Japan Visa
Japan is easy to visit and hard to settle in: visa-free entry for around seventy nationalities, a departure tax that tripled to ¥3,000 on 1 July 2026, and no retirement visa at all.
Last updated: August 2026.
Japan splits neatly in two. A short holiday is among the easiest trips in the region to arrange — for most Western passports there is no application, no fee and nothing to carry but the passport itself. Everything longer is the opposite: Japan grants residence for a defined activity such as study, work or running a business, and it has no discretionary long-stay status for people who simply want to be there.
Two costs changed on 1 July 2026. The departure tax tripled, and visa issuance fees rose fivefold for the nationalities that need a visa. A third change is often reported as though it has already happened: JESTA, Japan’s planned electronic travel authorisation. It has not launched, and there is nothing to apply for. Once the paperwork is settled, our Japan destination guides and Japan maps cover the rest.
Tourist Entry
Around seventy countries and territories hold visa-exemption arrangements with Japan, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Nationals of those countries are admitted under the Temporary Visitor status of residence, normally for 90 days, with no advance application and no entry fee. The authoritative list is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ own exemption of visa (short-term stay) page.
Temporary Visitor status covers tourism, visiting friends and family, and short business meetings such as conferences and contract signings. It does not permit paid work of any kind. The permitted period is not uniform — several nationalities receive materially less than 90 days, and the difference matters if you are planning a long trip.
What Japan grants the other seven PacificAir countries
| Passport | Visa needed? | Visa-free stay | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malaysia | No | 90 days | Biometric (e-passport) required |
| Taiwan | No | 90 days | — |
| Thailand | No | 15 days | — |
| Indonesia | No | 15 days | E-passport must be registered at a Japanese mission in Indonesia before travel; the registration then lasts about three years |
| Cambodia | Yes | — | Can apply directly through the Japan eVISA site |
| Vietnam | Yes | — | eVISA only through a designated agency on a package tour; otherwise apply at an embassy |
| Philippines | Yes | — | eVISA only through a designated agency on a package tour; otherwise apply at an embassy |
The online route for those that need a visa is the JAPAN eVISA system. Several of these exemptions are conditional — on holding a biometric passport, or on registering it in advance — and the MOFA list states the condition attached to each nationality. Confirm your own entitlement before booking rather than relying on a figure quoted for a neighbouring country: the gap between 15 and 90 days is the difference between a fortnight and a season.
Visa fees rose fivefold on 1 July 2026
For the first time since 1978, Japan raised its visa issuance fees. A single-entry visa went from ¥3,000 to ¥15,000, and a multiple-entry visa from ¥6,000 to ¥30,000, payable at the embassy or consulate when the visa is issued (Fragomen). If your nationality is visa-exempt this does not touch you. If it is not, it is a real addition to the cost of the trip, and it applies per visa rather than per journey.
JESTA does not exist yet
Japan has legislated for an electronic travel authorisation along the lines of the American ESTA, known as JESTA. The enabling amendment to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act was enacted on 29 May 2026, and the government is aiming to launch the system in fiscal 2028 — April 2028 to March 2029. Passing the law created the legal basis; the system itself has not been built.
In practical terms: there is no application, no portal, no fee and no document to obtain. The fee, the validity period and the covered nationalities have not been announced, so any figure circulating now is not drawn from an official source. Websites selling “JESTA applications” have appeared regardless, and paying one hands your passport details and card number to an operator with no standing. Japanese government sites use the go.jp domain. We covered this in full when the law passed — see Japan passes its ESTA-style entry law.
The departure tax is ¥3,000
Japan’s International Tourist Tax — the “sayonara tax” introduced in 2019 — tripled from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 on 1 July 2026. That rate is in force now. The Japan Tourism Agency states the terms plainly in its own official notice: the rate is “JPY 3,000 per departure from Japan (From July 1, 2026)”, and there is “a transitional measure under which the previous tax rate (JPY 1,000) applies if you depart using eligible tickets issued on or before June 30, 2026”.
- You will not queue for it. Air and sea carriers collect it by adding it to the ticket price and remit it to the government. There is nothing to pay at the airport.
- Everyone pays. It applies to Japanese nationals and foreign visitors alike. Infants under the age of two are exempt.
