RetireJapan

tokyojoe wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 2:40 pm I bring back about a year's worth of cheese, plenty of smoked salmon and breakfast
cereals when I go - I would estimate I maybe get a 7000~10,000 yen saving per suitcase without trying too hard.

Is that allowed? Have you ever had your suitcase inspected at Japanese customs?

Tanuki wrote: ↑Fri Aug 30, 2019 11:28 am

I invested in a hair clipper which cost me initially 4000 yen but saved me between 1000- 1500 per haircut( sometimes I wanted that wet shave) .So after one year I am saving.
3000-4500 per year.

-Hair clipper for me too. Great savings over fifteen years or so, haircut can be done at home anytime.
-Quaker Oats from Amazon. I think it's a regular on this forum.

You can get a 4kg box of Quaker oats from Costco for much cheaper than Amazon.

adamu wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:51 pm

tokyojoe wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 2:40 pm I bring back about a year's worth of cheese, plenty of smoked salmon and breakfast
cereals when I go - I would estimate I maybe get a 7000~10,000 yen saving per suitcase without trying too hard.

Is that allowed? Have you ever had your suitcase inspected at Japanese customs?

I looked into this as I wanted to do similar, if not to the same extent. Value wise, from memory you have a 200 000 yen allowance and any individual item worth less than 10 000 is not included in that. So unless they deemed that you were bringing stuff in to sell on, that should not be a problem.

There are a myriad of rules on food products but basically highly processed seems to be OK while ‘raw’ is not. So milk bad, cheese good. Not sure about smoked salmon.

adamu wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:51 pm

tokyojoe wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2019 2:40 pm I bring back about a year's worth of cheese, plenty of smoked salmon and breakfast
cereals when I go - I would estimate I maybe get a 7000~10,000 yen saving per suitcase without trying too hard.

Is that allowed? Have you ever had your suitcase inspected at Japanese customs?

When I first moved to Japan I seemed to have my luggage inspected almost every time I came through,
but recently not at all. Bear in mind that a large number of Japanese will be bringing some sort of foodstuffs
with them in the form of omiyage, so it is normal. There will be some things that aren't allowed (off the top
of my head, any meat products (worried about African Swine Fever), citrus fruits (again worried about some disease impacting
the domestic growers etc.) Last time I checked the immigration dept didn't seem to have a clear black and white list,
but they did flag up a few things they don't permit. It is unlikely that you will go over the value limit (20 man yen ?)
with food (slightly low in value compared to some other products and slightly bigger / bulkier) so the stuff will be presumed for
personal use unless you filled your suitcase with hundreds of say very small bottle of olive oil or something like that.
As Beaglehound states below, basically speaking food that is a little processed will probably be okay with a few exceptions.
Just in case you're interested the stuff I've been bringing in recently includes: decaffeinated tea, chocolate (Swiss Lindt
bar that costs 550 yen here sells for 200 yen in UK (bring in 20 of those and you are already 7000 yen up!), breakfast cereals,
organic tomato puree, cheese (get the vacuum sealed hard cheese will last a v. long time in the fridge), biscuits for cheese, pitta bread (freeze on arrival) , smoked salmon, dried fruit ... I also brought rice in in the past (I prefer Basmati etc., and again
it seems to be cheaper in the UK ).

The money saving is one aim for me, but the other one is the quality of slightly processed foods such a s cereal bars,
breakfast cereals is better in the UK than Japan in my opinion. Obviously it is better to avoid processed food completely, but sometimes in a busy life they can be convenient. There was something of a revolution in the UK maybe 30 years or so ago when consumers rejected artifical additives / colouring, so now such foods, although processed, often don't contain anything you don't want . I get the impression that particular culinary revolution has occurred yet in Japan. For example I have a Nakd cashew cookie cereal bar in front of me as I type this , the ingredients Cashew nuts and dates, and that's all! Good luck finding something like that made in Japan !!

What about the cost to the environment of our flights?

How do we factor that in?

Or are we too selfish to do so?

Thanks for the responses re: customs. Will have to give it a try next time!

About flights and the environment: I wonder how far things can go in terms of individual restraint. It seems to require massive regulatory change on an international scale. Or alternative technologies to be developed - electric flights, supersonic trans-continental subterranean trains...

One thing's for sure, long-haul flight are expensive. But I'd guess that most expats would consider trips home to be a necessity, rather than a fixed expense that can be skipped. Reducing regular business travel could be argued for, but that would increase costs for the irregular travellers.

Not an option for many people, but one trick is to arrange a business trip to home country, and take holiday around it. That makes the flights free.

Good points above.

Greta?

ricardo wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2019 4:56 am What about the cost to the environment of our flights?

How do we factor that in?

Or are we too selfish to do so?

I should emphasize that this is not a way to make money! The average cost of a flight ticket is say 12 man yen,
while the largest financial saving I would expect to make from shopping for cheaper consumables in the UK in the manner described above is 1 man yen, so there is only ever an overall financial loss. The point is that if you are going back anyway,
well this is one way you can offset the financial cost a little.

The subject of whether or not we should be flying is a whole other subject in itself of course, but I agree with adamu's comment that it feels a bit more like a necessity than a luxury when concerned with going back to one's home country for a family visit. I don't personally fly anywhere else privately, but do fly for business occasionally (again about once a year). If I lived in France instead of Japan I wouldn't be flying home, I would use one of the alternative modes of transport that are available (I have travelled many times between the UK and France, but never by plane).

I also buy quite some stuff (usually a suitcase) at home that is cheaper or difficult in availability if I already have to fly back home for business anyway.

As mentioned the customs tax exemptions are incredible generous: items below 10,000 JPY dont count into the total at all, and above that the max is 200,000 JPY. Cheese is no problem to take with, stuff like ham and salami will get confiscated.

I also once had my lindt chocolate balls inspected/opened, but that was 7 years ago.