Customs & Immigration in Japan
While you don’t need a visa to get into Japan (depending upon where you are coming from), you do need Landing Permission, which is obtained upon arrival. On the plane, the stewards hand out “Disembarkment Questionaires”, 8×3 slips upon which you fill out your legal name, birthdate, nationality, occupation, reason for visiting, address & phone number of where you will be stayung, length of stay, passport number, and sign a declaration that you are not a criminal and are not bringing in any restricted goods.
After leaving the plane, you follow the mad crush on to a shuttle, which takes you to the arrivals area. From there, before you can reach the baggage claim, you have to go through Immigration. They look at your passport (signage indicated that there *may* possibly even be avenues of entry for people without passports), and your disembarkment questionaire. A stub from the questionaire is torn off, and stapled to your passport, along with your permission of landing stamp. And that’s it. Ced was asked to write down the last name of the person he was staying with. My officer didn’t say anything other than “Thank you.”
From there, its down an escolator to the baggage claim. Each baggage claim conveyor belt circles a carpetted platform upon which an Office Lady walks, holding a sign with a short list of passengers from that particular flight. Its a most unglamorous runway, but has that sort of feel nonetheless.
Luggage in hand, we approach Customs. There is a broadcast announcement being looped, indicating that due to the increase is “terrorism, muggings” and a third item I forget, security measures at Customs have been tightened They warn us that the procedure now takes longer than it used to, and thank us for our patience. Having flow in both Canada and the United States since September 11, 2001, this is the part I am most leary of. Not that we won’t make it through, but that it will be a complicated, illogical, and annoying process. The Customs agent asks to see our passports, and a few generic questions about our trip. When we tell him that we’re going to Tatebayashi, he breaks into a huge grin, and even laughs a bit. Its hard to tell if he’s pleased with our destination, or just amused, but either way it seems to put him in a good mood. He asks if we have anything to declare, and I mention the two bottles of liquor we’ve brought with us. Again, big grin and laughing. He indicates that we don’t need to declare alcohol. He wishes us a good trip, and we’re through.
Apart from waiting for our luggage to arrive, the entire process (Immigration and Customs) took about the same amount of time as obtaining our boarding pass and checking our luggage in at Pearson. There were no lines, and everyone we had to deal with was polite, professional, and *friendly*.
In short, it was a very positive way to begin a vacation.