Can you bring food on a plane?

Food on flights in and from Japan

The rule for food comes from the Civil Aviation Bureau's list of restricted items. On international flights its liquids list applies as well.

Getting food onto the plane is the easy part. Japan does not let meat, most fresh fruit or most fresh vegetables into the country. That includes a ham sandwich, a meat bun or the leftovers of your in-flight meal, even when it was bought at a duty-free shop.

Bento, miso, mentaiko and canned food: what the list names

Japan's liquids list goes through food shelf by shelf. Its Japanese-language edition names far more products than the English one.

Bento sauce, packaged rice and ready meals

The list excepts a small quantity of sauce in packed lunches or snacks, so the sauce does not turn a bento into a restricted item. Ready meals are split by type: curry, stew, risotto and rice porridge in cans, jars, plastic containers or retort pouches are restricted, while cooked rice in a plastic container or vacuum pack is excepted from that row.

Condiments taken home as souvenirs

Bottled and tubed seasonings are restricted as a group. The English list names soy sauce, miso, gochujang, mayonnaise and ketchup. The Japanese-language edition adds dressing, dipping sauces, noodle soup base (tsuyu), wasabi and mustard paste, grated ginger and garlic, Tabasco and yuzu kosho. Dried seasonings and spices such as dried red pepper, pepper and curry powder are excepted.

Mentaiko, roe and pickles

Salted seafood is not treated as one group. Sea urchin, salmon roe, caviar and mentaiko in cans, jars or vacuum packs are listed as unrestricted unless they are packed with full liquid, and Narita's FAQ says the same of mentaiko. Pickles, pasted or boiled marine products and umeboshi are restricted, and the list in Japanese also names kimchi and shiokara. Dried ume is excepted.

Canned tuna: excepted in Japan, a liquid in Australia

Canned food is where the lists part. Japan restricts canned vegetables and fruit but excepts canned marine and meat products such as canned tuna, crab, salmon, ham and sausage, as cans that hold very little liquid. Australia's Home Affairs counts canned food with high liquid content, such as abalone, sardines or tuna, as a liquid. The TSA suggests a checked bag for canned foods, which can need additional screening.

Tofu, natto, cheese and eggs

Tofu and tokoroten come under a restricted row for foods packaged with water, joined in the Japanese edition by konnyaku and fresh yuba. Cheese, natto, eggs and fruit are on the unrestricted list, with cheese paste in a tube as the exception. Soft cheese is judged more strictly elsewhere: Australia's Home Affairs lists brie and camembert as gels, and the TSA limits Cheese (Creamy) to 3.4oz/100 ml.

• Snacks and sweets
• Fresh food, vegetables and fruit
• Glass bottles and jars

Food: the rule country by country

In the United States and Australia the authority's page lists food as allowed in carry-on.

Each row comes from that authority's own page. Airlines can be stricter, and the screening officer has the final say.

If security in Japan will not let food through

What to do

Move food to the bag you check in before you reach security. Narita Airport states that anything given up at the checkpoint is discarded and cannot be returned.

Buying food in Japan

Where to buy

Convenience stores sell full meals, heated at the counter.

Related items

• Bottled drinks (PET bottles)
• Water bottle / thermos
• Alcohol (bottles of sake, whisky, wine)
• Snacks and sweets
• Self-heating meals
• Baby formula and liquid milk