Bought too many souvenirs in Japan? Where to get an extra bag today, baggage fees and shipping home

The quickest fix is a foldable holdall or a large tote that takes the overflow as a second bag. The 100-yen-shop chain DAISO has a store finder on its official site, and its DAISO app includes a stock search, so you can check a nearby branch before you walk over. The lifestyle store Hands also lists foldable holdalls in its online store. If you need a whole new suitcase, see our guide to a lost or broken suitcase.

Flying from Narita? TRAVEL SHOP MILESTO, on the 4th floor of the Terminal 1 Central Building before security, opens 08:00–20:00, describes itself as a shop full of travel goods and is listed as tax-free. The airport's listing warns that the prices it shows may have changed, so ask in the shop.

Before you buy, decide whether the extra bag will travel in the cabin or in the hold. In the cabin it counts against your carry-on limit; checked, it may count as an extra piece. The next section shows what that can mean.

Your ticket sets your allowance, so look it up in your booking first. ANA's international rules are a useful benchmark. In the cabin you may bring one carry-on bag of up to 115 cm in total (55 × 40 × 25 cm) on aircraft with 100 seats or more, plus one personal item, with a combined weight of up to 10 kg. For flights from 1 July 2026 the personal item must be within 40 × 30 × 20 cm and fit completely under the seat in front, following industry-wide guidelines of the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan — so a bulging shopping bag may not pass as a personal item.

For checked bags, ANA allows up to 23 kg per piece in Economy and Premium Economy and up to 32 kg in Business and First, each no more than 158 cm in total including wheels and handle. How many pieces are free depends on the fare: between 0 and 2 in Economy. If a Japan domestic flight is part of an international itinerary, the international rules apply to it.

Going over costs money. Paid in Japan, ANA charges JPY 20,000 per extra piece on flights between areas (for example Japan–US) and JPY 10,000 within an area (for example Japan–Thailand). A bag of more than 23 kg up to 32 kg costs JPY 6,000; more than 32 kg up to 45 kg, or more than 158 cm up to 292 cm, costs JPY 20,000. Bags over 292 cm or 45 kg aren't accepted, and on some routes, including Paris, London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Sydney, each piece is limited to 32 kg.

Other airlines, low-cost carriers in particular, set their own allowances and fees, so check your airline's page. Weighing your bags at the inn the night before saves repacking at the check-in counter.

If you'd rather not carry it, post it. For packages of 2 kg or more, Japan Post offers International Parcel Post, sent by airmail, economy air (SAL) or surface mail, up to 30 kg (limits vary by country), and EMS, its fastest service, for up to 30 kg to more than 120 countries and territories, with tracking, from 1,450 yen. Under 2 kg, small packets cost less than EMS. Some methods can be temporarily suspended for a destination, so check your country on Japan Post's rates and delivery-times page first.

Prepare the label online. Japan Post says handwritten labels can no longer be used for sending goods, because customs data has to be sent electronically in advance. Its free International Mail My Page service works on a phone: you enter the details, receive a 2D code by email and scan it at a Yu-pri Touch terminal in a post office to print the label, or show the printing number at the counter. The label goes in a pouch half the size of an A4 sheet, so the package has to be at least that big.

Customs needs a detailed list. Goods travel with a CN22 or CN23 customs declaration giving the name, quantity and price of each item, and Japan Post asks for a detailed description in English, French or a language used in the destination country. Antiques, plants such as seeds and bulbs, and swords are among goods that often need export permission in advance; ask your local customs office.

Some souvenirs can't be posted anywhere. Japan Post's examples include perfume, spray cans, sunblock, nail polish, hair tonic, items containing over 24% alcohol, electronic cigarettes and portable battery chargers; lithium batteries are accepted only inside devices that meet its conditions, and not to every country. Food rules depend on the destination — see our guide to Japanese snacks and souvenirs to take home — and Japan Post may refuse a reused box printed with pictures of meat, vegetables or fruit.

If everything can fly home as checked baggage, you only have to get it to the airport. Yamato Transport's Airport TA-Q-BIN delivers to the airport you depart from, not the one you arrived at. Send it by two days before departure (three from some areas) and collect it at the airport partner counter on the day with the sender's copy of the slip. Bags over 30 kg aren't accepted, the rate includes a 660 yen airport fee, and you can't choose a delivery time slot or have the fare paid on arrival.