- Count departures, not trips. One return holiday is one Japanese departure. A Tokyo–Seoul–Osaka routing is two. Domestic flights to Okinawa or Hokkaido cost nothing extra.
- Transit is exempt where you leave Japan within 24 hours of arriving without formally entering, as are crew and accredited diplomats.
- If your ticket was issued by 30 June 2026 you are still on ¥1,000, however late you fly.
Our news report on the day it took effect works through the arithmetic for multi-country routings: Japan’s departure tax triples.
Visit Japan Web, and how long you can stay
Visit Japan Web is the Digital Agency’s free portal for completing immigration and customs formalities before you land. You enter your passport and flight details and it produces a QR code to scan at the airport instead of filling in paper cards. It is optional, not mandatory — paper forms are still handed out on the aircraft and accepted at every airport — but it is markedly faster at the busy entry points. It is free; screenshot the QR code, because airport connectivity is not guaranteed.
The 90 days is generally a ceiling rather than a starting point. Nationals of Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom may apply to extend Temporary Visitor status to a total of six months, at a regional Immigration Services Agency office and before the stamped period expires. For everyone else, extension is granted only on narrow grounds such as illness or unavoidable disruption, and is not a routine option. Leaving and immediately re-entering to reset the clock is not permitted: back-to-back visa-free entries used to live in Japan will eventually be refused at the border. For anything beyond a visit — work, study, or simply more time — the correct move is to apply for the appropriate status before you travel.
Retirement & Long Stay
Japan has no retirement visa. There is no status of residence granted on the basis of age, savings, pension income or property purchase, and no Japanese equivalent of a Thai retirement extension or a Malaysian long-stay programme. This is a settled position rather than a gap waiting to be filled. If a site offers to arrange a “Japan retirement visa”, it is describing something that does not exist.
What people actually use falls into three groups, and it is worth being clear about what each one is.
| Route | What it actually requires | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Long stay for sightseeing and recreation (a category of Designated Activities) | Aged 18 or over; a passport from a visa-exempt country; savings above ¥30 million, which may be combined with a spouse’s and must be held for six months; private medical insurance covering death, injury and illness | Six months, extendable once to a maximum of one year. No work of any kind, remote work included. Then you leave |
| Spouse or Child of a Japanese National, and Long-Term Resident for people of Japanese descent | A qualifying family relationship or documented Japanese ancestry | A genuine, renewable residence status with broad activity rights |
| Business Manager | Since 16 October 2025: ¥30 million in capital, up from ¥5 million; at least one qualifying full-time employee; Japanese at JLPT N2 or BJT 400 from you or an employee; a master’s in business or three years managing; a business plan signed off by a certified professional | Renewable for as long as the business genuinely trades |
The first row is the one most often misdescribed as a retirement visa, so it is worth being exact. It is a long holiday with a hard ceiling of one year. It is not a residence permit, it does not renew indefinitely, and it forbids earning — including remote work for an employer outside Japan. At the end of the year you leave. Anyone quoting a monthly pension threshold for it is describing a rule we could not find in any official source; the published requirement is the savings balance and the insurance.
The Business Manager route deserves the same candour. Its requirements were tightened sharply on 16 October 2025 precisely because it had been used as a soft route to residence by people not really running a business. The capital requirement rose sixfold and a staffing and language test was added. It is now a genuine commitment to operating a company in Japan, not a way of buying time.
That leaves the honest summary: the mainstream way to live in Japan long term is to be employed, to study, to marry in, or to build a real business. Permanent residence is reached after a long period of lawful residence on one of those statuses — it is not something applied for from abroad. Confirm current requirements with the Immigration Services Agency, which administers every status of residence described here.
Student Visas
Studying in Japan runs on the Student status of residence, which covers universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology, specialised training colleges and Japanese language schools. The official Study in Japan portal states that the maximum period of stay is 4 years and 3 months, decided individually for each applicant rather than granted as a standard term.
The sequence matters, because the visa is the last step rather than the first:
- Get accepted by a school in Japan.
- The school applies for your Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) as your proxy, at a regional immigration services bureau in Japan. This is the substantive assessment — your funding, your school and your intent are examined here, and it takes weeks to months.
- Take the CoE to a Japanese embassy or consulate with your passport, application form and photograph, and the visa is issued (Study in Japan).
