Can I bring Xanax to Japan?

By Natsuko Shibata, pharmacist licensed in Japan · Updated 2026-09-25

The short answer

Yes. Alprazolam, the active ingredient in Xanax, is a Class 3 psychotropic in Japan. It can be brought in for your own use, with no permit and, for most travelers, no paperwork at all.

Two lines decide whether you need anything:

  • 72 mg of alprazolam in total. Up to this, no documents. Above it, carry a certificate from your doctor.
  • One month's supply. Up to this, no application. Above it, you need an Import Confirmation before you travel.

For the general rules behind these two lines, see Bringing your medication to Japan.

What 72 mg looks like

The line is the total amount of the ingredient, so it depends on your tablet strength and how many you bring, not on the number of days:

  • 0.25 mg tablets: 288 tablets
  • 0.5 mg tablets: 144 tablets
  • 1 mg tablets: 72 tablets
  • 2 mg tablets: 36 tablets

Someone taking 0.5 mg three times a day is at 1.5 mg a day, so 72 mg is 48 days. Someone on 2 mg three times a day reaches it in 12 days.

Extended-release Xanax XR counts the same way, by total milligrams.

Above 72 mg: the certificate

If your total is over 72 mg, carry a certificate written by the doctor who prescribed the medicine. It needs to show your name, the name of your condition, why the medicine is needed for your treatment, the medicine with its strength and quantity, the doctor's signature and the date. A copy of your prescription that shows these things is usually enough.

Nothing is submitted in advance. You keep the certificate with the medicine and show it if asked.

Above one month: the Import Confirmation

This is a separate rule under Japan's general medicine-import law, and it applies to every prescription medicine, not just psychotropics. Bringing more than one month's supply means applying online for an Import Confirmation (Yunyu Kakunin-sho) before you fly. The main guide explains where and how.

A three-month supply of 0.5 mg three times a day (135 mg) needs both: the certificate and the Import Confirmation.

Other benzodiazepines and sleep medicines

The same two-line structure applies to the rest of the class. The document-free totals for the ones people ask about most:

The full table is published by the Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Bureau (link at the end). Antidepressants such as sertraline (Zoloft) and escitalopram (Lexapro) don't appear on the Narcotics Control Department's list of controlled substances, so only the one-month rule applies to them.

Carrying it

  • Original packaging with the pharmacy label. Loose tablets in a pill organizer can't be checked against a dose, so the officer can't confirm you're within the one-month rule.
  • Hand luggage, carried by you. Posting it is a different and stricter process.
  • Certificate and any Import Confirmation with the medicine.

Getting alprazolam in Japan

Alprazolam is prescribed in Japan, under the brand names Solanax and Constan and as a generic, and any licensed doctor can prescribe it. There is no registration system as there is for Concerta. But a few things differ from what you may be used to.

  • Strengths are 0.4 mg and 0.8 mg tablets. There is no 1 mg or 2 mg tablet and no extended-release form. A Japanese doctor who continues you on it will be working in those units.
  • The approved use is narrower. In Japan the label covers anxiety, tension, depressed mood and sleep disturbance in psychosomatic conditions. Panic disorder is not on the label. Whether to prescribe it anyway is a decision left entirely to the prescribing doctor.
  • Prescriptions are limited to 30 days at a time, and the insurance system discourages long-term benzodiazepine prescribing. A doctor here may prefer to reduce rather than continue, and that is their decision.
  • Prescriptions expire in four days, including the day they're issued.

Bring an English letter from your prescriber with the diagnosis, the dose, and how long you have taken it. If you've been on alprazolam for a long time, say so; stopping abruptly is a medical question, and a doctor here needs to know the history to handle it.

Before you travel

  • Add up your total milligrams and compare with 72 mg.
  • Count days of supply against one month.
  • Get a prescription copy or certificate in English.
  • Keep everything in original packaging.
  • If you take more than one psychotropic, check each one separately against its own line.

The Japan Medication Entry Check

If Xanax is one of several medicines you're bringing, the Japan Medication Entry Check is a written review of your whole list by a licensed pharmacist in Japan. We go through each item, tell you which category it falls into and what paperwork it needs, with links to the official pages, and explain how that category of medicine is generally handled here. You file the Import Confirmation yourself; we don't file it for you. It isn't an official ruling, and it isn't a decision about your treatment. The price is US$200, with additional items at US$20 each.

See the Entry Check — US$200

Official sources

I am a pharmacist. I cannot diagnose you or tell you to stop a medicine your doctor has prescribed.