Can I bring fish or dried fish to Japan?

This is decided when you land in Japan, by the quarantine services. Airport security at your departure airport is a separate check.

Dried fish and other fish products that do not contain meat from livestock or eggs are not subject to inspection by the Animal Quarantine Service. An Animal Quarantine officer may still check on arrival that they do not contain meat.

Animal quarantine inspection

not required for fish products that contain no livestock meat or eggs

Check on arrival

an officer may check that the product contains no meat

Animals covered by animal quarantine

cloven-hoofed animals, horses, poultry, dogs, rabbits and bees

Egg as a minor ingredient (Standard 42)

excluded from quarantine when egg is not the principal ingredient

With fish, the Animal Quarantine Service looks at what else is in the pack.

Any meat in the recipe moves it to the meat rule

The exemption is written for fish products that contain no meat from livestock. The quarantine notice for arriving travellers names dumplings containing meat and gimbap among the meat products that cannot be brought in. A seafood dumpling or rice roll made with pork or ham is treated as a meat product, not as fish, unless it meets one of the Exclusion Criteria, such as the standard for sealed, retort-sterilised products.

Egg as a minor ingredient

Eggs, including eggshells, are on the Animal Quarantine Service's list of quarantine items, which is why its answer on fish mentions them. Its Exclusion Criteria then take out food in which eggs are not the principal ingredient, meaning the ingredient with the greatest proportion by weight, and give egg noodles, mayonnaise and dressings as examples.

Showing what is in the pack

A fish product that relies on the Exclusion Criteria, for example one bound with a little egg, comes with a duty for the person carrying it. If the Animal Quarantine Service asks at the time of importation whether the article qualifies, the importer presents documents or other evidence that it satisfies the criteria. The Service also tells importers to confirm the latest criteria on its website beforehand.