Budget for the issuance fee at that last step: since 1 July 2026 it is ¥15,000 for a single-entry visa and ¥30,000 for multiple entry. Check which applies to your case before you go to the counter.
Work rights, and their limits
Student status does not permit work by itself. The official portal is explicit that it is “granted for the sole purpose of studying in Japan”. To take any paid job you must separately obtain Permission to Engage in Activity other than that Permitted under the Status of Residence Previously Granted. If you are arriving for more than three months you can request it at the airport when your residence card is issued, which is much the easiest moment; otherwise it goes through your school or a regional immigration office.
- 28 hours per week during term, and no more than 8 hours in a day.
- Up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week during the school’s long vacations.
- Some work is barred outright — adult entertainment, bars and other venues serving alcohol, pachinko parlours, game centres and gambling. Taking such a job is a breach of your residence status, not merely of a workplace rule, and the consequence falls on your right to stay.
Read the cap as the ceiling it is. Twenty-eight hours of part-time work will not fund tuition and living costs in a Japanese city, and the CoE assessment is designed to confirm that you have funding in place before you arrive. Treat part-time earnings as a supplement, never as the plan.
Before You Fly
- Passport validity. Japan asks for a passport valid for the duration of your intended stay rather than imposing a fixed six-month rule. Carry more margin than that anyway: airlines and any country you transit apply their own requirements, and theirs are often stricter than Japan’s.
- Onward or return ticket. Expect to be asked. Airlines check that you have a way out of Japan before boarding you, and immigration may ask to see it.
- Funds and an address. You should be able to show you can support yourself for the visit. Visit Japan Web asks for the address of your first night, so have the booking to hand before you start filling it in.
- Fingerprints and a photograph are taken at the border from arriving foreign nationals, young children aside. It is routine and quick.
- Carry your passport. Foreign visitors are required to carry it at all times in Japan. Residents carry their residence card instead.
- Tax-free shopping changes on 1 November 2026, moving from a discount at the till to paying the consumption tax and reclaiming it on departure. It is not a visa rule, but it changes what leaves your account on a big shopping trip and adds a step at the airport.
- Pay nobody for permission to enter. Visa-free entry is free, Visit Japan Web is free, and JESTA does not exist. The only fee a traveller legitimately pays before departure is an embassy visa fee, if their nationality needs a visa.
References
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Exemption of Visa (Short-Term Stay) — the authoritative list of visa-exempt countries and the stay each receives.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs — JAPAN eVISA system — who may apply online, and who must go through a designated agency.
- Japan Tourism Agency (MLIT) — International Tourist Tax, ¥3,000 per departure from 1 July 2026 (PDF) — the official notice, including the transitional measure and the under-two exemption.
- National Tax Agency — Q&A about the International Tourist Tax (PDF) — liability, collection and the exemptions in detail.
- Japan National Tourism Organization — International Tourist Tax — the traveller-facing summary.
- Digital Agency — Visit Japan Web — the official, free pre-arrival portal. This is the only site you need.
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan — every status of residence, extensions and the residence card.
- Study in Japan — Immigration and student visas — the Student status, the 4 years 3 months maximum and the Certificate of Eligibility sequence.
- Study in Japan — Residing in Japan — confirms Student status permits no work without separate permission.
- Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University — work permit guidance — the 28-hour term-time cap, the 8-hour and 40-hour vacation limits, and the prohibited categories of work.
- Fragomen — Japan visa issuance fees increase, effective July 2026 — ¥3,000 to ¥15,000 single entry, ¥6,000 to ¥30,000 multiple entry.
- KPMG — Japan tightens Business Manager visa requirements — the 16 October 2025 capital, staffing, language and business-plan rules.
- VisasNews — Japan’s parliament passes the law paving the way for JESTA — the 29 May 2026 enactment and the fiscal 2028 target.
- Kanpai Japan — JESTA — confirms no portal, fee or validity period has been announced.
These sources were checked in August 2026. Rules, fees and permitted stays change, and this page states figures only where an official or clearly attributed source publishes them — where a rule is described qualitatively here, it is because no current source gave us a number we were willing to print. Where anything on this page disagrees with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Immigration Services Agency or the Japan Tourism Agency, those are the authority. Check them last, just before you fly.