Rezzeh, gotta correct you on that one.
By law its illegal to import a car with R12 gas in it.
You CAN import a car with R134a in it, providing you, or the RAWS workshop compliancing the car has a permit to handle precharged airconditioning units.
You CAN however sign a declaration that you were unaware of this law, and get away with it once... ever. Its not a one per year rule. Its basically a form that say "ah crap, I didn't know... sorry, it won't happen again".
The applicability is not dependant on who applies for the import approval, but moreso who deals with customs. Most of the time this is us, not the customer, hence why we usually have it degassed in Japan.