Taking medication to Japan: quantity limits, the Import Confirmation, controlled medicines such as ADHD drugs, and what is banned outright

Can you take medication to Japan?

For most travellers the answer is a plain yes. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Q&A for people bringing medicines into the country says you can bring "general prescription medicine into Japan without any special procedures" on four conditions: you bring it "only for personal use"; it is not a drug prohibited in Japan "such as Methamphetamine"; it is not an "especially controlled drug in Japan such as Narcotics (e.g. Morphine) and Stimulants' Raw Materials (e.g. Lisdexamfetamine)"; and the "quantity is up to one month supply". Non-prescription medicines get two months. Stay inside those lines and there is no form to file and no letter you must carry.

The complications begin when a medicine is stronger, more plentiful or more tightly controlled than that. Three separate procedures exist, and the first job is to work out which, if any, applies to you:

1. More than a month's supply of an ordinary medicine needs an Import Confirmation: a certificate you apply for online before you leave home and show to customs on arrival.
2. Narcotics and stimulant raw materials need advance permission from the Narcotics Control Department whatever the quantity. The department's own examples are morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, codeine, tapentadol, GHB, lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) and pseudoephedrine.
3. Psychotropics, meaning sleeping tablets, benzodiazepines, methylphenidate, modafinil and the like, need nothing at all up to a set amount of active ingredient, and a doctor's certificate above it.

A fourth group cannot come in under any procedure. The department's wording is blunt: "No individual travelers can import/export medicines including the following substances, even if they are prescribed medicines in your country", and the substances are heroin, opium powder, methamphetamine and amphetamine, and methaqualone. Amphetamine is the active ingredient of Adderall, which is why Adderall has its own entry in the department's FAQ.

How much medication you can bring without paperwork

The limits below are the ministry's own, from its page for travellers bringing medicines for personal use, as read in October 2026. They apply to what you carry with you; posting medicine is covered further down.

Four details fill in the gaps.

Personal use means personal use. The oath on the application form reads: the products are "solely for the purpose of import above, not for commercial use and/or gift for others". Carrying a relative's medicine, or a stock to hand out, falls outside the exemption.

Injections. If you bring a self-injected medicine such as insulin together with the syringes or pen needles for it, and the supply is under a month, no certificate is required. Syringes on their own are different: the Q&A says that if you import "syringe only (without medicines), you need to apply for Import Confirmation as medical devices even if you import 1 piece".

What counts as a medicine. Japan's definition is wider than many countries'. Melatonin, for instance, is a medicine here rather than a supplement; it appears on the ministry's own form as a typical product, so count it under the medicine limits rather than assuming it is food.

Prescriptions and packaging. The rules do not oblige you to carry a prescription for a month's supply of an ordinary medicine. Carry one anyway, or a doctor's letter in English, and keep tablets in their labelled packaging: if an officer does ask, those two things answer every point the ministry itself uses to identify a medicine, namely the product name, the active ingredient and its strength, the form, and the quantity.

More than a month's supply: the Import Confirmation

If you need more than one month of a prescription medicine (or two months of a non-prescription one), the ministry's answer is one line: "You need to apply for Import Confirmation before entering Japan." The certificate is known in Japanese as a Yunyu Kakunin-sho, and since 1 February 2023 the application has run online.

1. Create an account on the ministry's Application for Import Confirmation system (link under Sources), then open a new application.
2. Attach two documents. First, "a valid prescription (or a doctor's note)" that shows the patient's name, the medicine and the doctor's name, for every medicine or device you apply for. Second, a document from the airline showing your arrival date, arrival airport, flight number and your name; an itinerary or a copy of the ticket is enough.
3. Wait a few days. The certificate "will be normally issued in a few business days (not including Saturday, Sunday and National holidays), if your application form is completed", and arrives as a PDF at the e-mail address you registered. If the application is returned, the reason and the correction needed are sent to the same address.
4. Show it at customs if asked when you arrive. Do not alter it in any way: a corrected certificate "becomes invalid".

