Moving to Okinawa, Japan....

[corwise]

The military has told me I'll soon be moving to Okinawa, Japan. Which is pretty cool, but I'm trying to track down any rules/laws on knives out there. EDCing, bringing large (ie Busse) knives into the country, custom rules for shipping, etc, etc.

 

[TOM1960]

Be very careful. Back in the late 1970s, a friend of mine was a Marine. He was on a ship bound for Okinawa after leaving Subic Bay in the Philippines. An "amnesty barrel" was bolted to the deck of the ship (55-gallon drum with cover welded shut and a slit cut in the top of the cover). All shipboard personnel were told to drop any contraband into the amnesty barrel before the ship arrived in Japanese territory. They were told that illegal drugs and weapons such as knives would get them 10 years in Naha prison on Okinawa and there would be nothing that the U.S. government could do to help them. Furthermore, after serving their prison sentence in Japan, they would be handed over to the U.S. military for court martial under the UCMJ (desertion and missing a ship sailing during their period of incarceration). The Japanese are very anti-weapon. I would carry a SAK and nothing more.

 

[Charlie Mike]

On base might be a different story.