic condition and on a sudden illness, an elderly parent who falls sick while visiting Japan, cover the rest.

Our role

Japan Care Concierge is a social-welfare-corporation-backed care concierge, not a travel agency, pharmacy or clinic. For a long stay, our accessible travel support page describes help with medication checks against published guidance, clinic access and visit support. The application for an import confirmation stays with the traveler and the prescribing doctor, and we do not give medical or legal advice.

Questions for the bureau

If anything above does not fit your case, email the Pharmaceutical Inspector for your arrival airport. The Q&A asks for the same details each time.

Send it early and keep the reply with the medicines. For the wider stay, read the plans for one month, two months and three months in Japan, and the pillar on long-term stays in Japan.

• Arrival airport or port
• Product name, active ingredient and strength per tablet
• Form, such as tablet, vial or patch
• Amount you will carry, in months or tablets
• Whether a parcel is planned, and to which address