
Posted byWorking in Japan2 years ago
ArchivedStickied postModerator of r/movingtojapan

Bringing your pet to Japan is possible, but it requires time and a significant amount of money. It is a complicated process that requires a lot of planning and a lot of patience.

NOTE: If you are importing a dog or cat from Iceland, Fiji, Hawaii, Guam, Australia or New Zealand, you are not subject to the procedures outlined below because your country is rabies-free. Please check with MAFF for specifics. (UPDATE: First-hand account on AUS > Japan procedure now included in this thread.)

If you want to bring your pet to Japan, you must address two things: Importation procedure and housing.

This thread deals mainly with the procedures necessary for dogs and cats. For birds and small mammals, please check with MAFF for specifics.


You need at least 210 days lead time (from first vaccine to day of arrival), if not more, prior to your move to prevent your animal being quarantined. If you are serious about bringing your pet with you, begin quarantine procedures NOW. Find a vet that specializes in international pet travel, or research an independent pet travel specialist in your area to help facilitate the process. There is a tremendous amount of paperwork that must be completed exactly as requested by the Japanese quarantine officials, and one wrong piece of paperwork results in an automatic 180 day quarantine.

The procedure, which is outlined throughly on the MAFF website, is roughly as follows:

  1. Your pet must be microchipped and given the first of two rabies vaccinations. If your pet is already microchipped and has an UNEXPIRED rabies vaccine, proceed to step 2. If you cannot provide accurate documentation that the rabies vaccine is still valid/unexpired, you must obtain the first rabies vaccination because you must have documentation. Ensure your microchip is ISO 11784 and 11785 compliant. If it is not, your pet must be re-chipped. The chip must be implanted prior to the first rabies vaccine. The vaccine must be an inactivated (killed) virus vaccine or recombinant/modified vaccine.

  2. Obtain the second rabies vaccination. This must be done a minimum of 30 days after the first vaccination. This second vaccine must be valid/unexpired upon arrival in Japan.

  3. Perform the FAVN / rabies antibody blood test. For BEST RESULTS have your pet's blood drawn 3 weeks AFTER the second rabies vaccine. This is when antibody levels will be highest in the animal's blood. One of our cats had to be tested THREE TIMES because she "failed" the FAVN test by 0.2-0.3 percentage points. These tests are not cheap. Your FAVN can ONLY be tested by a veterinary lab approved by Japanese immigration ONLY. A list of the designated labs can be found here. This requires you or your vet shipping the blood sample (properly packed) to the lab and paying for their testing. You will receive results after about one month, and you MUST have the results prior to arriving in Japan. The day the blood test is performed begins the 180 day quarantine clock and is counted as DAY 1. Upon DAY 180, if the pet passed the FAVN with an antibody level of 0.5 IU/ml, the pet is cleared for arrival in Japan. If the pet arrives in Japan before the 180 day period is up, it will be subjected to quarantine — either the remainder of the 180 day period, with valid FAVN and paperwork, or 180 days with invalid FAVN or wrong paperwork.

Posted byWorking in Japan1 year ago
ArchivedStickied postModerator of r/movingtojapan

In the past few months, we've run into a pretty regular pattern on /r/movingtojapan - every three or four weeks we get a post complaining bitterly that the sub is mean, toxic, bitter, and so on, which contains precisely zero in the way of concrete examples of this and even less in the way of constructive suggestions for the sub.

These posts are almost always made by people who have never made any valuable input (often no input at all) to the sub in the past, the remainder being by people who quite rightly got short shrift when asking the sub to do basic google searches for them. The sheer extent to which the posters of these threads do not get it is demonstrated by the fact that they always include complaints about the lack of karma for most posts on the sub; good questions on this sub are rewarded with good answers, not imaginary internet points.

To reiterate, for the thousandth time: this is a sub for people who, after doing appropriate research, have specific questions about moving to Japan. It is designed to provide advice, not fawning encouragement, and while we delete egregious personal attacks, we also welcome posters giving fair and reasonable reality checks to questioners who are naive or poorly informed. Moving across the world is a big life decision, and there is zero value in a sub which is simply going to tell everyone to follow their dream, chase their rainbow and don't stop believing.

Looking through threads over the past few weeks, the sub is functioning exactly as intended; posts which can be solved with a google are locked, posts about specific issues are getting quality, solid answers for the most part, and posts which are more speculative are getting pretty decent life advice in them. I see zero hard evidence of this "Japan gatekeeping" trend, or "bitter expats keeping other foreigners out"; this is hardly unexpected, since I know that a couple of the most regular posters (and at least one of the mod team) have jobs which rely, in part, on encouraging foreigners to come here...

