International Movers to Japan

Direction covered

Which way does the move go in these guides?

All of these guides assume you are leaving Britain for Japan. None covers the journey home.

Order of events

What happens, and in what order?

Your own arrival comes first, because Japan Customs counts its deadline from it; the container can follow.

1. Visa and passport. GOV.UK separates visits from long stays: “For long-term stays or to work or study, you must meet the Japanese government’s entry requirements.” The UK to Japan page adds the passport and cash points.
2. The airport declaration. On landing you give Customs a declaration in duplicate and keep a sealed copy. The customs page explains why that copy cannot be replaced.
3. The shipment. Goods may sail after you, but must clear within six months of your arrival. Japan Customs lists nine regional areas, among them Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe.
4. Delivery. A trade body guide says “full-size ocean containers cannot typically be delivered directly to residences” and that “Japanese houses and apartments are generally smaller than Western homes”. Measure doors and stairs before you pack large furniture.

Paperwork on the British side is covered by the UK customs documentation checklist; for dates to work back from, use the international moving checklist.

National rules

Where are the rules that apply everywhere in Japan?

Two guides hold them, because neither depends on which city you choose.

For background on what drives a sea-freight estimate, read the sea freight guide and the removals cost guide.

Port cities

Which city page fits my destination?

A sea shipment reaches a port first and finishes by road, so choose the page nearest the place you will live.

• The capital region: Tokyo, with its three container terminals and the customs and quarantine offices named in official lists.
• The bay next door: Yokohama, where the pier-by-pier container detail is clearest.
• Central Japan: Nagoya, whose port is run jointly by the city and Aichi Prefecture.

Scale first: “With a population of almost 123 million as of 2026” lives in Japan, and “foreign residents make up the remainder, estimated at 3,743,000 as of September 2025”. Most city and port facts below are Wikipedia text, and each page says which official pages we could not reach.

Other cities

Which other cities are named, and why have they no page?

These places have no page of their own. They are named because a port, a census figure or a quarantine office is worth knowing, not because we found a moving rule for them.

• Osaka and Kobe (Kansai): Wikipedia says “With an estimated population of 2.8 million as of October 1, 2025” for Osaka, and for Kobe “it remains Japan's fourth-busiest container port”, with 34 container berths at the port. The port page adds that Kobe “was the world's busiest container port from 1973 to 1978”. Japan Customs lists both cities as regional customs areas, and its lists name the Osaka, Kansai Airport and Kobe Quarantine Stations and a Kobe Plant Protection Station with Osaka and Kansai Airport branches. No Osaka port-authority or customs-counter page was readable, so Osaka has no page yet and the Kansai region is named here.
• Kawasaki, Saitama and Chiba: neighbours of Tokyo, covered on the Tokyo guide alongside the quarantine offices that carry their names.
• Kyoto, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Sendai: Wikipedia's list of Japanese cities gives roughly 1.5 million, 2.0 million, 1.6 million, 1.2 million and 1.1 million. Its prefecture tables carry 1 January 2008 dates, so these are rounded and may be out of date. We read no moving rule, port statistic or customs counter for any of them.

The national statistics site would be the better population source: its census page lists the 2020 and 2025 censuses but the city tables sit in files we did not open.

Every guide

All Japan guides, by topic and by city

Each guide ends with its sources. A city without a guide is named on the nearest larger page.

Questions

Common questions about moving to Japan