“Original packaging” for medications
“Original packaging” for medications
Hi all! Like I’m sure many of y’all do, I take a lot of medications to manage my conditions. I’ve gone through all of the official documentation, and I’m positive that I’m able to bring my medications with me as prescribed for the length of my stay in Japan.
However! Every page I’ve seen has strongly recommended that all medications remain in their original packaging so that I have the prescription with me. I have paper copies of all of the prescriptions, so it doesn’t seem like I would have to carry the terrible plastic bottles with me…would I?
I very much understand that it’s safer to keep everything strictly by the book, in their original containers, but those blasted orange plastic containers will take up an absolutely enormous amount of space in my bag (more than my clothing and toiletries combined). I use a wheelchair, and it’s so hard to carry large baggage as it is!
My thought is to put each medication into its own baggie, clearly labeled, with full documentation from my doctor, the prescription, photos, etc on paper to accompany it.
Have you risked transferring meds to smaller containers? How’d it go?
- 3 Replies
Similar here – Some meds are in smaller bottles so I carefully peel the label off the big botlle then transfer to a smaller bottle and re-attach the label. Saves plenty of space and still look legit.
I just came back from Japan and we just took all our medicines in the containers. I never had to show on the medicine, but I had to get permission to bring the medicine into Japan and I had all that paperwork from their health department that allows it to come in. I truly believe if I didn’t tell him I was bringing it they wouldn’t have known or cared and we would’ve walked right in.
We arrived back from Japan yesterday. My daughter carries a lot of medication for her spinal injury. I submitted the declaration for them and was told (by default) that there wasn’t a restriction because she was only carrying 28 day’s supply. However, like anywhere else, Customs have the right to inspect bags. If you transfer them out of the original packaging this could cause problems if you are inspected. The simplest thing is to take them in as purchased along with the alternative packaging and repackage them once you are clear of Customs. Remember that if you hit a problem, replacing your meds in Japan will be a) very very difficult and b) expensive and time consuming.
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