Duty free items in check-in luggage

Hello,

I will be arriving and departing from Haneda airport late August
and I wish to purchase a bottle of Nikka G&G KABUTO Whiskey.

Last time I was in Japan I had a bottle on my carry on luggage, and Singapore customs confiscated it, this time i want to put it in my suitcase for check in, but how can I do this?

I suspect duty free shops are after you have checked in your luggage, so i am unsure how i would be able to get the bottle into my suitcase beforehand.

Duty-free items bought after check-in is OK to carry onboard as hand carry items on that flight. Just keep it in the same "duty free" bag. But if you have a connecting flight, you will be subject to the same "liquid" restriction.

But are you saying that the last time Singapore customs confiscated the bottle when you "arrived" in Singapore from Japan? What was their reason?

Your questions are all very vague...

1. If you mean you just making a transit in Haneda and purchased the whiskey from the Airport Duty free shop, and THEN making a transit in Singapore. Your whiskey will be confiscated.

1-2. If you mean you just making a transit in Haneda and purchased the whiskey from the Airport Duty free shop, and THEN making a final stop in Singapore. Your whiskey should be fine.

1-3. If you mean you just making a transit in Haneda and purchased the whiskey from the Airport Duty free shop, and want to check-in the whiskey, I have no idea how you do it, you probably can't.

2. If you will be visiting Tokyo after arriving at Haneda, just put your whiskey in the check in baggage. Your whiskey should be fine.

I was flying from Tokyo to Australia and had to transfer through Singapore where they confiscated my bottle in my carry on bag.

I will be doing the same again but this time I want to put it in my checked in luggage, but I am not sure how possible it is if the duty free stores are past the airline check-ins

That's rather weird,normally the duty free shop in the airport will ask if you making transit or final stop in Singapore, as all liquids beyond allowance would be confiscated..

Best is to just grab the whiskey you want in town, if its over 5001 Yen, and it is from tax free store, you will get tax refunded, then you could check them in.

It was back in 2009 so perhaps polices have changed, or he just wanted the bottle to himself.

I will probably buy them at the beginning of my trip, put it in a coin locker for 2 days to save transporting it with me, and put them in a suitcase at the end before going to the airport.

As far as I am aware, I have been told that whisky bottle is only available at the airport, I could buy better whisky but I have always just wanted the samurai bottle

Ryan,

If you buy whiskey and other liquid duty-free at airport A in country A, you can (of course) carry it with you to the next destination airport B in country B. It's fine if B is your final destination.

However, if you are further flying onto another airport, be it airport B' in country B, or to airport C in country C, (unless you can somehow retrieve your baggage at airport B and pack it in there and check in again), you will be subject to the liquid carry-on restriction for that second leg of your travel.

So, as suggested, just buy something in town in Tokyo, and pack it in your check-in luggage.

Yea, seems like the Nikka Kabuto is only available from airports... And seems most of big alcohol stores (that I check normally) do not carry them, the only one that pop up is at Rakuten at a whooping 20k Yen...

I feel your best bet is to ask the duty free shop directly, not sure if it is sold by Japan Duty free shop or the JAL shop though.

Regardless, https://duty-free-japan.jp/en/

The airport rules haven't changed, you'll still have the bottle confiscated or asked to check it in when you transfer in Singapore. I had this happen to me in Abu Dhabi on my way to Australia from Germany just last month. Fortunately they gave me the option of putting it in my backpack and checking it into the cargo hold.

If possible, buy it when you arrive (i.e. before customs), and then pack it into your suitcase straight away.

I was also in the same predicament prior to flying back home to the Philippines from our trip to Japan last Jan 4, 2019. I checked in all items bought that were subject to tax free priivilege of short staying tourists. After clearing immigrations, prior to the security check, there was a person at the center of the hall just asking for us to drop the receipts stapled to my passport in a clear plastic/fiber glass box. No items were inspected. It was also this thread that guided me on what to do with the items we bought. Though the last entry was a few years back, I had my fingers crossed that the same would apply to us and gladly it did.