Long trips are the usual reason to need one, but so are high-dose regimens, combination packs and a cautious habit of packing spares. If you are short of time or unsure which rule applies, the ministry invites questions by e-mail to the pharmaceutical inspectors for your arrival airport: [email protected] for Narita, Haneda and the rest of eastern Japan, and [email protected] for Kansai, Chubu Centrair, Naha and the west. It asks you to include the airport, the product name, the active ingredient and its strength, the form (tablets, vial) and the amount you are bringing. The Japan National Tourism Organization lists the same two offices with phone numbers: +81-48-740-0800 for the east and +81-6-6942-4096 for the west.

Controlled medicines: narcotics, stimulant raw materials and psychotropics

Japan's Narcotics Control Department, a separate arm of the same ministry, polices three categories that sit outside the ordinary limits. Which category your medicine falls into decides everything, and the department's own examples are the quickest way to tell:

• Narcotics: "Morphine, Fentanyl, Oxycodone, Codeine, Tapentadol, GHB (Xyrem, Xywav, Lumryz...)". Advance permission is required whatever the quantity.
• Stimulants' raw materials: "Lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse, Elvanse...), Pseudoephedrine". Advance permission is required whatever the quantity.
• Psychotropics: "Methylphenidate (Dexmethylphenidate), Zolpidem, Alprazolam, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Buprenorphine". No permission is needed within the quantity table; above it, or in injectable form, you must carry a doctor's certificate.

The full list, titled the Controlled Substances List and dated 12 December 2024, is a PDF on the department's site, and it is worth a search for every active ingredient you take. Two exclusions on it matter to ordinary travellers. Preparations containing 1 percent or less of codeine or dihydrocodeine are not treated as narcotics, and preparations containing 10 percent or less of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine are not treated as stimulant raw materials. A tablet pairing 30 mg of codeine with 300 mg of paracetamol is comfortably above 1 percent, so it is a narcotic and needs permission; a weak cough linctus may not be. Since you cannot read a percentage off a blister pack, the practical rule is: if in doubt, apply, or leave it at home and buy a Japanese equivalent after you arrive.

Narcotics and stimulant raw materials: how to get permission

The department asks for applications "at least 14 days prior to your travel", and Japanese public holidays stop the clock: for Golden Week 2026 it told travellers arriving between 29 April and 11 May to file by 22 April. The package is:

1. The application forms for import and, if you will take unused medicine home again, for export as well. The forms are on the department's page.
2. A medical certificate issued within the past three months, giving the specific reason for the medicine, the names of the drugs with their doses and strength, and the doctor's signature.
3. Photos of the package of your medicine.

Send the set by e-mail, fax or post to the Narcotics Control Department office for the region where you will land: the Kanto-Shin'etsu office in Tokyo for Narita and Haneda (+81-3-3512-8688, fax +81-3-3512-8689) and the Kinki office in Osaka for Kansai Airport (+81-6-6949-6336, fax +81-6-6949-6339). The department also has offices in Nagoya, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Naha for the other international gateways; its office list under Sources gives the addresses. When the certificate arrives, carry the medicine yourself and "show the 'IMPORT CERTIFICATE/EXPORT CERTIFICATE' to an officer" at customs on the way in, and again on the way out if you applied for export.

Psychotropics: the quantity table

For psychotropics the rule is the mirror image. If the amount you carry is "equal to or less than the amount indicated in the Table" and it is not an injection, "you don't need a certificate written by your doctor nor the permission by authorities". The table counts total active ingredient, so multiply your tablet strength by the number of tablets. The entries most visitors will look up:

The amounts are the department's; the tablet counts are plain arithmetic to show the scale. Most work out to roughly a month at a high daily dose, which is why a normal holiday supply of a sleeping tablet or a benzodiazepine needs no paperwork at all. The full table is linked under Sources.

Above those amounts, or for any psychotropic in injectable form, the department asks for a certificate from your doctor stating the disease and the necessity of the drug, the names of the psychotropics and the quantities prescribed, the doctor's signature and the date of issue. There is no application and no waiting: you carry the certificate with the medicine and show it if asked.

