Japan Travel Advice & Safety

You’re matter to all community legislation and penalties, such as people that might seem severe by Australian requirements. Research neighborhood guidelines ahead of travelling.

If you are arrested or jailed, the Australian Government will do what it can to help you in just the scope of our Consular Providers Charter. But we can not get you out of issues or out of jail.

See the Australian Embassy Tokyo web page for more information and facts about arrests in Japan.

Be knowledgeable that you is not going to be permitted to make a telephone connect with if you are arrested in Japan. You can also be detained for up to 23 days without the need of any formal demand.

Drugs

Authorities can arrest and demand you if they come across trace quantities of illegal prescription drugs in your blood or urine.

Extra information and facts:

Household regulation

Japanese family regulation, which include divorce and baby custody, is quite distinctive to Australian regulation. For instance, joint custody of a kid right after divorce is not a lawful possibility, and there are limitations to access for a non-custodial guardian. The Relatives Courts in Japan usually take into account that it is in a child’s finest pursuits for them to continue being in their “usual position of residence”. Courts as a result ordinarily give sole custody to the mum or dad that has taken treatment of the kid most just lately.

If you are concerned in custody or other family members disputes, consult with a law firm before you depart Australia or if you are presently in Japan. We have developed some standard facts about problems close to custody, child abduction and parental legal rights. 

Australia and Japan are each get-togethers to The Hague Conference on the Civil Facets of Intercontinental Boy or girl Abduction.

If you’re anxious that your baby has been wrongfully eliminated or detained in Japan, contact the Lawyer-General’s Department in Australia.

Far more data:

Work law

Some work agents may perhaps mislead and motivate foreigners to work in Japan without having:

• the right visa
• money arrangements in position

This could go away you open to exploitation and prosecution.

Authorities have arrested Australians for doing work in the amusement sector even though in Japan on vacationer visas.

If you want to vacation to Japan for operate:

• check out the correct mother nature of the get the job done supplied
• get the appropriate visa right before arriving in Japan
• get authorized guidance right before signing any contract

Extra information and facts:

Police powers

Police can end you on the street, need identification and search you and your possessions.

If you are in a public place, police can seize:

• knives longer than 5.5cm, which include blades and penknives
• firearms
• any other weapons or matters you could use as weapons
• medications
• any merchandise they moderately suspect you stole or have unlawfully

If they obtain any of these items on you, it is most likely that police will detain you.

If you happen to be arrested, police can detain you for up to 23 days without having demand, together with for offences you could possibly consider are minor. Law enforcement may maintain you for weeks or months although they examine and undertake lawful proceedings.

The first police job interview could last various hrs. Police could document it in composing relatively than electronically.

Beneath Japanese regulation, you can:

• continue to be silent
• accessibility legal illustration
• have an interpreter supplied

Having said that, in Japan police can issue you with no your lawyer current.

English interpreters may be substandard. Get a list of English-speaking lawyers all-around Japan from the Australian Embassy website.

Other legislation

If you happen to be visiting Japan quick-phrase as a vacationer or for enterprise, you will have to often carry your passport.

If you dwell in Japan, you have to generally carry your home card.

It really is unlawful to:

• obtain or drink alcoholic beverages if you might be underneath 20 several years previous
• travel with any alcoholic beverages in your bloodstream
• make it possible for somebody beneath the influence of alcoholic beverages to travel a car in which you happen to be a passenger

The following actions are also illegal:

• importing or possessing firearms or other weapons devoid of a permit.
• smoking on the streets in some elements of Tokyo and other metropolitan areas.
• utilizing UHF-CB radios (walkie-talkies) that you should not satisfy Japanese standards, these as all those procured outside Japan.
• resisting arrest or other actions that impede an official’s responsibilities.
• traveling a drone with no a allow in many spots of Japan. Rigorous regulations use underneath aviation rules.
• getting unlawful prescription drugs in your human body (detected by urine screening).
• consuming on the streets on particular days, this sort of as all-around Shibuya on Halloween and New Year’s Eve.

Penalties

Penalties for critical crimes, this sort of as murder, involve the dying penalty.

Other sentences can contain:

• hefty fines
• lengthy jail phrases with hard labour
• deportation