Tax-Free Shopping in Japan (November 2026): How the New Refund System Works

Who can shop tax-free?

The shop checks this from your passport. The Japan Tourism Agency lists these groups as eligible. Foreign non-residents other than diplomats, officials and US forces members must also be able to show they have been in Japan for less than six months since entry:

• ✅Temporary Visitor status: the usual status for tourists
• ✅Diplomat or Official status
• ✅Landing permission for a port of call or transit, with a passport
• ✅Landing permission for cruise ship tourists, crew members, emergency landing or landing due to distress, with the passport and that landing permit
• ✅US armed forces members and others entering under the Japan–US Status of Forces Agreement
• ✅Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) members, with the passport and the Registered User Card. TTP entry doesn't stamp the passport; the entry record is printed on the back of the card
• ✅Japanese nationals who have lived outside Japan for two years or more, shown with supporting documents, and have been back for less than six months

Other statuses, such as work or student visas, aren't on the list.

How much do you have to spend, and is there still a limit?

What comes back is the consumption tax: 10% on most goods and 8% on food and non-alcoholic drinks (National Tax Agency), minus any fee the shop or its refund company charges.

What do I need at the shop?

• ✅Your passport, shown in person, with the landing permission seal you got on arrival
• ✅Or the Visit Japan Web tax-free QR code, at shops that accept it. It appears once you register your passport photo page and your landing permission seal. Screenshots can't be used, so you need a connection to show it
• ✅A way to receive the refund, for example a credit card. The shop explains its methods and you register one when you buy
• ✅Time to ask what the refund method is, when the money comes and whether a fee is taken off. The tourism agency says the shop gives these instructions at the time of purchase

Keep each receipt with its goods. Customs doesn't always need receipts, but it may ask to see them, and the check works receipt by receipt (more on that below).

How and when is the refund paid?

After customs confirms the goods are leaving Japan, the shop, or the refund company it uses, pays back an amount equal to the consumption tax by the method you registered. Customs doesn't pay it, and the customs counter can't answer questions about purchase records or refunds: ask the shop.

The law sets no rules on how the money is paid. The National Tax Agency gives bank transfer, credit card, app payment and cash at the port of departure after the customs check as examples; which of these you get is up to the shop. No official page sets a date by which the refund must arrive. Fees: the government charges none. Whether a refund company's fee is passed on to you or paid by the shop is the shop's choice.

Affiliate links. A store coupon is a discount, separate from the tax refund; check its terms on the listing.

From the shop to the airport, step by step

1. On arrival: get the landing seal The seal in your passport is what shops check. If you use an automated gate, ask for the seal after the gate. To shop with your phone instead of your passport, register the passport photo page and the seal in Visit Japan Web.
2. At the shop: pay the full price Show your passport or the tax-free code, spend ¥5,000 or more before tax at that shop that day, and register how you want the refund paid. Ask about the fee and timing.
   The tax-free code has to be shown live, not as a screenshot, so you need data in the shop. A Japan eSIM can be set up before you fly.

   Japan eSIM on Klook ↗
3. Until you leave: keep everything Don't open or use food, drink, cosmetics or medicine you bought tax-free. Other goods, such as a bag or a camera, can be used in Japan as long as you take them out. Don't post anything home.
4. Pack so you can reach it At the customs check you must have every tax-free item with you. Keep them in hand luggage, or in a suitcase you check in only after the check. Flying out via a domestic connection? Carry them on.
5. At the airport, before bag drop: the customs check Scan your passport at a tax refund kiosk, or do it on your phone in Visit Japan Web at the seven airports that offer it. Green: done. Red: take the goods to the customs inspection area in the departure lobby.
6. Then check in and fly Once the check is complete, the goods can go in checked baggage or with you. They must leave Japan without delay.
7. After you leave: the refund The shop or its refund company pays it by the method you registered. If it doesn't arrive, contact the shop or the contact point it gave you.

On departure day: tax refund kiosk or Visit Japan Web?

Do the customs check in the departure lobby, before you check in bags and before security. Tax refund kiosks stand in places such as the international departure lobby before baggage check-in. Japan Customs publishes kiosk maps by airport and seaport, though not for every one.

1. Connect to the customs Wi-Fi In the international departure lobby, before security: SSID Customs_WiFi_For_TaxRefund, password jcustoms (Japan Customs).
2. Open the refund screen Log in to Visit Japan Web and tap Tax Refund procedure. The refund screen is in English only.
3. Confirm your purchases Check the purchase records (one per receipt, from the last 90 days) and tap Confirm. Purchases appear even if you showed your passport rather than the code at the shop.
4. Read the result Completed: done. Not Completed: go to the customs inspection area. If it fails or shows an error, use the kiosk.

How much time to allow? No official page gives a number of minutes. Customs and the tourism agency both say to arrive early: the scan is quick, but a red result means an inspection, and if you abandon it to make check-in, the check doesn't count. The tourism agency adds that neither the airline nor customs compensates you if you miss the flight.

• ✅Domestic flight first? Do the check at the international departure airport, so carry the goods on or collect checked bags there
• ✅Leaving by cruise ship or ferry: at the last port of call in Japan. If the ship skips it, for example in bad weather, the check may not be possible and there's no refund
• ✅Cruise from Japan via overseas ports and back, then flying home: do it once, at the airport you finally leave from
• ✅Some airports and seaports have no permanent kiosk. Ask a customs officer there, or the customs office in charge of that port
• ✅Lost your passport and shopped with the new one too? Scan the new one and tell a customs officer at the counter about purchases on the old one

The rest of the day, from hotel checkout to the gate: departure day in Japan.

Mistakes that cost you the refund

When the refund isn't worth the hassle

The most you get back is the tax, 10% (8% on food), and some shops take a fee off that. Honest cases where it's hardly worth the effort:

• ✅Small spends close to ¥5,000. On ¥5,000 before tax at 10%, the tax is ¥500. Takashimaya keeps 23% of that ¥500 (¥115), so ¥385 comes back, and card fees may come off that
• ✅Snacks, cosmetics or medicine you'll open on the trip. Once used, that receipt gets nothing
• ✅Things you'd rather post home. Shipping before the check ends the refund
• ✅Shopping early on a long trip. Anything bought more than 90 days before you leave is out
• ✅A tight departure. If you can't reach the airport early enough to finish the check before bag drop, the tax is lost
• ✅More than you can carry. The rules only cover what you take out yourself

Where it clearly pays: bigger purchases you'll take home unopened, bought within 90 days of leaving from one of the seven large airports, at a shop that charges little or no fee.

Questions