Bringing Your Pets to Japan

This is the post in forums that always makes me wince: “I’ve just been hired and am moving to Japan! Can I bring my dog with me?”

The reason it causes me pain is that I know the poster is already too late. If they wanted to relocate to Japan with their dog, they needed to start the process six to seven months before moving.

Japan is infamous for being a difficult place to travel with pets. As a rabies-free country, it must maintain that status with strict controls and tests for all imported animals. That said, the Animal Quarantine Service, which is responsible for the pet import regulations, offers detailed and clear explanations of all the necessary procedures. With patience, diligence, and a fair bit of cash, it’s quite possible to bring your dog or cat to Japan—and maybe even your rabbit, bird, or snake as well.

But the first question to answer isn’t whether you can import your pets. It’s whether you should.

• Should you bring your pets?
• So you’re bringing your pet to Japan
• Dogs and cats from non-designated regions
• Dogs and cats from designated regions
• Service dogs
• Animals that aren’t dogs or cats
• Hire a pet-shipper, or go it alone?

Should you bring your pets?

Japan is reasonably accommodating to most pets, if you have the finances to support them. Following are some of the pros and cons of bringing your pets to Japan.

Pro

• For many of us, pets are family, and it would be unthinkable to leave them behind. This is particularly true if you’re going to be in Japan long-term.

• Even if you are in a situation where you could comfortably leave your pet behind (for example, you have a family member who’d be happy to adopt them), be aware that it’s not all that cheap or easy to acquire new pets in Japan. Shelters and foster organizations do exist, but they’re not as common as, for example, city and county-run shelters in the US. Most puppies I’ve personally seen in pet stores cost around 200,000 yen before taxes and other fees, and kittens aren’t far behind. If you can’t see yourself living without a pet, it might be worthwhile financially as well as emotionally to invest in bringing yours to Japan.

  This does mostly apply to cats and dogs. Rabbits, larger parrots, and exotic reptiles can also be expensive, though they usually cost tens of thousands of yen, rather than hundreds of thousands. Hamsters and parakeets are widely available and cheap.

• With the notable exceptions of housing and possibly transportation, it’s relatively easy to keep a pet in Japan. Most apartments or houses won’t have dog-friendly yards, but that’s why you see Japanese pet owners walking their dogs every evening and playing with them in parks. Dog food and cat litter are available at most convenience stores for any late-night emergency runs, and any decent-sized city will have multiple well-stocked pet stores.
• Generally speaking, Japanese people enjoy animals. In fact, by my own American standards, they’re inclined to spoil them. Having a dog or cat in Japan can serve as one more way to get to know your neighbors or make friends.

Con

• Housing is by far the biggest con when it comes to having a pet in Japan. I’m shocked at how many dogs I see around my neighborhood on a daily basis, given how difficult it was for us to locate pet-friendly housing at a reasonable price. Here’s what you’ll be facing:
  • Your selection of apartments or houses will be limited, because the majority of Japanese rentals do not allow pets. Note that the definition of “no pets” can vary though. In some buildings, this means “no non-caged pets” and fish, hamsters, parakeets, etc. may be permitted. In other buildings, all pets are banned.
  • You will pay extra for your animal, via increased rent or security deposits.
  • Most rentals will not allow multiple animals; if they do, they will often specify the type of animals allowed (e.g. only two small dogs, or only two cats). Additionally, the fees go up per each additional animal.
  • If budget is not an issue, there are high-end apartment buildings and houses that permit pets.
  • However, most pet-friendly housing in Japan is so because it has to be to attract renters. If you’re looking for a lower-priced property that still accommodates animals, you’ll typically be offered housing that’s older and farther from the train station.
  • If you’re caught with unauthorized animals, penalties can range from steep fines, to demanding you rehome the animal within a short period of time, to eviction.
  • Even detached houses in Japan are on the small side, and often don’t come with fenced yards, which can be hard on dogs that are accustomed to playing outside freely.
• Vet bills can be steep in Japan. Even routine vaccinations and yearly exams easily add up to 20-30,000 yen per dog, per year. Dogs are required by the Rabies Prevention Law to get a new rabies vaccination every year; cats are not required to do so. To help reduce the cost of emergency treatment, pet insurance has become increasingly available, but may vary in quality. For example, Scott Rothrock at TokyoDev found that his pet insurance didn’t cover any of his dog’s health problems. Worse, even after he’d dropped the unhelpful insurance, he wasn’t able to get new insurance because of those same health problems.
• Kennels and boarding facilities are widely available in Japan, but the price can be steep, and companies may have some unexpected rules. My dogs were asked to stay at a boarding facility for two one-hour trial runs before they were accepted for a week’s stay. That particular business was one of the more accommodating ones in our city—others had even more stringent acceptance standards. Many kennels also won’t handle medications. So if you do plan to travel often, I suggest arranging for a friend to pet-sit, or establishing a relationship with a pet boarding facility well before you think you may need it.