JAL ABC offers a similar service to Narita, Haneda, Chubu Centrair and Kansai: you book by phone or online, a driver collects the bag on the date you choose, and you pick it up at the airport counter with your copy of the delivery slip, or with your passport if you've lost it. Rates depend on size; from the Kanto area to Narita, for example, size 120 is ¥2,700 and size 160 is ¥3,580. JAL ABC doesn't accept fragile items, liquids (including alcohol and condiments), fresh produce, precision equipment, works of art or bags that aren't properly sealed, so keep the souvenirs you worry about with you.

For sending a box or a soft bag by Yu-Pack, post office counters sell Yu-Pack packaging: boxes from size 60 to size 120 (110 to 420 yen) and holdall covers (210 and 320 yen). Japan Post notes that boxes up to size 100 have small gaps at the bottom corners that you may need to tape, and that packaging can't be returned once sold.

At the ryokan, ask the front desk the evening before you leave. Some inns build this in: at Yuwaku Hyakurakuso near Kanazawa you can send your luggage to Kanazawa Station when you check out and go sightseeing hands-free. At remote inns, plan around the transport: the free shuttle to Yachi Onsen in the Towada area takes one suitcase per person, so it's easier to arrive with one case and do the heavy shopping afterwards.

If tax-free purchases are in a forwarded bag, collect it before you go to the tax-free kiosk, because all of them must be with you there (next section).

Since 1 November 2026, tax-free shopping in Japan works as a refund. You pay the tax-inclusive price at a tax-free shop, and the consumption tax is refunded after customs confirms at departure that the goods are leaving Japan. Purchases of ¥5,000 or more (excluding tax) per day at the same store qualify, but only in quantities you can personally carry out of Japan, all of them, when you leave. For the whole process, see our guide to Japan's new tax-free refund system.

The special sealed packaging for food, drink and cosmetics has been abolished, so you can repack them to save space — but if you eat, drink or use them in Japan, you can't get the refund. Customs checks per receipt: if even one item from a receipt is missing, nothing on that receipt is refunded.

Within 90 days of purchase, present your passport at a tax-free procedure terminal in the international departure lobby before you check in. You must have all your tax-free goods with you, and a bag can't be taken back once it's checked. So pack every tax-free item in one bag you can open quickly, complete the kiosk step (or Visit Japan Web, available to temporary visitors at Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka, New Chitose and Naha), and only then check that bag in. Leave plenty of time: if you give up an inspection because your flight is boarding, the procedure counts as not completed. And don't post tax-free goods home — they have to leave Japan with you.

Carry fragile things in the cabin where you can. ANA asks passengers not to check in fragile items such as watches and glass, electronic devices such as computers and cameras, or valuables. It says it isn't liable if ceramics, glass or alcohol are damaged because of an inherent defect, nor for damage caused by excess weight or volume. Remember that the cabin limit still applies: 10 kg in total on ANA.

If something breakable has to go in the hold, give it a box. JAL ABC counters at Narita, Haneda Terminal 3, Chubu Centrair and Kansai sell four sizes of carton box, from S (398 × 218 × 177 mm, 310 JPY) to LL (648 × 413 × 411 mm, 590 JPY). Its departure-lobby counters at Haneda Terminal 3, Chubu Centrair and Kansai also sell a FRAGILE CONTAINER made under Japan Airlines' editorial supervision for breakable articles: 650 × 400 × 460 mm, with handles on both sides, for 3,300 JPY.

Wrapping protects a checked case from water, scratches and theft. JAL ABC wraps bags at Narita Terminal 2 (3F, 07:00–21:00) and Kansai Terminal 1 (4F, 06:30–23:00), and for a limited time at Haneda Terminal 3, for 1,500 JPY up to 160 cm and 2,500 JPY up to 240 cm, tax included.

Inside the box or case, wrap each piece separately, fill the gaps so nothing can move, and put the heaviest things at the bottom. Sake and whisky have their own rules for the cabin and the hold; see our guide to taking sake and whisky home.