What you can't ship out of Japan, and what quietly gets seized

This is the article I most wish people read before they order, not after. By the time someone messages me about a parcel held at customs, the money is already gone — the item, the shipping, the fee — and a seized box is not a refundable purchase. A few minutes of checking beforehand is the cheapest insurance there is.

I pack and dispatch these parcels from Osaka, so I know the export side well: what the customs declaration asks, which categories a carrier flatly refuses, and the things that quietly get pulled. What I can't tell you is your own country's import rules, because those are yours and they differ everywhere. So the theme of this article is simple and it repeats: a restriction can bite at either end, and you have to clear both.

Let me be precise about the words first, then walk the categories that cause the trouble.

Prohibited versus restricted

These are not the same, and the difference decides what you can do.

• Prohibited means it cannot be posted at all. No form, no carrier, no workaround. Currency, certain hazardous materials and some regulated goods sit here.
• Restricted means it can be sent, but only under conditions — a quantity limit, a permit, a specific carrier or service, particular packaging, or a declaration. Most of the categories below are restricted rather than outright prohibited, which is exactly why they cause confusion: the answer is "sometimes, if", not "yes" or "no".

I will not write "you can ship this" about any restricted category, because whether you can depends on your item, your carrier and your destination. What I will do is point you at the two authorities that give you a real answer: Japan's official export guidance, and your own country's import rules.

The single most important reference on this whole page is Japan Customs' export page: Japan Customs — export restrictions (official). I earn nothing from that link — it is the primary source for what may leave Japan, and you should open it before you buy anything in the categories below.

The categories that get parcels stopped

Lithium batteries — the most common accidental breach

This is the one that catches careful people, because the battery is usually hidden inside something ordinary: a gadget, a pair of wireless earphones, a power bank, a camera, even some toys and light-up merch. Lithium batteries are restricted for air transport, and the rules differ depending on whether the battery is loose, installed in the device, or shipped as a spare. Air carriers and postal services publish dangerous-goods rules covering exactly this, and they are strict because it is a genuine safety matter.

If your item contains a battery, do not assume it can fly. Check the carrier's dangerous-goods rules for your specific case. This alone is worth pausing an order over. The carriers and their differing rules are compared in EMS, DHL, FedEx or surface mail from Japan.

Food and drink

"It's just snacks" is where a lot of held parcels begin. Some food can be posted; a great deal cannot, and it depends overwhelmingly on your country's import rules for things like meat, dairy, fresh produce, seeds, and certain additives. Health authorities at the destination, not the Japanese sender, decide whether a foodstuff is admitted, and the rules change. Treat all food as restricted at both ends, and check both Japan's export guidance and your own country's food-import rules before ordering.

Cosmetics and skincare

Japanese cosmetics are a huge draw, and also a genuine minefield. Countries impose their own ingredient, quantity and labelling rules on imported cosmetics, and some ingredients permitted in Japan are restricted elsewhere. Quantity limits for personal import are common. Used cosmetics add a secondhand problem on top. Don't assume a popular product is automatically importable to your country.

Medicines and health products

Medicines — including some over-the-counter Japanese remedies and supplements — are among the most tightly controlled things you can try to send. Many countries require the importer to hold a prescription, limit quantities, or ban personal importation of certain substances entirely. This is a category where "restricted" often shades into "prohibited for you", and getting it wrong can be more than a lost parcel. Check your country's health-import rules specifically.

Knives, blades and anything weapon-adjacent

Japan is famous for kitchen and craft blades, and they are restricted for export and often on import too. Some blades face outright bans in the destination country; others need declaration or have length limits. Replica items, certain tools and anything that reads as a weapon can be stopped. Verify both ends before buying a blade.

Alcohol

Alcohol is restricted by most postal and courier services, subject to quantity limits, extra duties and licensing at import, and simply refused by some carriers. It is rarely as simple as putting a bottle in a box. Check the carrier's acceptance rules and your country's alcohol-import rules.

Secondhand goods

A lot of the best Japanese buying is secondhand — this is the heart of the auction and Mercari supply — but "used" is not automatically shippable. Some countries restrict or require declaration of used items, and specific used categories (cosmetics, certain electronics, medical devices) carry extra rules. If you are buying used, check your country's rules for that specific type of item. The buying side of this is reading Japanese secondhand condition grades before you bid.

CITES — protected species

This one surprises people because it hides in ordinary-looking goods: items made from ivory, tortoiseshell, certain woods, corals, some leathers, and taxidermy or traditional products can fall under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. CITES items need permits and are frequently seized without them, at either border. If a vintage or craft item might contain animal or plant material from a protected species, assume it is a problem until you have checked.

Batteries in more detail, because they matter most

Since lithium batteries cause more accidental breaches than anything else, they deserve their own careful look. The rules turn on where the battery is relative to the device:

• A battery installed in the equipment it powers is treated one way.
• A spare or loose battery shipped alongside is treated more strictly, and some services refuse loose lithium cells outright by air.
• Power banks are essentially bare batteries and are among the most restricted of all.