Transportation

Transportation gets its own special section in the list, because whether it’s a pro or a con depends entirely on your animal’s size. If your pet is less than 10 kilograms and fits into a small carrier, you can take your pet on most trains and subways. Here are the requirements for bringing an animal onto Tokyo Metro: these are typical guidelines for pet owners, although some trains will also charge you for the pet. If your pet can ride for free on most public transport, that’s certainly a pro.

If your pet is more than 10 kilograms, however, or won’t fit into a small carrier, transportation becomes a downside. In my experience, ordinary taxis in Japan are accommodating to medium-sized dogs so long as they are in a carrier; large dogs are unlikely to fit at all.

If you have a large-breed dog, you may have no choice but to buy a car, or to use a specialized pet taxi service to transport your animal from the airport, to the vet, etc. Azabu Pet and Yako Dog House are a few examples of pet taxi services in the Kanto region.

So you’re bringing your pet to Japan

You’ve decided to bring your pets to Japan! Let the long, involved, and expensive journey begin.

For the record, I’ve shepherded our dogs and cats through the import/export processes of the US, South Korea, Vietnam, and Mexico. These were nowhere near as difficult, or as costly, as Japan. Nonetheless, Japan’s regulations are clear, the information is readily available, and the process is doable, so long as one is prepared to follow the rules with extreme care.

Japan divides its importation guidelines in several ways. There are the rules for dogs and cats, which are nearly identical, and then a set of different guidelines for other sorts of pets (birds, rabbits, etc.) When it comes to dogs and cats, there is further differentiation between designated and non-designated regions. Designated regions are rabies-free areas of the world: Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, and Guam. Non-designated regions are every other country in the world.

If you are coming from a designated region, congratulations! The importation process will be less onerous for you, although there is still paperwork to be filed. You can skip to “

Dogs and cats from designated regions” below to see if you and your pet meet all the requirements.

Dogs and cats from non-designated regions

As for non-designated regions, I’m not going to attempt to list every step of the process: Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service already offers a clear and detailed description of import procedures in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. I strongly encourage readers to become very familiar with the site and read its guidelines several times, as well as remain alert for any updates.

What I’m going to do is suggest a timeline for those who are considering coming to Japan. Since the import process takes six months at a minimum, you will need to prepare well in advance.

1. When you think you might someday be interested in moving to Japan

If the thought of moving to Japan has ever even flashed across your mind, you should start preparing your dog or cat by 1) microchipping them and 2) keeping their rabies vaccinations up-to-date. If you’ve taken care of these issues, you can shave 30 days off the preparation process.

This is because Japan wants all dogs and cats who are imported to have microchips, and at least two rabies vaccinations post-microchip. That means the microchip must be implanted before the first rabies vaccination. If your pet has already been vaccinated against rabies, but has no microchip, you’ll need to microchip them and then get a rabies vaccination immediately afterwards. It’s fine to do both on the same day.

There needs to be at least 30 days between the two post-microchip vaccinations. If you microchip your dog or cat right now, vaccinate them after the microchip’s implantation, and keep that vaccine up-to-date, you can move directly to the next step of the import process whenever you’re ready. If you don’t, you’ll have to start at the beginning, and then wait those thirty days for the second vaccination before you can continue.

There are guidelines on which microchips and rabies vaccinations count as valid. For example, Japan does not accept live rabies vaccines. Double-check the guidelines and FAQ on the site to ensure yours comply.

There are technically exceptions to the two-vaccinations-post-microchip rule, but since the exceptions involve multiple expensive rabies titre tests, and would seem to apply to only a tiny percentage of cases, it’s better to follow the standard procedure.

2. When you are beginning to job-hunt in Japan

The time to take the next step is when you have decided to move to Japan, or are at least seriously considering it, but have not yet started job-hunting. That’s because the next step takes six months to complete.

