Filing Japan's Pet Import Notification and Getting the Export Certificate Right (2026)

The Final Hurdle: The Import Notification

Once you have completed the 180-day waiting period, passed the antibody test and booked your flights, the next step is to file an import notification with the Animal Quarantine Service (動物検疫所, AQS) at least 40 days before your pet arrives in Japan.

It is not just a heads-up. The notification is how AQS checks your documents in advance and assigns a quarantine officer to meet your flight. Filing it late — or filing it with errors and running out of time to correct them — can stop your pet from entering the country as planned.

First, a Word About the Name "ANIPAS"

If you have been reading older guides, you have probably seen Japan's system referred to as ANIPAS. The name is out of date: ANIPAS was integrated into NACCS — Japan's import/export and port information processing system, whose animal quarantine section handles these filings — back in October 2013. There is no separate ANIPAS portal to log into today, and any walkthrough that shows an ANIPAS login screen is describing a system that no longer exists.

What actually happens for a pet owner is this:

• You notify AQS of your arrival plan (輸入予定届出書), either online through the animal quarantine section of NACCS or by email using the form linked from the AQS import guide
• AQS reviews the notification and issues an Approval of Import Inspection of Animals, which you carry when you travel
• You answer follow-up questions from the AQS office at your arrival airport by email

NACCS requires a user ID, which takes time to arrange, and MAFF publishes a manual and a video for first-time applicants. If that setup feels heavy for a single pet, the email route is a legitimate alternative and is what many individual owners use.

Timeline: Where the 40 Days Sits

⚠️ Count the 40 days from arrival in Japan, not from your departure gate. Notifications filed later than that are, in principle, not accepted. Once a notification is in the system, some changes cannot be made at all — moving the arrival date earlier, adding an animal, swapping the animal, or any change after the scheduled date — while other details can be amended with the "Modification on Notification of Import of Animals" form, by email or through NACCS. Submit it after your tickets are confirmed, and leave enough room to correct anything AQS flags. If the detention facility at your arrival airport is full, AQS may also ask you to move your arrival date or fly into a different port.

What You Need Before You Start

Gather these first; most hold-ups come from finding a mismatch halfway through:

• Identity details of the person filing, with the name exactly as printed in the passport
• Address and phone number, including a Japanese number if you already have one
• Microchip number and implantation date, exactly as they appear on the chip certificate
• Rabies vaccination records for both doses: dates, vaccine type, product name, manufacturer and how long the vaccine remains effective
• Antibody test report: sampling date, the name of the designated laboratory and the measured titre
• Arrival flight details: airport, flight number and local arrival date and time
• Pet details: species, breed (write "mixed breed" if that is what the paperwork says), sex, date of birth and coat colour

If any of that is still uncertain — for example, the antibody test was done at a laboratory whose designation has since been revoked — contact the AQS office at your arrival airport before you file, not after.

The Exporting Country's Certificate: Form AC, Form AB — and Why Old Guides Say "Form A/B"

Older guides describe Japan as requiring "Form A" from rabies-free regions and "Form B" from everywhere else. Those were real forms once: until March 2018 MAFF's recommended certificate came as Form A and Form B (in three parts). They were replaced by single-piece forms, and using the old layout today is what causes trouble at the quarantine counter.

What Japan actually asks for is a certificate issued by the government agency of the exporting country — the body that corresponds to AQS in Japan — carrying a defined set of information:

1. The animal's individual details, including date of birth or age
2. Microchip number and the date it was implanted
3. Vaccination dates, vaccine type, product name, manufacturer, and the period the vaccine is effective
4. Blood sampling date, antibody titre and the name of the designated laboratory (non-designated regions only)
5. The result and date of the pre-export clinical inspection
6. For pets from the designated regions, the statement covering the residence rule

MAFF publishes recommended certificate layouts that cover all of this — Form AC for pets from non-designated regions and Form AB for pets from the designated regions. Using the right one is the simplest way to avoid omissions, though your own country's official certificate format is equally acceptable as long as it carries the same information and the endorsement. The old Form A / Form B set is also still accepted, if that is what your authority issues.

Two practical points:

• The certificate rests on a clinical inspection carried out within 10 days before boarding, so it cannot be ready 40 days ahead — it is not part of the early notification. AQS recommends emailing a copy to the quarantine office before you travel so officers can check it in advance.
• Electronic certificates have been accepted since December 2022 where the issuing government gives advance notice; the United States, Brazil and Spain are the countries that have done so, from 26 March 2024.

Who Endorses the Certificate in Your Country

The government stamp is the part owners most often get wrong. These are the usual authorities; if your country is not listed, ask AQS or your national veterinary authority which body issues the certificate.

🌐 AQS publishes multi-language guidance for travellers — English, Chinese, Korean and others — at https://www.maff.go.jp/aqs/languages/info.html. It is handy when the exporting vet reads a language other than English.

After You File: What AQS Does With It

Officers check the notification against the requirements and then issue the Approval of Import Inspection of Animals. The reply is not instant: allow several weeks and file as early as you reasonably can rather than sitting on the 40-day deadline. Two outcomes other than approval are possible:

• A request for correction — AQS emails you about what is missing or inconsistent and you resubmit. This is the common case, and it is why a buffer matters.
• The notification cannot be approved — usually a mismatch in the microchip number, the sampling dates or the laboratory used.

If you have heard nothing before your 10-day window opens, email the AQS office for your arrival airport directly rather than guessing. Their addresses are on the AQS website.

The Last Documents: 10 Days Before Boarding

Two things happen in the final stretch, and neither can be pulled earlier:

1. Clinical inspection — the vet examines your pet, confirms no clinical signs of rabies (and, for dogs, no signs of leptospirosis) and checks that the microchip reads correctly
2. Certificate and endorsement — the certificate is completed and stamped by your national authority

Then you fly with the originals; photocopies alone are not accepted at the quarantine counter.

Mistakes That Cause the Most Delays

The Bottom Line

The filing itself is straightforward. What decides whether it goes smoothly is the order of operations: notification 40 days before arrival, inspection and certificate in the final 10 days, and every number on every document identical to the microchip certificate. If anything is uncertain — a revoked laboratory, an expiring antibody test, a change of flight — email the AQS office for your arrival airport early, while there is still time to fix it.