Quarantine Procedures

As of January 2025

The Animal Health Requirements may have changed. Please ask your country's government for details.
All quarantine procedures are based on the special animal health protocols agreed upon between the government authorities of each country and the Japanese Government. Import is thereby under the conditions that the horse will be temporarily imported to Japan to run in a race and will immediately undergo export quarantine after the race.
Under the quarantine conditions applied to overseas trained horses, the Government mandates that the period of stay of a horse in Japan shall be 60 days or less (from the day of release from import quarantine up to the day before export quarantine).

 

The following quarantine procedures will take place:
 
  1. a)Upon arrival at the international airport, horses must be immediately transported to the Quarantine Center. Japanese Government quarantine officers carry out individual quarantine procedures for the participating horses. However, horses arriving on the same plane will normally be tested together.
  2. b)The import quarantine period is a minimum of seven days (arrival and departure date to and from the quarantine is included in the quarantine period). Transportation to the Racecourse is allowed only after the completion of import quarantine. It is necessary to clear all the tests that are required by the Japanese Government during the quarantine period.
  3. 1st
    day    		 2nd
    day    		 3rd
    day    		 4th
    day    		 5th
    day    		 6th
    day    		 7th
    day
    Arrival
    In Japan    		 ← QUARANTINE PERIOD → Move to
    Racecourse*
    *Except Tokyo Racecourse
  4. c)During the quarantine period, horses must follow the training timetable designated by the quarantine officer.
  5. d)During the quarantine period, Grooms and Exercise Riders must enter and exit the Quarantine Center according to the separately established Standard Operation Procedure.
  6. e)After being cleared from quarantine, necessary follow up measures will be instituted at the racecourse for epidemic prevention.
  7. f)The export quarantine will be conducted at the racecourse. The period is one day or less. However, this is not applicable in cases where the Government of the importing country (e.g. Australia) requires more days of the quarantine period than that which is prescribed by the Japanese Government.