Health and Beauty

When traveling to another country, laws can radically differ from your home country. This is especially true in Japan concerning prescription and OTC medicines. Medicines one may find no problem back home can be non-existent here, and other medications can be why you were arrested. We have compiled some links and brief explanations to help you navigate Japan’s stances and systems. An Overview of Personal Medication Groups The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (Henceforth, “MHLW”) splits information about bringing in medication for personal use into four groups: Drugs, Quasi Drugs Cosmetics Medical Devices Narcotics, Psychotropics Certain sections are very straightforward. Cosmetics, for instance, have a hard limit of 24 of any one item. The website gives an example that you can have up to 24 sticks of lipstick regardless of brand or color. However, other sections, specifically Groups 1 (Drugs, Quasi Drugs) and 4 (Narcotics, Psychotropics), are more complicated. Rather than searching by the brand name of your medicine, you will need to look at the ingredients list and compare them to the lists found on the MHLW and the Narcotic Control Department (Henceforth “NCD”) websites. The “Hard No” Items Under no circumstances should you even bother trying to bring…