First of all, congratulations on obtaining your Certificate of Eligibility! As someone who recently went through this process, I want to congratulate you on getting to the start of the end of a very, very long journey.

On this page, I offer tips on what you should do next and think about before and immediately after you enter Japan.

This page is in-draft until this notice is removed. Please use caution and note that my advice has not been completed or published fully until this notice is removed.

• Before you enter Japan, make sure you have already planned and shipped any of your personal goods that you intend to import into Japan for use in the country. Japan allows a one-time import of personal goods such as clothing, furniture, computers, hats, TVs, etc. As long as the good is generally recognized as a personal good, you should be fine bringing it into Japan. I personally used Yamato Transport USA's international moving service, but other services should also work. You must ship your personal goods and then immediately complete the customs paperwork on your first arrival in Japan, before you are a Residence Card holder. In other words, if you obtain a Residence Card, leave the country, and then re-enter and try to import your personal goods, you will have a lot of explaining to do, and you might be charged 10-15% of the value of your cargo as import duty.
  • If you're entering on a visa that is less than 6 months, such as the Business Manager visa, you need to prove that you will extend to 1 year somehow. In an ideal world, you should file for extension or have a lawyer or similar work with you here. The problem is that the goods import exception only gives you permission to import goods for a stay of a year or more in Japan. If you fail to meet this requirement, you may also be subject to 10-15% import duty.
  • It is imperative that the goods that you import are for personal use and understood as such. Bulk commodities or goods packaged new are not understood as for personal use. Arcade cabinets, for example, are viewed as commercial goods by default. As an example, if you have an arcade cabinet, you should realistically not import it. If you have 30-50 sets of gloves that you bought off of Ali Express to play maimai でらっくす, you should not import those in your cargo.
  • You can email or call your port-of-entry customs office and ask questions. I emailed Tokyo Customs a couple questions and got reasonable responses before I entered Japan, and it was very simple/easy. It does take about a week for a reply though, if you're sending email.
  • If you've entered Japan as a temporary visitor in the past and you haven't declared your expensive laptops, computers, tablets, whatever, you should declare all goods to the letter-of-the-law on your entry to Japan now. While you can be expected, as a tourist, to bring laptops and related items for tourism, your very first entry into Japan is critical: you are basically bringing yourself and any belongings permanently into the country. The perception is different, and the consequences for undeclared goods go up¹⁾. Used personal goods purchased in the last year won't incur customs duty, but you still need to declare these items and explain to the inbound customs officer what the status of these items is.
  • Everything you import has some value, even if that value is small. You cannot import goods worth zero value. As you work through customs declaration forms, remember that even documents have value and you need to establish that value.
  • Collections, sets, etc., which contain several discs, or similar, need to have the number of discs declared. A “box set” of an anime containing 9 discs is declared as 9 discs. This is important, because customs cannot process your goods otherwise, and your shipper will likely inquire as to the count of goods.
  • Customs will undoubtedly open at least one of your boxes for inspection. I know this from experience. Get your declarations correct so there are no surprises when customs does open your boxes.

• Make sure you've made copies of your Certificate of Eligibility and put them in multiple places when you pack your luggage. You need both your passport, with a valid visa sticker, and your COE, to enter Japan. The expiration date on the COE is what dictates your entry start and end dates, not the visa. Because the COE is just a piece of paper, I really suggest having multiple copies so that if your luggage is lost or stolen, hopefully you still have a backup copy with you somewhere.
• You may be asked to show your visa and COE at your airport of choice when you embark on the way to Japan.
• When you arrive at your airport of choice, you will enter through the visitor line, not through any other line. However, you should make it clear to the staff working at the airport that you are a COE holder. Have your COE out and ready. Only some of the immigration stations can process people with COEs, especially at Haneda and Narita. It is at this point that you will be given your Residence Card.
  • I'm sure you've already been made aware of this, but you must, from this point on, carry your Residence Card with you at all times to all destinations. In all practical terms, your Residence Card is your only Japan-issued government ID. If you ever lose your Residence Card, you must report it as lost or stolen at a police station and obtain a police report. Then, you must immediately to to immigration to get it replaced.
• Remember to have your entry documents correct and complete the processing of any customs shipments you have pending. You likely need two stamped copies of your customs declaration for unaccompanied articles, so you can present them to your shipping partner at the airport. Do not lose these documents.