Watt-hour ratings and quantity limits come into it, and the acceptable method can differ — something shippable by one carrier may be refused by another, or only allowed by surface rather than air. The practical upshot: if your item contains, includes or is a battery, treat it as a dangerous-goods question and check the specific carrier's rules before ordering, rather than assuming the general shipping method applies. This is the single check that prevents the most held parcels.

Counterfeits, replicas and resale — a boundary I won't cross

I need to be plain about what this site does not do. I give no legal advice on counterfeit goods, replicas, parallel imports or resale. Whether a particular item is a lawful parallel import, whether a replica infringes a trademark, whether you may resell something you imported — these are legal questions that depend on your jurisdiction and the specific goods, and a shipping site is the wrong place to answer them.

What I will say factually: counterfeit goods are seized and destroyed by customs in many countries, and importing them can carry penalties beyond losing the parcel. If an offer looks too cheap to be genuine, that is a risk you carry as the importer. Beyond that, ask a source qualified to advise on your law, not a blog about postage.

The miscellaneous prohibited list

A few categories sit outside the big consumer groups but stop parcels cold, so know they exist: currency and certain monetary instruments, many hazardous materials (flammables, aerosols, some chemicals and magnets), and various regulated or dual-use goods. Aerosol cosmetics and some pressurised Japanese toiletries quietly fall foul of the hazardous-materials rules even though they feel like ordinary products. When in doubt, the carrier's dangerous-goods list and Japan Customs' export page Japan Customs — export restrictions (official) are the references, not intuition.

What actually happens when a parcel is held

Understanding the process takes some of the fear out of it, and tells you what you can and can't do. If a parcel is stopped, it is usually held at the destination — occasionally on export — while the authority decides. You may be contacted for information, a document, or proof of value; you may be given a chance to arrange a permit for a restricted item; or the item may be refused and either returned or, for prohibited goods, seized and destroyed.

Two honest points. First, the cost is rarely recoverable: shipping is spent, the service fee is spent, and a destroyed item is not refunded. Second, responding promptly and honestly is your best move — providing the real invoice or requested paperwork resolves many holds that were simply a value query, whereas an implausible or slow response prolongs them. This is another reason honest declaration and good English support pay off exactly when you least want a problem.

Documentation that helps

You cannot make a restricted item shippable with paperwork, but for borderline and higher-value legitimate parcels, having the right documents ready smooths things. Keep the real purchase invoice showing what you actually paid; for anything that might raise a query, that single document resolves most value questions. For items that need a permit — some CITES-adjacent goods, certain regulated products — the permit has to exist before shipping, not after a hold. The theme, again: sort it before the box moves.

Why "both ends" is the whole point

I keep repeating "both ends" because it is the mechanism people miss. A parcel has to satisfy two independent sets of rules:

1. Japan's export rules, on the way out. This is where a carrier refuses a battery, or Japan Customs stops a prohibited export.
2. Your country's import rules, on the way in. This is where food is turned back, a medicine is refused, or a used item is held.

Clearing one does not clear the other. A shop in Japan selling you something, or a proxy agreeing to buy it, tells you nothing about whether your country will admit it — the seller is not the importer, you are. This is the same principle behind the customs charge itself: I can explain the mechanism from the sending side, but the destination's rules are yours to check, which is why customs on a parcel from Japan sends you to your own authority rather than guessing.

How to check before you buy

A short routine that prevents almost every seizure I hear about:

1. Identify the category honestly — does the item contain a battery, food, cosmetics, medicine, a blade, alcohol, used material, or possible CITES material?
2. Open Japan Customs' export page Japan Customs — export restrictions (official) and confirm it may leave Japan.
3. Check your own country's import rules for that specific category — the destination's customs or health authority, not a blog.
4. Check the carrier's dangerous-goods and acceptance rules, especially for batteries and alcohol.
5. If any answer is "restricted" and you can't confirm the conditions, don't buy it. A held parcel costs more than the item you skipped.

The safest buying route is still useless if the item is restricted at either end. For ordinary figures and hobby goods, Solaris Japan is one direct-shop comparison; for regulated categories, check the rules first and do not rely on any shop button.

The honest bottom line

Most ordinary Japanese goods ship without drama. The trouble concentrates in a handful of categories — batteries hidden in gadgets, food, cosmetics, medicines, blades, alcohol, secondhand items and CITES material — and every one of them can be stopped on export, on import, or both. No service removes that, and a seizure is not refundable.

If you have decided your item is clear and you just need to get it out of Japan, the practical next steps are choosing a route in proxy service or forwarding address and, if you are buying new and in-print, checking whether you can skip a service entirely in Japanese shops that ship overseas directly. Check the category first; buy second.