Japan travel tips

Japan visa requirements

The rule for your own passport, from Japan's official immigration page, with the date it was last checked. The same answer for every guide in Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Nara, Hakone and 5 more.

No visa neededup to 90 days

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Israel, United Arab Emirates

A pre-travel electronic authorisation (JESTA) is being introduced — check the official link for whether it applies to your dates.

Visa required in advance

Every other passport

How to get it: Nothing to arrange for visa-free entry. Use the Visit Japan Web service to pre-file immigration and customs and skip the paper forms.

Visit Japan Web — optional

When: Any time before you fly. Register the account early; the trip details can wait.

Have ready: passport, flight number, the full address of your first night.

Not compulsory, but immigration and customs both have a QR lane for it and the other queue is long.

Official form · checked 2026-09-11

Official government source · checked 2026-08-09

Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, your route and the purpose of the trip. Confirm on the official page before booking.

The guides in Japan

people gathered outside buildings and vehiclesTokyoJapanWhere ancient tradition meets neon-lit futurepagoda surrounded by treesKyotoJapanA thousand temples and the old soul of JapanThe illuminated billboards of Dotonbori in Osaka, including the Glico running manOsakaJapanJapan's kitchen, and the one city where people talk to strangersThe orange Itsukushima Shrine torii gate standing in the water at Hatsukaichi, JapanHiroshimaJapanA city rebuilt around the one building it left standing, and a floating gate an hour awayDeer grazing on pavement with people in backgroundNaraJapanThe first permanent capital, with the biggest bronze Buddha in the world and twelve hundred deer that bow for a biscuitMount Fuji rising above a dark lake at night in Fujinomiya, JapanHakoneJapanHot springs in a volcanic caldera, with Fuji across the lake on the mornings it shows itselfvehicles on roadSapporoJapanDeep snow, beer brewed since 1876, and the best powder skiing in the world an hour awaywhite houseKanazawaJapanA garden three hundred years in the making, gold leaf on everything, and a samurai district that survived the warFuruzamami Beach in Zamami Island (Okinawa) in Japan.OkinawaJapanA subtropical chain with its own kingdom, its own language and the clearest water in Japana narrow street in an asian city with snow on the groundTakayamaJapanA merchant town of dark wood in the Japanese Alps, an hour from thatched villages under deep snowA building that has a lot of carvings on itNikkoJapanA shogun’s mausoleum buried in cedar forest, with waterfalls and a marshland plateau above it