Nic-Liquid is still not allowed to sell in Japan

[AkiraFZ]

Hello everyone.

I have been vaping for two years in Japan but I have no vaping friends around me.
It is sad that many people are still smorking here.

I think the reason is that the Nicotine Liquid, which I personally import from USA, can not be sold in Japan.

I hope the government will understand the safety of liquid and vaping soon.

 

[daviedog]

Governments get Lots of money from smoke Taxes..

 

[Smoke_too_much]

Hello & welcome.
I would think it easy to obtain all the juice components except nic in Japan. If you need nic you can either obtain it from Beijing (E Liq) and sneak it back or start learning how to extract your own. Extraction dosen't seem to difficult and the 'how to' is all over the web.

 

[AkiraFZ]

Governments get Lots of money from smoke Taxes..

That is true.

 

[AkiraFZ]

Hello & welcome.
I would think it easy to obtain all the juice components except nic in Japan. If you need nic you can either obtain it from Beijing (E Liq) and sneak it back or start learning how to extract your own. Extraction dosen't seem to difficult and the 'how to' is all over the web.

I build coils by my self and mix my own juice from flavor concentrates but never thought about Nic extraction.

Thank you for your information!!
I will look up on the web about that on this weekend.

 

[djsvapour]

I hope the government will understand the safety of liquid and vaping soon.

Japan is one of the most reliant on (domestic) tobacco sales. They can't afford to encourage vaping.
Sad reality. You have our sympathy.

 

[BrotherBob]

Hello everyone.
I have been vaping for two years in Japan but I have no vaping friends around me.
It is sad that many people are still smorking here.
I think the reason is that the Nicotine Liquid, which I personally import from USA, can not be sold in Japan.
I hope the government will understand the safety of liquid and vaping soon.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Might like to read:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/research-commentary-e-cigarette-smoking-bans

 

[AkiraFZ]

Japan is one of the most reliant on (domestic) tobacco sales. They can't afford to encourage vaping.
Sad reality. You have our sympathy.

Thanks.
Probably more people start to vape in Japan, they will have to produce Nic-liquid I guess.

 

[AkiraFZ]

Welcome and glad you joined.
Might like to read:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/research-commentary-e-cigarette-smoking-bans

Thanks.
A lot to read, haha.
I hope all the countries will charge little bit of tax on e-cig if they have to and let us live happily ever after.

 

[Jim_ MDP]

I build coils by my self and mix my own juice from flavor concentrates but never thought about Nic extraction.

Thank you for your information!!
I will look up on the web about that on this weekend.

I thought it was perfectly legal to own and import for use in Japan, just not to sell it domestically.

But it's hard to keep up with all the various regs in the Pacific, eg: SG is a black hole, and I can't get a straight answer about OZ... even from Aussie vapers.

But if you can mail order nic in Japan, what's the problem?
I can't think of any US vapers who go to a store for liquid nic (not even sure such exists), we just mail order it.

 

[AkiraFZ]

I thought it was perfectly legal to own and import for use in Japan, just not to sell it domestically.

But it's hard to keep up with all the various regs in the Pacific, eg: SG is a black hole, and I can't get a straight answer about OZ... even from Aussie vapers.

But if you can mail order nic in Japan, what's the problem?
I can't think of any US vapers who go to a store for liquid nic (not even sure such exists), we just mail order it.

I have no problem buying any hardware for e-cig domestically and order nic to overseas. I always purchase hardware at Chinese site because those are one third of the price of Japanese site. So I ended up buying everything from overseas.

But for the beginners in Japan, I don't think it is so easy to import from overseas, language and knowledge wise. It is better to receive everything in one shop at the beginning and explained how to use them.

As you mentioned, I went to Singapore on business trip last month with three sets of e-cigs and juice. They were confiscated at the airport!! OMG

 

[Jim_ MDP]

I have no problem buying any hardware for e-cig domestically and order nic to overseas. I always purchase hardware at Chinese site though.

But for the beginners in Japan, I don't think it is so easy to import from overseas, language and knowledge wise. It is better to receive everything in one shop at the beginning and explained how to use them.

So you're looking at it as a language issue? Good point, hadn't thought about it along those lines. But even if domestic sales were legal, what are the chances a brick and mortar source would exist?
But there's usually a learning period before a new vaper gets to the DIY point. Given the good sense handling precautions required with nic concentrates, that may be a good thing.

I don't have local vape stores to compare, it's just I've never read about one selling bulk liquid nic, perhaps with Japan's more constrained geography that wouldn't be the case.
I don't think even US agriculture product vendors (feed stores, tackle shops) carry nic now that it's no longer used as an insecticide/herbicide. Possible that they never did.
And that leaves us vapers as the only remaining retail consumers.

As you mentioned, I went to Singapore on business trip last month with three sets of e-cigs and juice. They were confiscated at the airport!! OMG

Sad to say... could have seen that coming.

