Lucius was prepared. He had everything that he needed, in order to approve to send the basilisk from the school to Japan. Why Japan? Because in Japan, there were a great number of animal speakers and Parseltongue was nearly common in Asia. And then, there was Akira. Legally, the basilisk was his familiar, because he was the heir of Slytherin and it would be beneficial that the basilisk should spend some time with the current heir.