Looks like we'll need to travel back to Japan tomorrow due to a death in the family. It'll be the first time we'll be going with prescription medication. None of them are prohibited in Japan, and we won't be staying more than a week or two. Does anyone know if we need to bring the pills in the original containers or can we use daily pillboxes? Do we need written prescriptions? We get everything from Express Scripts and never see an actual prescription. Thanks in advance if anyone knows. I'll keep researching.

YMMV. I bring in Rx w/o the script or even the original packaging. Undeclared and not checked. Haven't had an issue over tens of trips over the years. But I could survive w/o my Rx for a couple of weeks. Worst case, could always cut my trip short.

I don't think they really enforce the letter, not that I've seen.

Granted... I'm not a customs or point of entry official.

But I understand that they quantity of medications should be in line with the duration of the stay. So if you show up with 500 pills - eyebrows will be raised.

Arriving with a pill box with sorted meds in line with your duration of stay would be reasonable.

Regardless - remember to keep the medications in your carry-on bags. So they don't get lost with the luggage.

Andrew

Keep in mind prescriptions don't count against the TSA's carry-on policy. That said, always carry you prescriptions in your carry-on, worse case scenario, your luggage is delayed/lost, however you'll still have your essentials. If it's just a few bottles, just carry those, as they'll have the prescription label on them. You can also have your pharmacist print out extra labels so you can put them onto a zip-loc bag if you're trying to slim things down.

Pill box, shouldn't be an issue. I've not known of anyone who's had an issue because of 'mystery pills'. If you do the pillbox, make sure to have a printed listing of all your medications and the reasons for them. Keep it simple, straight forward, use bullet points, as you're gonna have somebody reading it where English is a 2nd language. Use your phone and photograph the prescription of each medication of their original bottle, this is more for reference and assistance should you need to get it refilled overseas. Bring your normal daily dose for the trips duration and 3-5 days extra.

Don't be like my father, who brought the entire Costco-sized bottle of antacid to Europe

I used to be an intake booking officer in a county jail and I have seen DOZENS of people arrested for possession of regular everyday prescription pills, not just narcotics. I HIGHLY recommend that any time you leave your home with medication, that it be in the original bottle with label clearly attached.

Police will consider you guilty until you can prove to a court that you are innocent, by bringing your script in. Ive seen it so many times that I would not mess around with this...

Check this link out with respect to importing medications into Japan:

https://jp.usembassy.gov/u-s-c...mporting-medication/

Also check out travel.state.gov and look up Japan for important country information.

Thanks everyone.

I think for this short trip and the few medications, we'll bring them in the original bottles with an appropriate number of pills in each. I have print outs from the mail order pharmacy with the prescription info, and none of the meds are prohibited or even controlled according to the listing on the Japanese government site.

Looks like we'll be making more than one trip, so we'll definitely be more prepared for the next one.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
I used to be an intake booking officer in a county jail and I have seen DOZENS of people arrested for possession of regular everyday prescription pills, not just narcotics. I HIGHLY recommend that any time you leave your home with medication, that it be in the original bottle with label clearly attached.

Police will consider you guilty until you can prove to a court that you are innocent, by bringing your script in. Ive seen it so many times that I would not mess around with this...

Overzealous cops could have a field day at Perkins busting all the senior citizens taking out their pill cases at lunch. With the presence of computer databases, a cop should be able to discern between a Ziplock with 100 loose oxy and a single Lipitor without breaking out the cuffs. If not, they are in the wrong line of work.

We traveled to Japan in 2007. At that time, I had 11 prescriptions. I had no knowledge or information such as in this thread. We had no problems at all at the international airport in Tokyo.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
We traveled to Japan in 2007. At that time, I had 11 prescriptions. I had no knowledge or information such as in this thread. We had no problems at all at the international airport in Tokyo.

Most people never have a problem until they do. Ignorance of the law will not get you off the hook. To move medicine into or out of the country it MUST be in the original container and be the correct name of the person who is traveling. You cant put your medicine into your spouses container.
Most of the time customs will hardly ever check, but when they do you are only inviting extra scrutiny and headaches. As was eluded to earlier, if they extra screen your bag and find drugs outside a prescription container they can and will detain you. They wont care about excuses or whether its legit or not. They will detain you and someone else will figure out the details later. At the minimum you will miss your flight.
I travel for a living and have seen them go through bags and question my passengers on their medications and containers. They are very thorough.

Its always a gamble, and most of the time you will win. The one time you lose though, it will cost you more in time and aggravation than you can imagine. Its not worth the risk, take meds in their original containers and save the headache for someone else.

