What to say to immigration officer?

I'll be coming up to my 9th visit to Japan shortly. The last two visits I've been heavily questioned by immigration. I have a girlfriend in Japan that I go to see on my holidays there as well as friends too. I also tell immigration my purpose is "tourism and to see friends". (Which it is)

As I always travel alone to Japan I wonder if this flags anything to them? Last time the officer looked through my bag, found my ipad rechargeable battery and thought it was a phone.. .then pulled out my Switch and Vita which was in the bag and became suspicious because I had handheld consoles...? So he got them all x-rayed (do people hide stuff in these things?) once the x-ray came back clear, he wanted to know if my friends were female or male and how long I was staying, which place etc etc. (it was two and a half weeks) for Christmas going in to new year.

Anyway to cut this short, next time should I say I'm visiting to see my GF or what I always do "tourism and to see friends." ??

Just tell the truth. Maybe you just look suspicious :)

Yep, just tell the truth, be friendly and patient that will make the ordeal shorter and less unpleasant.

Maybe you simply share the name with someone they suspect of drug trafficking or are for some other reason �gsuspicious �g. But you made it into Japan already multiple times so no real reason to fear something could get wrong this time.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Short term tourists don't carry around switches and vitas. So little things like this can ring alarm bells.

All you can do is be patient and smile. The process is much quicker if you comply without fuss from the start.

You're doing the right thing. But a young single male traveling alone on leisure to the same place multiple times is indeed more suspicious than an aged female traveling in a group on business, regardless of the nationality, race or specific purpose. I remember a Japanese beard-less male friend taken to another room at Narita a long time ago. He did have hair long enough to cover his ears and was dressed fully in black. Thank you for your cooperation in maintaining safety or whatever it is that they're trying to maintain.

"Short term tourists don't carry around Switches and Vitas."

12 hours on a plane is a long time. Also, if you don't speak Japanese, TV in your hotel room doesn't really hold your attention. Trips on the shinkansen can be long. There's plenty of reasons for tourists to have portable entertainment with them.

Thanks for your responses i�fll just tell em the truth on my next visit. I remember visiting Japan for 2 months back in 2016 and had no issues entering so I guess it�fs just one of those things that may come up time to time.

Thanks again.

Probably your looks or your name is kind of fishy, I also carry a few electronic equipment, my last time I had 2 DAP and 3 phones and a bunch of other things, just past the immigration/customs as normal without any problem.

if you want an unpleasant immigration experience, go to China, Shanghai specifically. Shanghai immigration makes Atlanta look like heaven. I�fm American and thought I could never have a worse airport experience than Atlanta. I was wrong... Atlanta left me annoyed, Shanghai gave me PTSD!

At least Japanese immigration are polite and courteous and if you go along with them, they will let you get on your way pretty fast.

Just for reference, I had no issues in Shanghai immigration. As a whole, I had one of the nicest experiences in Shanghai as far as exchanges with the locals are concerned.

Uco, you obviously didn�ft have to transfer in Shanghai on route to Japan.... that�fs all I have to say. If you transfer in Shanghai to another international flight they still make you go through Chinese immigration. Maybe it would have been easier had my wife I been both Japanese citizens on route to Japan. But my wife and I are both foreigners with Japanese permanent residency. They brought us into a small room with no windows and started interrogating us about it for 30min. They only let us go after I threatened to call the US embassy in Beijing and MOFA in Japan. They didn�ft believe we had Japanese permanent residency and thought our cards were fake. Because of them we missed our connecting flight to Tokyo and I had to spend the next 6 hours screaming at airport officials to compensate us for the night and get us a flight out the next morning. They initially told me it�fs not China�fs problem. Finally they relented and put us up in a hotel with free dinner and breakfast and paid for our tickets back to Tokyo and apologized... but still it was one of the worst experiences in my life.