If your dog or cat is already microchipped, has had at least one rabies vaccination post-microchip implantation, and has remained up-to-date on rabies vaccines, you’re off to a good start. You can then go back to the vet and pay for a rabies titre test. Note that if your animal has only had one post-microchip rabies vaccination, but at least 30 days have passed since that vaccination, you can get the second vaccination and the rabies titre test during the same vet visit.

This is quite important: the rabies titre test is only valid if processed at one of these designated laboratories. The list is quite restricted. For example, for the entire US, only two laboratories are acceptable, and one of them is for US military personnel only. Your veterinarian should be able to handle sending the rabies titre test in, but double-check their forms to ensure they meet Japan’s standards, or download the recommended certification form from the Animal Quarantine site.

Once you’ve sent out the sample for the titre test, it’s a waiting game. Even if the rabies titre test results are good, Japan still won’t permit importation until 180 days after the sample collection date, and counts the day of sample collection as Day 0. If you try to bring your dog or cat before 180 days have passed, they’ll have to wait out the remaining days in a Japanese quarantine facility.

The good news is, the rabies titre test results are considered valid for two years. If for some reason you haven’t moved to Japan two years after the date of sample collection, you can maintain your animal’s eligibility by keeping their rabies vaccinations up-to-date, and paying for a second rabies titre test. You won’t have to wait an additional 180 days after that second rabies titre test.

Make sure you hang onto the original rabies titre test results report. Japan may not accept a copy. You should also get original copies of rabies vaccination certificates if you can, signed by the vets whenever possible, preferably in blue ink.

In general, the Animal Quarantine Service has a lot of rules for filling out forms. Pencils are not allowed, for example, nor is white-out. I don’t mean to be repetitive, but I must again stress that this article is not intended to be completely comprehensive: you must read through the Animal Quarantine Site yourself to ensure that you’re meeting all of the most up-to-date requirements.

3. When you have been hired

You’ve found a job in Japan? Congratulations! Hopefully you’ve timed things so that your animals are still in the eligibility period after their rabies titre test—that is, 180 days after the sample was collected, but before two years have passed.

If you’re in that sweet spot, the next step is to book your travel to Japan more than 40 days in advance. (I’ll explain why below.)

An important note: I did not personally handle the following steps. When we realized how rare and expensive animal-friendly hotels are in Japan, and that we would need one or two months to locate permanent housing, my husband and I opted to move to Japan with our children first. We left our dogs in the care of my parents for two months, and hired a pet-shipping company to handle the final paperwork and ship our pets to Japan after we’d found our house. I’ll go into more detail about pet-shipping later in the article.

I have, however, flown with my dogs to South Korea, Vietnam, the United States, and Mexico. Here are some important considerations for booking your pet’s flight:

• Make sure your airline(s) carry animals at all. This is not as common as it once was. During the pandemic, when countries closed their borders with little notice and flights were altered constantly, many airlines refused to carry animals due to liability and safety concerns. Some have now lifted those restrictions, but others have not.
• Most airlines won’t carry certain flat-faced breeds, such as bulldogs or Persian cats, and some also refuse to carry pitbulls, Rottweilers, or other dogs with an aggressive reputation (however unjustly deserved). There’s usually a list of banned breeds available on the flight website.
• There may be rules on how many animals can fly with a single passenger. I’ve seen airlines allow one person to check up to three animals, but others will only allow one animal per (human) ticket.
• Keep in mind the time of year and daytime temperatures. Some airlines won’t allow animals to fly if the temperature is either too high or too low. Red-eye flights during the summertime can help get around high temperature restrictions, which are usually more of an issue than the low temperature ones.

• Consider whether your dog or cat should be a carry-on item, or checked. The cut-off limit for dogs or cats in the cabin is usually 8-10 kg with the carrier. Sometimes it’s just the size of the carrier that’s restricted; the exact size requirements can vary, but 45 cm by 30 cm and 25 cm would be typical. Soft-sided carriers usually get a bit more leeway than hard-sided ones, since they’re easier to squeeze under the seat in front of you, which is usually where pets are required to ride.

  It isn’t always about size, either. If you have a loud animal who will be disruptive in the cabin, or one that is incontinent, you should consider whether checking them might be the better option. Conversely, if you’ve got an animal that’s of borderline size but whom you know will be calmer in your presence, try getting a soft-sided carrier and seeing if they’ll be comfortable in it.

