Visit Japan Web (2026): Do You Need It, and How to Get the QR Code

What you need before you start

• ✅An email address. One address can hold only one account
• ✅Your passport, and the passports of family members travelling with you. The site can read them with your phone's camera
• ✅Your flight: airline, flight number and the airport you fly from
• ✅Where you're staying in Japan: address, hotel name and a phone number in Japan
• ✅A smartphone or tablet to show the QR code at the airport. You can fill everything in on a computer
• ✅The latest Safari or Chrome on an iPhone, or Chrome on Android or a computer

You can switch the site to English, Korean or Chinese, among other languages. It's a website, not an app: the Digital Agency says it doesn't provide any app, and if you've installed one claiming to be Visit Japan Web, to uninstall it.

When should I fill it in?

Neither the official guide, the manual nor the FAQ sets a waiting period or a deadline. You can register a trip arriving as late as 31 December of the following year, and the Immigration Services Agency asks you to finish before you reach the immigration hall.

The simple way: create the account and fill everything in at home, on Wi-Fi, in the week before you fly. Then open the QR code once and take a screenshot. If your flight or hotel changes, edit the details and make the QR code again: immigration says a new code is needed after any change.

How to fill in Visit Japan Web, step by step

1. Create an account Open Visit Japan Web from the Digital Agency's page and choose Create an account. Agree to the terms, enter your email and a password of 10 or more characters mixing upper- and lowercase letters, numbers and a symbol, then type in the confirmation code sent by email. Keep that screen open until it's done. Multi-factor authentication is optional.
2. Register your details Tap Your details. A visitor answers No to the two questions about a Japanese passport and a re-entry permit. Scan your passport with the camera or type it in, then add your occupation and your home country and city.
3. Add family members travelling with you Under Details of family members traveling with you, add each family member who goes through immigration at the same time as you, one person at a time, up to 10.
4. Register your trip Choose Register new planned entry/return. Enter the arrival date, airline, flight number, the airport you board at and your address in Japan, and tick the family members on this trip. With connections, give the flight that lands in Japan; for a codeshare, the operating flight's number.
5. Fill in immigration and customs Open the trip and tap Immigration clearance and Customs declaration. Enter the purpose of your visit and how long you'll stay: for a short tourist stay, 90 days or fewer in the days box (immigration says this is often entered wrong). Answer the yes/no questions, then the customs questions and how much alcohol, tobacco and perfume you're carrying. Things bought for personal use worth ¥10,000 or less each don't need to be listed. Confirm that it's true, and register.
   Travelling as a family? The site asks whether to enter family members' customs answers at the same time as yours, so you don't type them again. Each person still gets their own QR code.
6. Look at the health questions The trip page also has Quarantine (Confirmation of Health Condition). It asks about symptoms and shows advice from the health ministry. The FAQ says the answers aren't saved.
7. Show the QR code and save it Tap Display QR Code, read the notes and tap Agree and display the QR Code. Switch between family members with the drop-down above the code. Take a screenshot of each one.
   Want maps and messages working the moment you land? A Japan eSIM can be set up at home before you fly.

   Japan eSIM on Klook ↗

At the airport: where you show the QR code

1. Immigration counter Hand over your passport and show the QR code. The officer scans both.
2. Baggage claim Collect your bags. Japan Customs says that at some airports the customs terminal is quickest done while you wait for checked bags.
3. Customs terminal Scan the QR code and your passport at an electronic declaration terminal. It takes your photo, checks it against the passport chip, and sends you either to the e-gate or to a staffed desk.
4. E-gate Walk through: the gate checks your face again. Customs officers may still ask questions or check bags. Customs says the photos are deleted after you pass.

Airports with customs e-gates: New Chitose (Sapporo), Narita, Haneda, Chubu Centrair (Nagoya), Kansai, Fukuoka and Naha (Okinawa). At other airports, customs desks have QR code readers, so you can still declare with the code; ask the customs staff there.

• ✅The e-gate needs an IC passport (one with a chip)
• ✅Everyone scans their own QR code and passport, one at a time, family included
• ✅Children under 100 cm tall can go through the e-gate with a family member
• ✅Take off a mask, sunglasses and hat for the photo; glasses are fine
• ✅Carts and wheelchairs go through the gate
• ✅Over the duty-free allowance, or shipping things separately? You'll be sent to a customs desk

Some terminals also have joint kiosks, which do immigration and customs in one scan of the QR code and passport before immigration. The kiosk shows a letter (a, b, c or d) to follow, and foreign visitors then go to a dedicated immigration booth. The kiosks can't be used by anyone under 135 cm tall. A passport without a chip works at the kiosk, but not at the e-gate afterwards.

Joint kiosk hours are the Immigration Services Agency's, in Japan time, and can change with flight schedules. At Kansai Terminal 1, customs terminals also stand at most of the wing shuttle stations you pass on the way from the plane.

Travelling with family or friends

One account can hold up to 10 family members who go through immigration with you. You fill in each person separately and each gets their own QR code; switch between them on the QR code screen. Japan Customs says a family member without a phone can use codes made on another family member's phone.

Friends aren't family members here. The FAQ says one account per person, so each friend makes their own account with their own email address.

• ✅Children are added as family members and get their own QR code
• ✅At the customs terminal, each person scans their own code and passport
• ✅Children under 100 cm can go through the e-gate with you
• ✅Joint kiosks can't be used by anyone under 135 cm
• ✅Changing who's on the trip needs an internet connection

What if…?

What changed recently, and is JESTA coming?

JESTA is Japan's planned electronic travel authorisation. Visitors who don't need a visa and come for a short stay such as tourism, cruise passengers and some transit passengers will need to be approved before travelling, for every new entry, and pay a fee. There's nothing to apply for yet: the start date and the fee are still to be set by cabinet order.

Questions