How will my luggage be inspected? How long will it take?

[J44xm]

A question about entering Japan. I'm a 28-eight-old American male (in case it makes a difference) and I'll be arriving in Japan soon on a one-year pre-college visa. I expect to be carrying one or two bags of luggage, a duffle bag, and my laptop case. When I arrive in Nagoya, how thoroughly my bags will be inspected? I'm not going to have to open and unpack them to show all the contents, will I? Sounds troublesome. (For the record, there should be clothes, my GameCube, and a number CD-Rs and DVD-Rs on a spindles inside. Hmm ... will they be curious about the CDs and DVDs?) Also, how long does the check-in process take, roughly?

Thanks.

 

[ArmandV]

Twice my luggage had to undergo a detailed inspection. Why? The first time it was an aerosol can of bug-repellent that caught their attention. They looked through everything in my suitcase. Then they almost ruined it when they tried to close the zipper. The second time was when an aerosol can of deodorant caught their attention. Instead of putting it back in the suitcase, they handed it to me to put in my carry-on bag. Next month, I am going to try to avoid bringing aerosol cans when I go back to Japan.

 

[nice gaijin]

Entering Japan, You might not have to do much at all. They might have you take your laptop out and show it to them, or perhaps any other electronic devices. I can't remember getting more than a cursory check. If I recall correctly, after you pick up your check-in luggage, you'll go through the final check, which for me was a simple "ok, go ahead" but I saw other people have to open their bag up and let the agents rummage through them a bit. So you might be inconvenienced, and you might not.

As for the discs... I can think of reasons why that could cause concern, but I wonder if it would really matter. For me, from departure from the plane to arrival in the terminal was about half an hour (but I was in Narita).

 

[Gaijinian]

My luggage was practically untouched, both ways.

 

[Ewok85]

Coming in I had my suitcase checked for false sections, basically a 2minute poke of the sides and back. The guy was very polite and I had a chat while this was going on. The other times I've just been waved through. Shouldnt take more than 10mins usually.

 

[J44xm]

Thank you, all. (More comments welcome, of course.)

 

[Riyko]

Every single time i've gone to japan i've undergone baggage checks. I've never had anything that would be a cause of concern to them, they've just always checked it. All I ever have in my suitcase is clothes, a book or two and some earrings. Unless it was the earrings is the reason why

Anyways, it usually doesn't take that long maybe 10-15 minutes at the most and then their done.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

I have only used Centrair (the name of the airport outside Nagoya) once, and I love it! As far as checking my bags go, they did not check them.

Even when bags are checked, it doesn't take long, and they're not very mean about it if you cooperate. Don't worry about it. It's just a minor part of the whole process.

Do you have anyone meeting you at the airport? Are you OK as far as transportation to Okazaki is concerned?

 

[Rich303]

No probs for me;

The first time I went my case was not checked at all.

The second time I had to open it for a quick inspection - but that was because it was a particularly sensitive time, because of terrorism fears.

My hand luggage was checked on the way home, but no big deal.

 

[ullvarg]

Since I will be going to japan in about 2 weeks I might as well ad this. I always get a baggage check, every single time were ever I go. This time I will have my laptop, a external hard drive and a couple copied dvds. Does anyone think that the fact that all the DVDs and drives are filled with pirated material, will cause me any problems? I know that this is really hard to answer, but a couple of reassuring words would be nice

 

[nice gaijin]

I know that this is really hard to answer, but a couple of reassuring words would be nice

You will be locked in a tansu and strip searched until your visa expires. Comforting enough?

 

[ullvarg]

not realy

 

[ArmandV]

Yes, really. I forgot to mention it. They take you to a room where they strip-search men and women together.

 

[yukio_michael]

I wish they would have strip searched me with women... preferably yankii girls with loose morals.

Every time I've gone through customs in Japan I've had my luggage searched both ways on and off the plane--- I guess I just look like the kind of guy who would smuggle ecstacy into Japan... I dunno...

The last time I went through (on the way out)--- the customs agent snickered a bit at a miniture Buddha I had, as well as the massive amount of language books and kanji practice books and magazines...

A brother can read, caint he?

 

[J44xm]

Do you have anyone meeting you at the airport? Are you OK as far as transportation to Okazaki is concerned?

窶堙坂?堋｢ﾂ、窶佚･ﾂ湘､窶｢v窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。ﾅｽﾃｨ窶ｰﾃｱ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｪ窶堋?窶堙ｨ窶堙懌?堋ｷﾂ。 Yamasa will be sending a van to pick me up. It's a free service as well. 窶堋｢窶堋｢窶堙ｱ窶堙??堋ｷﾂ！

 

[Carlson]

they love to take porn and fruits.. how do i know this... well i sometimes work for airport security here in japan

 

[Mars Man]

Of the five times I've come into Japan, I have only had to open one bag, if my memory serves me well, and it was only opened and looked at a little; took no more than two to three minutes.