 

[Kickingthesticks]

i might come visit japan in a year or two, how is airport security lol?

 

[AkiraFZ]

i might come visit japan in a year or two, how is airport security lol?

I have read some articles on the internet. They say that nic liquid can only be carried in 120ml a person. If you have friends to go with, you can ask your friends to carry 120ml each. This way you can bring in more than 120ml.

I think this is understandable because I can only import nic to Japan up to 120ml in one time. But please gather more information yourself because I have not done that yet. Last time I went out of Japan I did not have e-cig with me when I came back

 

[AkiraFZ]

...

 

[AkiraFZ]

So you're looking at it as a language issue? Good point, hadn't thought about it along those lines. But even if domestic sales were legal, what are the chances a brick and mortar source would exist?
But there's usually a learning period before a new vaper gets to the DIY point. Given the good sense handling precautions required with nic concentrates, that may be a good thing.

The information about e-cig in Japanese is there but not as much as you have in English. I took almost all information from the sites written in English and youtube in English. This will be probably changing soon because I believe the e-cig starts to recognize and the number of vaper is increasing here in Japan.

I don't have local vape stores to compare, it's just I've never read about one selling bulk liquid nic, perhaps with Japan's more constrained geography that wouldn't be the case.
I don't think even US agriculture product vendors (feed stores, tackle shops) carry nic now that it's no longer used as an insecticide/herbicide. Possible that they never did.
And that leaves us vapers as the only remaining retail consu

Interesting point you made.

 

[Jim_ MDP]

The information about e-cig in Japanese is there but not as much as you have in English. I took almost all information from the sites written in English and youtube in English. This will be probably changing soon because I believe the e-cig starts to recognize and the number of vaper is increasing here in Japan.

Nice to see a country moving in the right direction, are there other objectionable restrictions that come to mind?
It's a long battle ahead and every nation will find their own course, some like SG still looking for the path itself.

The US gets more notice for our recent FDA ruling, but the actual effect to date is incredibly high sales taxes in a few various local regions, generally state by state... Utah's total ban on mail order being an outrageous outlier. Indiana's monopolistic "licensing" of retail juice vendors is another.

But even the EU's 72mg/ml cap on nic strength is unknown here.
Could you tell me... are there restrictions on how strong that 120ml of nic concentrate can legally be?

 

[AkiraFZ]

Nice to see a country moving in the right direction, are there other objectionable restrictions that come to mind?
It's a long battle ahead and every nation will find their own course, some like SG still looking for the path itself.

This may not be exactly answering your question.
But some interesting products have been introduced in Japan since last year by tobacco cigarettes companies.

Philip Morris: iQos


Japan Tobacco: Ploom Tech


They are not exactly what we call "e-cig". Both of them are using actual tobacco leaves but not burning them. More and more people start to use these products instead of e-cig with nic liquid. This is another reason that people are not going to e-cig we are using because ordering nic liquids to overseas is more troublesome where as you can buy these from corner shops.

But even the EU's 72mg/ml cap on nic strength is unknown here.
Could you tell me... are there restrictions on how strong that 120ml of nic concentrate can legally be?

This is a good question. There are no restrictions on the strength of nic. Only 120ml max. So I always order 100mg/ml concentrate of 120ml bottles.

 

[Jim_ MDP]

This is a good question. There are no restrictions on the strength of nic. Only 120ml max. So I always order 100mg/ml concentrate of 120ml bottles.

Then order 200mg/ml.

I have a bunch (5-6 years worth) in 200mg.
Going higher is iffy, especially if there are kids or pets underfoot, as the risk handling rises quickly.
And we're not allowed to discuss higher than 200 here anyway, so I won't.


I don't know about the Ploom, but I saw the pre-release about the iQos two or three months ago.
Weird, closed system and not at all what I want in a tobacco reduction solution (I'm not worried about my nic consumption)... but this is an extremely fast moving, and developing, technical product sector and if they think there's a market for them... they may be right.

 

[AkiraFZ]

Then order 200mg/ml.

I have a bunch (5-6 years worth) in 200mg.
Going higher is iffy, especially if there are kids or pets underfoot, as the risk handling rises quickly.
And we're not allowed to discuss higher than 200 here anyway, so I won't.


I don't know about the Ploom, but I saw the pre-release about the iQos two or three months ago.
Weird, closed system and not at all what I want in a tobacco reduction solution (I'm not worried about my nic consumption)... but this is an extremely fast moving, and developing, technical product sector and if they think there's a market for them... they may be right.

I sometimes make a small batch of liquids with 3% nic. It is a little hard to measure if the base nic strength is over 100mg for me at this moment. I might try 200 in the future.

I was using iQos last year, they have introduced iQos in Japan and Italy first for the test market. Every time I smoked iQos in my house my wife started to complain because they are so smelly. Also I have to wait 1min to heat up and only 6min or 14 puffs of smoking time and 6min to recharge for the next cigarette.... not my style. So I switched back to e-cig again.