• Every airline has its own nitpicky rules, particularly when it comes to checked animals. What sort of water bottle is permitted in kennels? Does a bag of dog food need to be taped to the top of the kennel, in case of emergencies? Does the airline require the kennel to be closed with zip-ties as well as locked? Double- and triple-check the airline website to ensure you’re following their policies exactly. When in doubt, call the customer service number and ask.
• This one is Japan-specific: if you have a dog, they are only permitted to enter Japan through certain airports and seaports. Double-check the list to make sure you’re going to the right place. There is some flexibility for service animals, but you’ll need to contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly to ask for instructions.

The reason you need to sort out your travel over 40 days before you’re scheduled to be in Japan, is that you’re required to send advance notification of your pet’s arrival to the Animal Quarantine Service not less than 40 days before they land. You’ll need to list the flight number and other details of your travel on the form.

There are separate notification forms for dogs and cats. You can submit the form by fax, mail, email, or the new online notification system (Japanese only). If your plans change, you should inform the Animal Quarantine Service as quickly as possible; naturally, this requires another form, unless you previously used the online notification system, in which case you should report it to the system.

The site also recommends sending some other documents with the notification form, to save time—notably, the rabies titre test results. But this is just the beginning of the real paperwork.

4. Soon before you leave

From now on, you’re dealing with two sets of regulations: those of Japan, and those of the airline. There may or may not be overlap between these.

Japan requires a clinical inspection of the animal by a licensed veterinarian, 10 days or less before the pet’s departure to Japan. After the inspection, you either need:

• Your veterinarian to fill out a health certificate and then get it endorsed by the government agency that is the equivalent of the Animal Quarantine Service in Japan OR

• For the certificate to be filled out and endorsed by an official government veterinarian.

  There’s some flexibility on the form, and the site lists the information that’s required on the certificate for it to be valid. If you want to play it perfectly safe, just use the certificate available on the site.

As far as the airlines go, the most common requirement is a health certificate from a vet stating that the animal is healthy and able to travel, a maximum of 10 days before departure. This means, in theory, you can use a copy of the same document you’ll be submitting to the Japanese government.

However, every airline is different. Aeromexico, for example, only considers a veterinarian health certificate valid for five days. That would mean you’d have to either schedule your pet’s vet visit within five days of the flight and hope that you can get the government agency to endorse the health certificate and send it back in time, or that you’re doing two vet visits to get two separate health certificates: one government-endorsed certificate for Japan, and another just for the airline.

The health certificate isn’t the only form the Animal Quarantine Service will ask for upon arrival. As of now, the list of required documents includes:

• Approval of Import Inspection of Animals (you should receive this from the Animal Quarantine Service after you submit the notification)
• The health certificate issued by the government agency of the exporting country
• The results report of the rabies antibody test
• The application for inspection form for dogs or for cats
• Other documents that the Animal Quarantine Service requires

As suggested by “other documents,” if it’s related to your dog or cat’s vet visits, shot records, or transport, add it to the folder. Remember: obtain original, ink-signed copies whenever possible.

The above list applies if you’re bringing your animal yourself on an airplane. If somebody is importing them for you, or if you’re shipping them as cargo, you’ll need to fill out a power of attorney and other documents, which are available on the Animal Quarantine Service site.

You may also want to set up special transportation arrangements in advance for you and your pet after landing. Trains and taxis won’t accommodate large dogs, for example. See “Transportation” above for more details.

5. After you arrive

The good news is that, if you’ve correctly followed all the instructions, your animal buddy will spend a relatively short time in quarantine before you can take them home. The Animal Quarantine Service says the inspection should only last a few hours, but it can take longer, so be prepared to wait. You’ll receive import documents for your pet, which you should keep. If you haven’t met the requirements, though, your pet will either go into quarantine, or be sent back to their home country.

If you’ve done everything else correctly—microchip, vaccinations, rabies titre test, etc.—and the only issue is that the required 180 days after the rabies titre test have not yet passed, it’s possible for the animal to wait out the remainder of those 180 days in quarantine. There isn’t much information available about the cost of a quarantine stay, so please contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly if you need to take this option.

If you have a dog, you’re required to register the dog at your local city hall within 30 days of your move-in date. Bring your paperwork from the Animal Quarantine Service with you. You should receive two tags for your dog’s collar—one that’s their city license, and one that’s a rabies vaccination tag.

