Japan's departure tax is now 3.000¥ per person
Feesstarting July 1, 2026
Reviewed on 2026-10-12. This information expires: confirm it close to your travel dates.
The tax is 国際観光旅客税, kokusai kanko ryokakuzei, which Japan's National Tax Agency renders in English as the International Tourist Tax. It was created by Act No. 16 of 2018 and in Japan it goes by 出国税. It has existed since 7 January 2019 and for seven years cost 1.000¥ per person per departure. For departures on or after 1 July 2026 it is 3.000¥. That date held, with no delay and no grace period. Nationality and purpose of travel make no difference: Japanese residents pay it alongside tourists and business travellers.
What most write-ups get wrong is that the rate turns on when the carriage contract was signed, not on when you fly. The tax agency keeps the old 1.000¥ for departures after 1 July 2026 if the ticket was contracted earlier, but two further conditions apply: the departure date from Japan must already have been fixed before 1 July, and the carrier's terms must not provide for collecting the tax separately from the fare. An open-dated ticket you pin down later pays 3.000¥. Change your departure date in July or afterwards and the old rate is gone.
The exemption list is longer than the two items usually quoted. Children under 2 do not pay, with age measured on the departure date, except on return tickets, where the age on the first leg counts. Nor do ship and aircraft crew, deportees, people leaving on official state aircraft or vessels, anyone put back on Japanese soil by bad weather or an emergency landing, or deep-sea fishermen. Diplomats and consular officers posted to Japan are exempt when travelling on official duty, as are state guests and personnel of the United States and United Nations forces.
What it means for your trip
For most travellers this is 2.000¥ more per person, once, already paid before you leave home. It sits inside the ticket, in the tax breakdown, not at an airport counter: there is nothing to do at Narita, Haneda or Kansai. A family of four with two children over two pays 8.000¥ more than in 2025. What that comes to in your own currency depends on the rate on the day. The only people dealing with customs directly are those leaving on a private jet or their own boat.
You pay every time you leave Japan, not once per trip: if your route includes a hop to Seoul and then a return to Japan for the flight home, that is two departures and 6.000¥ per person. A ferry to Busan or a cruise sailing from Yokohama is taxed exactly the same, collected by the shipping line. And a ticket bought before July is no guarantee of the 1.000¥ rate: JAL set 30 June as the cut-off for its dynamic packages and said that for departures from 5 August 2026 it would charge the 2.000¥ difference even on earlier bookings.
Questions
I bought my ticket in May 2026 and fly now, is it 1.000¥ or 3.000¥?
That depends on three things, not just the purchase date. If the contract was concluded before 1 July 2026, the departure date from Japan was already fixed at that point, and the carrier's terms do not provide for collecting the tax separately from the fare, you pay 1.000¥. Miss any one and it is 3.000¥; your ticket's tax breakdown is how you check.
Does transit under 24 hours always mean no tax?
No. The exemption covers air transit only, on a single issued ticket, where the arrival time in Japan and the departure time fall within 24 hours according to that ticket. Separately purchased tickets do not qualify, and transferring between ships is not exempt even if you leave within 24 hours.
Does my child pay?
Only if they turn 2 before the departure date. The exemption is for children under 2, measured by age on the day you leave Japan, except on return tickets, where age on the first leg counts. Being exempt from the tax does not remove the airline's own infant fares.
Does it apply the same way if I leave Japan by ferry?
Yes, identically: 3.000¥ per person, collected by the shipping line inside the ticket. The one difference from flying is the transit exemption, which does not cover sea transfers. A cruise departing a Japanese port for a foreign one is taxed too.
Is there anything to pay or sign at the airport?
Nothing. There is no desk, no form and no separate queue, and arriving in Japan triggers no payment of this tax. The taxable event is leaving, the carrier acts as collecting agent and remits the money itself. In practice you paid it when you booked the ticket.
What is still unclear
The clause about collecting the tax separately from the fare is what decides whether you keep the 1.000¥ rate, and there is no public list of which carriers have that wording. Two people who booked on the same day with different airlines can pay different amounts, and the only dependable check is your own ticket's breakdown. Charging visitors more than residents is ruled out by international aviation treaties, which is why the increase also lands on Japanese travellers.
Build your route with this already factored in
The planner accounts for these changes where they matter: the JR Pass comparison uses current prices, and the cost summary includes the taxes you will actually run into.
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