-Strict penalties for passengers carrying illicit meat products 

Measures Tightened to Prevent Passengers Carrying Meat Products Illegally from 
Overseas

Japan's Animal Quarantine Service (Head office in Yokohama, Kanagawa 
prefecture, AQS) is to strengthen its import inspections to detect meat and 
meat products in passenger's carry-on luggage especially from Asia. AQS 
isolated infectious African Swine Fever (ASF) viruses from unheated sausages 
brought into Japan. ASF is a contagious disease affecting pigs and would lead 
to a serious production and economic loss, resulting in a devastating impact on 
the livestock industry. Recently, outbreaks have been recorded in East Asia. 

For the full multimedia release, click here: 
https://www.prnasia.com/mnr/aqsvn_20190422.shtml

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190415/2435914-1-a  
Caption: Dogs trained to detect passengers’ hand-luggage

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190415/2435914-1-b  
caption: Dog trained to detect international postal deliveries

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190415/2435914-1-c  
caption: Detected meat product

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20190415/2435914-1-d   
Caption: Important Notification from Animal Quarantine Service

In order to prevent the disease invasion, AQS inspect carry-on luggage with 
detector dogs focusing on flights from Asian countries affected by ASF. In 
addition, various measures such as poster announcements have been taken to 
discourage overseas visitors from bringing meat products into Japan. The 
message states that violators shall be punished with penal servitude for a term 
of up to three years or a fine of up to one million Japanese Yen, so as to 
deter the visitors from breaking the law.

Considering that the ASF virus remains in existence in neighboring countries 
and the fact that the virus has been detected from meat products in passenger's 
carry-on luggage on many occasions, it has become necessary to introduce 
stronger measures for further prevention.

In specific, persons who intend to carry meat products into Japan without 
declaring them will be served with a warning notice. The notice contains 
clauses concerning the related laws and regulations, and the fact such violator 
has to make a pledge to understand the provisions of the laws and ordinances, 
and never repeat illegal import of meat products again. Records of violations 
will be put into a database including the information of violators' passport. 
Malicious cases, such as persons importing meat products repeatedly will be 
reported to the police, then may be prosecuted.

In its figures for 2017, the Service reported a cumulative 94,522 cases of 
travelers carrying goods in their luggage that were not approved for import, 
representing 119,113kg. 

Source: Animal Quarantine Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and 
Fisheries JAPAN