Do I need a visa to travel to Japan? How long does a passport have to be valid?

Visa-free travel

Japan has visa-free travel for tourist travel up to 90 days with a total of 71 countries around the world.

These are mainly countries in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America, some countries in the Middle East and 3 countries in Africa.

For a complete list of nationalities that can travel to Japan without a visa, visit the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: mofa.go.jp.

Long-term visas

If you want to stay in Japan for more than 90 days, and for residents from countries with visa requirements for any length of time, you must arrange a regular visa in advance.

A Japanese visa can only be arranged at a Japanese embassy abroad and cannot be applied for online.

The visa fee is around 3 000 jpy and you can get detailed information from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website: mofa.go.jp.

Other documents and passport validity

When travelling to Japan, the validity of your passport must cover your entire visit to the country. Japan does not require passport validity beyond 6 months or any other period of visit.

We recommend that you complete the online immigration and customs declaration through the official website: services.digital.go.jp/en/visit-japan-web.

While you will receive the forms in paper form on the plane, with the online form and QR code filled out, you can go through the automatic passport gates upon arrival, which can save up to 30 minutes of waiting time in line.

Customs regulations

You are allowed to bring in duty-free personal items worth 200 000 jpy per person, 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco and 3 bottles (0.76 litres) of alcohol per person.

The import of animals and plants and products of animal origin is subject to inspection and quarantine.

The import of narcotics, weapons and pornographic material is prohibited.

The import and export of currency is not restricted, but amounts over 1 000 000 yen must be declared at customs control.