All dogs in Japan are required to be vaccinated once a year for rabies, unless otherwise advised by a vet, in which case the vet should give you an exemption certificate. Whenever you renew the vaccination, you’ll receive a certificate that you’ll need to renew the rabies tag as well. Cats, on the other hand, are not required to be licensed or to receive regular rabies vaccinations. However you should still keep them up to date, in case you ever want to fly suddenly with your cat.

Finally, whatever you do, hang onto those import documents! You’ll need them if you ever want to eventually export your pet from Japan.

Summary

In brief, the checklist for importing dogs and cats from non-designated regions is:

[T–210 days] When you’re thinking about someday moving to Japan

• Microchip your pet and get a post-microchip rabies vaccine
• Stay up-to-date on rabies vaccines
• Start keeping original, ink-signed copies of your pet’s vet records

[T–180 days] When you’re starting your job hunt

• If at least 30 days have passed since the first post-microchip vaccine, but your pet hasn’t yet received a second post-microchip rabies vaccine, then get the second rabies vaccination
• Get the rabies titre test
  • Can be done the same day as the second rabies vaccination
  • Must be submitted to a designated laboratory
  • Double-check certificates to make sure they meet Japan’s standards
• If the rabies titre test results are good, your pet must wait 180 days before entering Japan

[T–41 days] When you have been hired

• Make travel plans for you and your pet
• Alternatively, hire a pet-shipper to transport your pet to Japan separately
• Submit the import notification form to Animal Quarantine Service 40+ days before your pet’s arrival

[T–10 days] Soon before you leave

• Have a vet inspect your pet and issue a health certificate less than 10 days before departure
• Get the health certificate endorsed by your government
• Ensure you meet all the airline’s requirements for travel
• Fill out additional Animal Quarantine Service paperwork, such as the application for inspection
• Bring all the paperwork
• Set up transportation for your pet after landing, if required

[T–0 days] After you arrive

• Have your pet be inspected by the Animal Quarantine Service
• Submit all the paperwork
• Receive import documents for your pet
• If you have a dog, take those documents to your local city hall within 30 days, to receive the license and rabies vaccination tags
• Get your dog vaccinated once a year for rabies (or get an exemption certificate from a vet) and renew the rabies tag
• Enjoy life in Japan!

Dogs and cats from designated regions

If you (and your pet) are from Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, or Guam, and you’ve glanced through the extensive timeline up above, you’re probably feeling rather smug right now. Congratulations, you dodged the rabies titre test bullet!

Dogs and cats from designated regions only need to worry about:

• Getting an authorized microchip
• Submitting the advance notification to Animal Quarantine Service 40+ days before travel
• Receiving the government-endorsed health certificate 10 days or less before the flight
• Filling in the application for inspection form (it’s actually a little unclear whether you have to do this or not, but better safe than sorry)
• And, of course, whatever additional requirements the airline(s) might have

But don’t get too comfortable yet! Japan has strict rules on what, precisely, counts as “an animal from a designated region.” It’s not enough to be living in a designated area. Your dog or cat must also:

• Have lived in that designated region since birth OR
• Have lived in that designated region for the last 180 days OR
• Have been exported from Japan directly to that designated region, and have not left it

If your pet hasn’t done one of these, then unfortunately, they do not count as coming from a designated region. Given the expense and difficulty of the non-designated region import procedures, though, you may just want to wait in the designated region until your animal has lived there for the required 180 days. You’ll save yourself a lot of hassle by doing so!

There’s one other important consideration for those living in designated areas: traveling through non-designated areas. If you’ll be traveling through non-designated regions on your way to Japan, including connecting flights, you’ll need to either seal the cage, or fill out more paperwork (surprise, surprise).

Here is the Animal Quarantine Service page for designated regions, for more details. The instruction manual is available in English and Japanese.

Service dogs

I wrote “service dogs” because, while other service animals certainly exist (and who can resist a service mini-horse?), I doubt Japan will accommodate them.

Japan is not particularly helpful when it comes to service dogs. They’re subject to the exact same import restrictions as non-service dogs, and must go through the processes outlined above. The only difference is that service dogs are also required to submit a special application to a Japanese certifying body, in order to receive a “Temporary Certificate for Foreign Assistance Dog Users,” which will allow you to use your dog as a service animal in Japan. Note that Japan only permits service animals that have been trained by certain accredited international organizations, so it’s important to double-check that your dog will qualify.