The rest of the times, I was just waved through after declaring that I had nothing to declare.

 

[Kara_Nari]

Going off the ferry I had my bags opened.... I think they just wanted to eat my Korean noodles.
Going into Narita was fine, going out was a big mission, everything was searched, taken out, put back in and marked. However they were nice about it, and luckily I didnt miss my plane.
As for pirated stuff... maybe you should leave it at home?

 

[MajideSaiaku]

I had the bag with gifts for my girlfriends family quickly checked through but apart from that not much, the dude was polite and i felt respected enough to wish him a merry christmas (i arrived on christmas eve) as i went away.

 

[ullvarg]

As for pirated stuff... maybe you should leave it at home?

Every single software I have is a pirate copy, and and I have sold all of my Cd's after ripping them to mp3+my 30 gig of downloaded music. It would be way to expensive to replace everything with legal copies, only cad would go for 2000$ and that's just 1 software.
Maybe ill just skip the copied DVDs and only bring my external disc

 

[rezaaheddo]

I'm bringing an actual desktop computer with me to Japan. It's kind of a half-size case. I don't have a monitor, since I figured I could just buy one in Japan without having to use up valuable packing space. I have a small amount of pirated software, though 95% of it is legitimately bought. It also has glass sides, so you can see the "guts" of the computer. That could save me some trouble, since they won't have to actually open it up to see if there's any explosive material or drugs in it.

Still, I'd sooner leave my pirated programs and mp3s ON my computer than put them on a dvd... However, everyone I've talked to says that they probably won't even give your CDs or DVDs a second glance.

But the question is, are they a bit more thorough with dektops than laptops?

I don't have a monitor with me, so all they would be able to see is the blue lights inside and the fan. I'm also bringing a LOT of CDs with me. Mostly purchased games, software drivers, the windows CD, some music CDs, etc, plus a few DVD-RWs, 4/5 of them blank. I'll be leaving my 613 megs of mp3 files in the "My Music" folder, and my anime fansubs in the movie folder.

Also, just like in the states, I don't think you can get in trouble for just having MP3 files. For all they know, you may actually have all the CDs at home, and just wanted to save space.

 

[J44xm]

Also, just like in the states, I don't think you can get in trouble for just having MP3 files. For all they know, you may actually have all the CDs at home, and just wanted to save space.

That's a very good point. My concern, personally, is about material that looks pirated, such as CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. I'll certainly be in no position to explain myself if they see them and start asking me about them. All I could say would be to say that they are copies or something. I was planning on taking about 200 discs, though. Could that be too much? (That is, will it make them suspicious?)

 

[nice gaijin]

That is quite a few... I would try to limit the number of discs you carry with you either by weeding out the stuff you don't need, or just backing it up to a large hard drive, which will probably have much less trouble getting through customs. You can always get some new discs and burn it once you arrive.

 

[rezaaheddo]

That's a very good point. My concern, personally, is about material that looks pirated, such as CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. I'll certainly be in no position to explain myself if they see them and start asking me about them. All I could say would be to say that they are copies or something. I was planning on taking about 200 discs, though. Could that be too much? (That is, will it make them suspicious?)

That is indeed a friggin' huge amount of discs. But are all 200 of those discs things you burned yourself? Because if they are legitimate copies of things with fancy graphics on the labels, I don't think they'll decide to inspect them, though they may be curious as to why you're taking so much data with you. But as long as they don't say stuff like, "Downloaded Games" or "Adobe Photoshop" or something, I don't think they would have any reason to look through them.

But if you indeed have 200+ CD-Rs and such, I would be a bit curious myself as to what you're taking.

Me? I'm only taking five DVD-RWs with me. Four of them will be blank. The rest of my CDs are purchased audio CDs, and purchased games, as well as system discs, like for my graphics card, motherboard, game controller, etc. But even in total, I probably don't have more than 30 discs.

Also you need to ask yourself... Do you really need ALL those discs? I can understand a person taking two or three discs of personal or pirated material... but 200 discs... Nobody uses that much.

 

[J44xm]

I can definitely whittle it down some, but since I'm going for two years, I wanted to take as much as I can (read: everything). Oh, and they don't have fancy labels or anything like that--just my handwriting, which, I guess, is less than an ideal solution. I have a lot of music and anime, see.