Medicines you cannot bring at all

Some prescriptions that are routine at home are illegal in Japan, and no certificate changes that. The Narcotics Control Department's list for individual travellers is short:

• heroin
• opium powder
• methamphetamine and amphetamine
• methaqualone

Its wording leaves no room: these cannot be imported "even if they are prescribed medicines in your country".

Adderall. The department's FAQ takes the question head on. "Can I bring ADDERALL into Japan?" "No." Amphetamine, the "Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of ADDERALL, is controlled as 'Stimulants'" and "cannot be imported into Japan, even for treatment purposes." The list treats dexamphetamine as the same substance. Anyone on these medicines needs a conversation with their doctor well before the trip, because there is no procedure to apply for.

Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine). Here the FAQ answer is "Yes": lisdexamfetamine "is controlled as 'Stimulants' Raw Materials'" and "You can import/export it into/from Japan, by getting an advanced permission." That is the 14-day procedure described above.

Ritalin and Concerta (methylphenidate) are psychotropics, so the quantity table applies: up to 2.16 g of methylphenidate without paperwork, a doctor's certificate above that. Atomoxetine (Strattera) and guanfacine (Intuniv) do not appear on the 12 December 2024 list at all, so the ordinary one-month rule for prescription medicines is all that applies.

Cannabis and THC. Cannabis has a controlled category of its own, and the list names every isomer of THC (delta-8, delta-9, THC-O and the rest) as a narcotic. Prescribed or not, legal at home or not, cannabis flower, edibles, oils and vape cartridges cannot be brought in. CBD itself is not named on the list, but a CBD product containing any THC is a narcotic, and nothing on a label proves to a customs officer that yours does not. Leave every cannabis-derived product at home.

Not on the list, and so handled under the ordinary one-month rule: tramadol, gabapentin, pregabalin, insulin and GLP-1 injectables such as semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy). Injectables travel with their pens or syringes, as explained in the limits section.

Sending medicine to Japan by post

The ministry's Q&A covers parcels as well as luggage, and the rules for parcels are tighter. Ordinary medicines can be posted for your own use within the same limits, but the fifth condition on the ministry's list is absolute: "it is not permitted to SEND Psychotropics, Narcotics and Stimulants' Raw Materials." A sleeping tablet you may carry in your bag cannot be mailed to your hotel. The Q&A repeats the point for parcels stopped at the border: "Narcotics, psychotropics and stimulant raw materials are prohibited to send from overseas to Japan."

If customs holds a parcel of ordinary medicine, the remedy is the same online Import Confirmation, this time with the invoice, the air waybill or the notice from customs, and the prescription attached. One condition catches people out: "The importer name and patient's name on the prescription must be the same." A parcel addressed to a friend or to a hotel on your behalf will not be released against your prescription.

Buying medicine in Japan

For everyday ailments you rarely need to bring anything. Drugstores (ドラッグストア) stand on most shopping streets and around every large station, and they sell non-prescription painkillers, cold and hay-fever remedies, stomach medicines, eye drops, plasters and a great deal else, often until late in the evening. The stronger over-the-counter products are kept behind the counter and sold after a word with the pharmacist or registered seller; a translation app and the name of the active ingredient get you through that conversation, because brands differ between countries but ingredients do not.

Prescription medicines are another matter. A Japanese pharmacy (薬局, yakkyoku) dispenses them against a prescription (処方箋, shohōsen) written by a doctor practising in Japan, so a prescription from home will not be filled as it stands. If you run out, lose your supply or fall ill, you see a doctor here and leave with a Japanese prescription. Our travel insurance guide explains how to find a clinic that treats foreign patients, what to take with you and what to expect at reception.

Do not count on a like-for-like replacement. Some ingredients sold freely elsewhere are restricted here, among them full-strength pseudoephedrine decongestants and codeine cough products, both discussed above, and melatonin, which Japan treats as a medicine rather than a supplement. If a medicine matters to your trip, bring your own supply within the limits in this guide rather than planning to buy it after you land.

To cite or link to this page: Taking medication to Japan: quantity limits, the Import Confirmation, controlled medicines such as ADHD drugs, and what is banned outright — Japan Pocket Guide, https://japanpocketguide.com/plan/medication/ Copy