The good news is that most airlines are required to allow service dogs in the cabin, so you’ll likely have an easier time arranging transportation to Japan.

Animals that aren’t dogs or cats

The difficulties mount if you’re importing an animal that isn’t a dog or a cat. The stakes are also higher: if your animal doesn’t meet the import requirements, it must either be reshipped at the importer’s expense, or culled. The Animal Quarantine Service stresses that, to avoid this, it’s best to send all the animal’s documents for pre-approval by the agency, before you attempt transport. And, as always, it’s best to directly check the source for importation rules.

Because of infectious disease laws, it is illegal to import:

• Chinese ferret badgers
• Bats
• Raccoon-dogs
• Masked palm civets
• Prairie dogs
• Natal multimammate mice
• Some monkeys

Pet Birds

The first thing to check is whether importation is possible at all from your home country. The Animal Quarantine Service has suspended importation from regions with outbreaks of avian flu, and the list of countries just grows longer. At the time of writing, no birds are permitted from Australia, the Philippines, much of the US and Canada, and parts of Europe and South America. Therefore, it’s critical, before you even consider bringing a bird to Japan, to read the designated regions list.

The next step would be to contact the Animal Quarantine Service directly and consult with them on their requirements. The good news is that, unlike barnyard fowl, pet birds don’t need to be quarantined. You will definitely need to provide a veterinarian health certificate and advance notification of arrival to the Animal Quarantine Service, though.

All of this information is available on the site in English, Spanish, Thai, and Chinese.

Rodents

Japan has very strict import rules for rodents, a category that includes hamsters, squirrels, guinea pigs, and chinchillas (presumably in addition to mice and rats, although oddly enough that isn’t specified on the site). A rodent must have been kept since birth in a government-certified facility that complies with strict conditions; this automatically eliminates all rodents that were purchased in a pet store or that have lived in your home.

Essentially, this means you can’t bring a pet rodent with you to Japan, unless your “pet” also happens to be a lab rat.

Ferrets (and similar mammals)

According to the Animal Quarantine Service’s pamphlet, ferrets, and other terrestrial mammals that aren’t rodents or rabbits, must have the usual vet health certificate and application for arrival. However, they must also “have been kept for a certain period of time or quarantined since birth in a rabies-free region or facility (period of time varies depending on endemic/non-endemic country, and type of storage/quarantine facility).”

Digging a little deeper into the Q&A for notifications, it seems that the rules regarding ferrets and similar mammals are dependent on whether the animals come from designated or non-designated regions—which are similar, but not identical, to the designated/non-designated regions of dogs and cats.

Designated regions for these mammals include:

• Australia
• New Zealand
• Fiji
• Hawaii
• Guam
• Iceland
• Ireland
• UK (limited to Great Britain and North Ireland)
• Sweden
• Norway (except for Svalbard, Jan Mayan, and dependencies outside Europe)

If the animal has lived since birth or capture in a designated region, or has been kept in a designated region for the last six months, then the usual government-endorsed health certificate will suffice. If the animal is from a non-designated region, they must have either been kept for 12 months or since birth in a storage facility where rabies has not been reported for the past 12 months, or have been kept for the past 6 months or since birth in a quarantine facility.

The definition of “storage facility” is simply a facility where animals are kept, but the site gets more specific about what constitutes a quarantine facility: it’s a “facility where any required observations, examinations and processes are conducted for a quarantined population of animals without direct or indirect contact with other animals under the control over the government authority of the exporting country.”

This means that, if you’re not from one of the regions above, it will be expensive and difficult to meet these requirements. If you’re determined to do it anyway, the best thing you can do is contact the Animal Quarantine Service more than six months in advance, to determine what precisely will qualify as a quarantine facility for your animal.

Rabbits

The import procedure for rabbits is strikingly different from other animals. What’s similar is that the vet health certificate must be issued and endorsed by the home country’s government within 10 days of your departure, and an application for arrival must be submitted in advance to the Animal Quarantine Service—in this case, at least 10 days in advance of your arrival (as opposed to dogs and cats, for which the requirement is 40 days in advance).

The major difference is that rabbits, even if all their paperwork is in order, must undergo a three day/two night quarantine. The owner is responsible for providing care for the rabbit during the quarantine period.

