Moving our dog to Japan (OCONUS PCS)
We’ve successfully moved our 13-year-old senior dog to Japan with us, and it’s the right decision for us. The process to get here hasn’t been easy. There were things we wished we knew sooner. As a new military spouse experiencing her first Permanent Change of Station (PCS), there has been a huge learning curve.
Here are some lessons I wished I knew sooner:
If you got your PCS orders and you know you want to explore moving with your pet, start the process right away, even if you’ve gotten a verbal order and not the official orders yet (we waited 3.5 months to get our official orders which delayed our process to get our pet importation process started). Even if the orders may fall through, still start the process.
Research Japan pet importation requirements and your new command’s guide for relocating with a pet. For us, I had this site bookmarked: https://www.okinawa.usmc-mccs.org/about and referred to it frequently. Get the approved microchip for your pet, the rabies vaccines, the FAVN test, advance notification to Animal Quarantine Service of expected flights, etc.
Start exploring and making phone calls and appointments to get your pet seen with a vet. Since Japan has a 6-month quarantine rule for your pet, the sooner you start, the sooner your pet get off quarantine (=freedom to be off base). Contact military veterinary treatment facilities if they could see your pet. I’ve found that it was cheaper and easeful to work with military vets rather than civilian vets, even if we had to commute longer to see the vets. Because my dog already has an acceptable microchip and the first vaccine already, we needed to visit the vet only twice (one to receive his second rabies vaccine and to get the rabies titers test done and the second appointment to get the pet health certificate a few days before we fly). Shoutout to the Dr. Scherer and Alyssa at Fort Irwin and Dr. Lopez and Kera at Miramar. They were super helpful and accommodating to our needs.
Research different flight options for your pet. Consider flying commercial if this is accessible to you. We decided to fly with Delta from LAX-HND, then fly with ANA from HND-OKA. Call the airlines to make sure that they note in your reservation that your pet will be traveling with you (i.e., in cabin or cargo). For Delta they allowed our dog to fly in cabin with us. This was honestly the ideal situation for us and our senior dog who’s never flown before. Spoiler alert: he was a champ in flying and didn’t have any accidents! Note that no one checked the size of our pet carrier although I made sure that it was as close to 18” x 11” x 11” as possible, recommended on Delta’s website. If possible, make sure you have at least 2 hours, preferably 2.5-3 hours to transit.
Animal relief areas at the airport (or lack thereof): At LAX there was an animal relief restroom near our gate. Expect said restroom to smell. Also expect your pets to not do their business there. As a dog mom, I’ve learned that I can only present the opportunity to my dog, but I can’t actually make him go. At Haneda Airport Terminal 3, there is no animal relief restrooms. You have to exit the terminal and hope that your pets will do their business. Luckily, my quick eyes and intuition led me to a small grassy area across from the terminal entrance/near the buses and taxis. Yes, I jaywalked in the sea of vehicles and booked it to the grassy area, in which thankfully my dog was able to pee and poop. I had been counting that this was hour 17 that he didn’t pee or poop yet..
Animal Quarantine Service (AQS) at the airport: it was super confusing to go through the documents beforehand to try to figure out where the AQS is. However, we kind of followed the flow of traffic from when we deplaned. We went to our first stop, pre-customs?, who checked our passports and orders. There was already a staff representative from AQS who held up our names, dog’s name and flight number. We had a personal escort who walked us over to the AQS office which was not too far from the pre-customs area. At AQS, we submitted all our paperwork, and they also checked our pet’s microchip. This took about 30 minutes. After AQS is completed, we got our luggages and passed through customs. We then needed to take a free shuttle to get to Terminal 2. Before we did this, my husband saw that there was an ANA counter in Terminal 3, which they gladly accepted all 7 of our luggages. We had to wait 15 minutes before the counter opened, but the ANA rep was so helpful and kind. Thank goodness we didn’t need to transport 7 luggages, a dog crate and 2 backpacks between terminals. We had to, however, check in our dog in cargo at the Terminal 2 ANA counter. Shoutout to ANA rep who offered to put ice around the cargo for our dog. The heat can be really offputting and uncomfortable. I’m glad they were kind enough to offer this for us.
Research different lodging options for your pet. We opted to use the Port to Home program, so that we could live on base right away with our dog while he finishes his quarantine. Thank you to our awesome sponsor who was willing and supportive in showing us our place virtually and setting the place up for us before we arrive. Highly recommend this program for those who don’t mind not seeing the place in person. Please note we were given one choice of housing to choose from, and luckily we like it. Other options if your pet needs to be on base, contact on base pet-friendly hotels and on-base kennel. For those PCSing to Okinawa, be sure to check with Shogun Inn, Navy Gateways and Camp Hansen Inn. If there’s a chance that your pet may need to be at a kennel, you may want to get the Distemper, and Bordetella vaccines in addition to the rabies vaccines. Double check on this.
Get your pet seen within 72 hours of the Vet after you arrive to your new locatoin. For us we just did a walk-in appointment. If you’re coming to Okinawa as a military family, your pet will be seen at Kadena Vet. Please note that Wednesdays may have a longer wait time since they only see walk-in appointments only. Kadena Vet also closes on the last duty day of the month. Please check for accuracy. We will then need to take our dog in monthly until he finishes his quarantine.
In conclusion the process can be daunting and overwhelming, researching, finding support and taking action along the way proved to be successful for us. There are groups on Facebook that you can check out such as Flying Pets to Japan - Free Advice. At the end of the day, your pet relies on you to advocate for them. It’s okay to not know and feel lost. Don’t give up. The journey will be worth it. Your furry friends are lucky to have you.
