Official Veterinarians (OVs) are the only vets authorised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to sign the document required to travel with your dog or cat to Japan.

All of our vets have gone through the rigorous training to become OVs and are authorised from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to perform different tasks on behalf of the UK Government. Completing this Health Certificate is one of them.

All imports of pets into Japan must be notified to the Japanese Animal Quarantine Service (AQS) no later than 40 days before the scheduled date of export.

After notifying the Japanese authorities, you will receive a document called “Approval of import inspection of animals” and an Approval Number.

You can find further information here: http://www.maff.go.jp/aqs/english/animal/dog/index.html

Each pet must be identified with a microchip transponder, in order to identify univocally the pet.

In order to export your pet to Japan, you need to state the purpose for the animal to be exported (i.e.: pet, commercial, etc).

Your pet must be examined by a vet immediately before embarkation (preferably within 48 hours).

Dogs and cats must be vaccinated against rabies twice or more after microchip implanting and must be at least 91 days old at the time of first vaccination.

The second rabies vaccination must be more than 30 days after the first vaccination (the date of the first vaccination is counted as day 0) AND within the immunity period of the first vaccination.

A blood test to confirm the efficacy of the vaccination against rabies must be taken before travelling to Japan.

The test can be done from the day of the SECOND rabies vaccination and at least 180 days before travelling to Japan.

Dogs and cats should be vaccinated with the core vaccines and treated for external (fleas, ticks) and internal (nematodes, cestodes) parasites.