Dumb fucking laws where people can't travel w/ their medications. What the fuck happened to innocent until proven guilty. It's medicine unless you can prove it isn't. Burden should be on the fucking government, not the citizen.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffxjet:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
We traveled to Japan in 2007. At that time, I had 11 prescriptions. I had no knowledge or information such as in this thread. We had no problems at all at the international airport in Tokyo.

Most people never have a problem until they do. Ignorance of the law will not get you off the hook. To move medicine into or out of the country it MUST be in the original container and be the correct name of the person who is traveling. You cant put your medicine into your spouses container.
Most of the time customs will hardly ever check, but when they do you are only inviting extra scrutiny and headaches. As was eluded to earlier, if they extra screen your bag and find drugs outside a prescription container they can and will detain you. They wont care about excuses or whether its legit or not. They will detain you and someone else will figure out the details later. At the minimum you will miss your flight.
I travel for a living and have seen them go through bags and question my passengers on their medications and containers. They are very thorough.

Its always a gamble, and most of the time you will win. The one time you lose though, it will cost you more in time and aggravation than you can imagine. Its not worth the risk, take meds in their original containers and save the headache for someone else.

THIS. Also if you have a medical emergency, either on the plane or off. The doctors will be able to see what your medications and dosage frequencies are.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by jeffxjet:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
We traveled to Japan in 2007. At that time, I had 11 prescriptions. I had no knowledge or information such as in this thread. We had no problems at all at the international airport in Tokyo.

Most people never have a problem until they do. Ignorance of the law will not get you off the hook. To move medicine into or out of the country it MUST be in the original container and be the correct name of the person who is traveling. You cant put your medicine into your spouses container.
Most of the time customs will hardly ever check, but when they do you are only inviting extra scrutiny and headaches. As was eluded to earlier, if they extra screen your bag and find drugs outside a prescription container they can and will detain you. They wont care about excuses or whether its legit or not. They will detain you and someone else will figure out the details later. At the minimum you will miss your flight.
I travel for a living and have seen them go through bags and question my passengers on their medications and containers. They are very thorough.

Its always a gamble, and most of the time you will win. The one time you lose though, it will cost you more in time and aggravation than you can imagine. Its not worth the risk, take meds in their original containers and save the headache for someone else.

THIS. Also if you have a medical emergency, either on the plane or off. The doctors will be able to see what your medications and dosage frequencies are.

You can put emergency info on your phone that can be retrieved without a password.

I've done this on an iPhones for my parents. If you hold the up volume button and right side button together you will get a screen with one option medical ID.

In your iPhone, you can put whatever you want to show up. Emergency contacts names and numbers. Medical info such as type one diabetics, heart issues basically whatever you would want someone to see if you were incapacitated.

This doesn't give anyone access to your phone. Your password still protects unlocking your phone. This just shows info you have put in under medical ID.

To do this open the health app. Tap your initials in the upper right. Tap Medical ID. Anything you enter under in this area will be seen when someone does the above steps to access it.

When done make sure the slider for show when locked is on.

I'm sure you can also do this on an Android.

There are free apps which quickly show/describe every pill made. No need to arrest someone over a water pill.
If I had to carry around every original container for every pill I take, I’d need a backpack.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigfest:
There are free apps which quickly show/describe every pill made. No need to arrest someone over a water pill.
If I had to carry around every original container for every pill I take, I’d need a backpack.

And you get the wrong TSA guy or customs guy in Japan that's hell bent on showing you who's boss and sticks you in the little room, for breaking the law which states that pills need to be carried in their original containers.....both for keeping them safe from kids if a bottle falls out of your bag, or alerts someone as to what they are. Do you think the TSA guy is going to take 20 minutes of his/her time to google every single one of your pills while everyone else behind you is waiting in line? And just because they can google the pill and find out what it is, doesn't mean YOU have a prescription for it, but the label on the bottle does.

I spent eight years working in Tokyo, taking three meds with me in their original packaging and scrip.

Not a problem.

The problem is in decanting them into a day dispenser. Since I was there for ninety days at a time it was no big deal to take bulk meds all bundled together with the scrip, and decant them when needed.

I recall that the entry form has a box for medications that you tick, or not, as the case may be.

Narita AP was very efficient, making most other places I've been look like Pattaquumpus regional airfield.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Collins:
We traveled to Japan in 2007. At that time, I had 11 prescriptions. I had no knowledge or information such as in this thread. We had no problems at all at the international airport in Tokyo.

I forgot to mention that the prescriptions were indeed in their original bottles with the prescription labels. I really don't recall that they even looked at the prescriptions.