Carry-on or checked: where to put what you bought

Why this is the question people actually ask

The customs terminal produces one of two outcomes. Green and you walk through. Red and you are asked to present the goods. You do not get to know which in advance.

If a Red result arrives after your suitcase has gone down the belt, you have a problem that has nothing to do with the tax rules and everything to do with where you put things.

The working rule

Keep tax-free purchases where you can take them out until the customs step is finished. Everything else can be checked.

That is a practical rule, not a published one. Japanese customs has not published where the terminals sit in each airport, so we cannot tell you whether the step falls before or after the check-in desks at your terminal. Until that is published, the conservative assumption costs you nothing and the optimistic one can cost you the refund.

When it will not fit in a cabin bag

Some of the things people buy in Japan tax-free — a suitcase, a rice cooker, a bicycle — cannot be hand luggage. There is no published procedure for that case yet. Ask at the shop when you buy, and ask at the airport before you check the item in, while it is still in your possession.

This is one of the things Refund Japan will be recording at Narita, Haneda and Kansai from the first day the system runs.