So, consider this notice that meta complaint posts about the sub are going to be deleted straight away from here on out. Constructive suggestions remain welcome (we're especially keen to add more info to the wiki, for example); if you have a specific complaint or issue about the sub, use the mod mail function; but if you just generally don't like how things are around here, please don't waste your time on a lengthy essay about how it's violence to tell starry-eyed Japanophiles that they need a bachelor's degree to get a working visa, because it's going straight in the bin.


Firstly, woo!

Now I've read all the guidance, and will be doing the givens such as investigating places to stay, learning as much of the language as possible, etc...

However what are your best tips for what I can prepare in the meantime, given I won't be going until August 2020?


Hi friends,

I'm more or less set in my plans but wanted to see what you guys think of it. I figure it'll also help anyone in a similar situation if they come across this thread in the future.

I started college in 2014 and left in 2016 deciding it wasn't for me. I went about my way with all kinds of money making methods and ideas/ventures that I was hoping to generate a decent amount of income from so that I could fund my dream of starting a life in Japan by enrolling in language school there.

It's not surprising to say that that plan fell through and none of my ideas/ventures came anywhere near fruitful enough to bring me closer to my goal (with the exception of crypto, but that's a story for another day).

It wasn't until very recently that I conceded "defeat" and realized that a degree is very highly regarded in Japan anyway by employers and the government for visa purposes. Not the mention, I'd be hard-pressed to find any employment opportunity after language school without any hard skills to begin with.

So, I decided fuck it, I've "wasted" the past 5 years out of high school trying to create this opportunity for myself, I'll just finish the degree I already started as quickly as possible by majoring in English and be off on my way to teach English in Japan.

Of course, even without having had the experience, I'm well aware that teaching English abroad is a "dead-end" job with very little room for career advancement if at all, but I've already spent the last 5 years screwing around career-wise so I'm just taking the path of least resistance in order to achieve my milestone/goal of experiencing life in Japan as a local.

From now til I've more or less exhausted my English teaching path though (a couple years from now), I plan to study on the side and when I do save enough money from teaching, enroll in an online computer science bachelor's program so that I can transition to a CS career after teaching.

I'm also well aware that even though I've visited Japan before, visiting and living are two different things. I'm not expecting Japan to be utopia, I just know that I fell in love with it after learning about the culture and everything about it, and fell even more in love with it when I finally visited in 2016. I just want to give it a go and see how I'll actually enjoy it.

What do you think? Are you in a similar situation? Have you gone through what I'm going through right now? Would love to hear your thoughts and where everyone's at right now.


Made a few posts a while ago which helped me realize how unrealistic my overall goals for the next few years are as of current. As such, I'm back again looking for more advise and/or snarky comments from people with a little more experience than me in such areas. Basically, I wanted to get into the Japanese Studies graduate program at Sophia University, however, my unrelated major and not so impressive GPA kept me from being accepted. Currently, based off whatever feedback and additional research I have done, I'm looking at either applying to either: Doshisha and Saitama University for graduate degrees in Japanese Studies/History/Language; or, applying to Sophia, Waseda, and Meiji for various undergraduate degrees if they will let me transfer in already having completed a B.A. in the States. I looked into Temple Japan seeing as its an American school, and undoubtedly easier to get into than Meiji for instance; however, they do not allow people who have already completed a degree to take the Japanese Language/Culture program. Basically, I mean to ask if going for a second B.A. is a logical/doable alternative for the time being to getting a masters degree as it could set me up with a more correlated topic from undergrad, a better GPA, and potential support for when I do again try and apply to graduate level courses in the future?


Hi! I'll be flying to Tokyo soon for university, and I was wondering which network is better- docomo or softbank? I've seen people complain about how softbank's reception is lousy but docomo's prices are expensive. Does anyone have tips on apply for data plans, as well as which networks are more reliable? Thank you!

P.S. I also have read a couple of articles on AU, but it doesn't seem like many people use it so I'm not entirely sure


I am studying for a semester in Nagoya this fall, and while I think I know everything I should be bringing, I want to ask advice if there is anything people regretted not bringing or something a bit less obvious that should definitely be brought.

What are some must do things while in Japan, especially Nagoya?

Any answers are highly appreciated. Thank you


Hi everyone, I will begin by thanking you all deeply even just for taking the time to read my question. I’m a 24 years old with a degree in Economics and I want to move to japan for a year to study Japanese. I already know the basics of Japanese and I saved enough money to get the student visa, but my question would essentially be: since I will be needing a part time job in order to sustain myself properly, it’s better to choose the school in Tokyo and find a baito there (more expensive but maybe more work opportunities and higher wages) or to some other less popular town (fewer foreigners, maybe less opportunities but way cheaper)

Thanks again, cheers


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