There are also individualized import procedures for the following countries:

• The Czech Republic
• China
• Taiwan
• France
• Denmark
• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand

Each country has its own linked pdf on the website with specific requirements.

Reptiles, Amphibians, Insects, and Fish

There’s very little information available on import procedures for pet reptiles, amphibians, insects, and fish. No quarantine inspection is required; whether advance notification is needed is less certain. I would suggest contacting the Animal Quarantine Service directly to see if advance notification is necessary, or if there is any possibility that a vet certificate might be needed.

Practically speaking, the problem will be convincing the airline to accept your ten-foot long python, rather than Japan.

Hire a pet-shipper, or go it alone?

As mentioned above, I didn’t complete the entire process of importing our dogs to Japan by myself. This was because we didn’t have housing arranged when we arrived in Japan. Since pet-friendly hotels are both rare and expensive in Tokyo, we opted to leave our dogs with my parents for two months and have a professional pet-shipper send them when we were ready.

At the time we hired the pet-shipping company, we had already:

• Microchipped our dogs
• Gotten the two required post-microchip rabies vaccinations
• Ordered and received the results for the rabies titre tests
• Completed the required 180-day waiting period

My parents were responsible for:

• Taking the dogs for their health checks prior to the flight
• Ensuring that the vets sent the health certificate to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (that is, the US equivalent of the Animal Quarantine Service) for endorsement
• Getting their kennels and documents ready for the flight

What remained for the pet-shipping company we used, Starwood Pet Travel, was to:

• Double-check our documents and counsel us (remember how finicky Japan is about forms!)
• Set up the flights
• Arrange the arrival notification 40 days before travel
• File other paperwork, such as the Power of Attorney and the application for inspection
• Pick up the dogs from my parents’ house
• Get the dogs on and off the planes
• Stop mid-travel for a welfare check (they sent us an email update on how they were doing)

Once the dogs had landed in Japan, I hired a truck, picked up the dogs at Haneda Airport after their quarantine inspections, and brought them back to our house.

The cost for this pet-shipping—including the airfare for the dogs—was around 5,500 USD. Since it typically costs around 300 USD to check a dog as baggage on an airplane, it would have been much cheaper for us to fly them ourselves. However, we calculated that the additional expense of a pet-friendly hotel, for the months it took us to find the house we wanted, would have outstripped the cost of shipping them. It also saved us considerable stress, since we had to change hotels several times and were in general adjusting to life in a new country.

What I’ve described is the economy pet-shipping package. You can get much more comprehensive care for, of course, a much more comprehensive price. Extended packages might include your pet-shipping company handling the final vet visits, providing travel kennels, picking up your dogs from your house, and delivering them directly to your door in Japan.

We were pleased with the communication and care we received from Starwood Pet Travel. Unfortunately, their services are only for cats and dogs. There are other pet-shipping companies such as PetRelocation that may ship exotic animals. Since I only have experience with Starwood Pet Travel, however, I can’t personally endorse any other pet-shipping companies.

Conclusion

Is it entirely sane, going to all this expense and trouble to bring pets to Japan? Possibly not. Will many of us do it anyway? Of course! Pets are family, and I know our lives in Japan wouldn’t be complete without our dogs.

That being said, if you’re not sure that you’ll be in Japan for long, if your pet has medical needs that would be difficult to address in a foreign language, or if you have an active dog that won’t be happy in Japan’s more constrained spaces, you may want to make other arrangements for their care.

In summary, I would say:

• Dogs, cats, and ferrets (or similar terrestrial mammals) from designated regions are fairly easy to bring.
• Dogs and cats from non-designated regions must go through a lengthy and expensive, but ultimately quite doable, import process.
• Ferrets from non-designated regions must also go through a lengthy process that is rather opaque, so you’ll need clarification from the Animal Quarantine Service.
• Your average pet rodent can’t come to Japan at all.
• Birds aren’t hard to import, but the number of countries with avian flu outbreaks is growing by the day. There are many locations from which it’s simply impossible to bring a pet bird right now.
• Rabbits require little paperwork, but you must deal with a three-day quarantine.
• If you can bring your pet snake on a plane, you can probably bring it to Japan. (But double-check with the Animal Quarantine Service first!)

Once you’re in Japan, you’ll find that it’s a pet-friendly country, and that letting your dog sniff noses with the neighbor’s Shiba Inu is a great way to make friends. Just be sure to stretch your hands and fingers thoroughly before you start on all that paperwork.