I'm PCSing to Yokosuka and am looking for a Home Again microchip reader.  My dog already received her microchip and two shots, but we don't have the right microchip.  Supposedly, when importing a dog, the microchip has to be a certain kind, or we are required to bring our own reader.  I don't want to buy a new reader ($300.00), but I don't want to torture my dog with another chip and two more shots.

I briefly looked around this site and didn't see any readers for sale. I'll have to look around more.  Any info or advice would help.

I would verify whether or not you actually need to bring your own microchip reader. One of our 2 dogs that we brought over to Japan with us has a Home Again microchip, and we had no issues with her getting through the airport.

Both my dogs have HOME AGAIN and we did not have a problem.. moved here 2009.

The Vet here on base uses Home Again because I adopted my cat from PAWS and the vet here put here chip in and it was Home again.

I agree, my dog has Home Again as well. It seems that if people were going to have issues getting their animals back to the states with that type of chip, they would discontinue it's use.

Thank you all for your help.  I'll need to do a little more investigating. 

According to the Japan's Animal Quarantine Services, the chip needs to meet ISO 11784 and 11785 standards (whatever that means), and if it doesn't, I need to bring my own reader.  My vet told me that the chip was not compliant with those standards. 

On the other hand,,,

The Army Veterinary Command claims these compliance standards are "recommended", yet HomeAgain and AVID microchips are acceptable.

So I guess my question is, "What if I get to Narita Airport, and the Animal Quarantine Services says they can't read the chip?"  It seems to me, worst case scenario, I would take my pet to the vet/kennel on base and get the chip and shots there. 

Still, my nightmare is that AQS tells me my pet can't enter the country.

We used the Home Again microchip the cats got in England. I emailed Home Again to confirm that they could be read in Japan and they told me they could be read anywhere in the world. I'm searching frantically for that email but can't seem to find it. I would contact Home Again to confirm which standard the chip you have is and where it will work.

You might want to contact Narita to get confirmation on that... The email that you send your 40 day notice of arrival is where I sent my questions about the chip my dog had.

I was really worried about it and they didn't even scan him... actually they didn't even look in his kennel. We picked him up from cargo pick up and went over to imports... done in about 5 mins. They looked at the paper work and signed off on it.

Good luck!

Home Again is the 85 one...you are fine with this micro and you don't need a reader.

You can call the 800 number for homeagain info and they have a number for import/export questions they tell you the micro version just so you can check my info.