Japan's tax-free shopping is now a refund you claim on the way out
Tax-freesince November 1, 2026
Reviewed on 2026-11-04. This information expires: confirm it close to your travel dates.
The system is 輸出物品販売場制度, yushutsu buppin hanbaijo seido, and the new procedure is the リファンド方式, which the Japan Tourism Agency calls the Refund Method in English. Until 31 October 2026 a registered shop took the consumption tax off at the till. Since 1 November 2026 you pay the tax-inclusive price, customs confirms at departure that the goods are leaving the country, and only then does the shop, or the refund operator it has contracted, pay you back. It arrived without postponement: Japan Customs now describes the move in the past tense, and the National Tax Agency treats the method as implemented from that date.
The threshold did not move: 5.000¥ excluding tax, per shop, per day, roughly 5.500¥ on the receipt at the 10% rate. What went is the split between general goods and consumables, so food, alcohol and cosmetics now count towards that minimum alongside clothes or electronics. Also gone are the 500.000¥ per shop per day ceiling on consumables, the sealed packaging, and the rule that purchases be for ordinary personal use. In their place, one deadline: customs must confirm the export within 90 days of purchase, instead of six months for general goods and thirty days for consumables. Gold and platinum, as bullion or as coins, are excluded from the scheme.
What comes back is the tax that was inside the price: 3.000¥ on a 33.000¥ tax-inclusive item at 10%, slightly less on food and soft drinks, which carry the reduced 8% rate. Neither figure appears on any tax-free page: they all refer to an amount equivalent to the consumption tax, without a number, so the rates that govern are Japan's ordinary consumption tax rates.
How the money reaches you is each shop's choice: bank transfer, a credit back to the card you paid with, an app wallet, or cash at the airport once customs has cleared you. This is where the small print sits, and it is larger than it looks. The Japan Tourism Agency states in writing that consumption tax law sets no rules on how the refund is carried out, that nothing is established about whether the shop or the traveller pays the refund operator's fee, that you should settle it with the operator, and that in other countries the traveller usually bears it. The government itself charges nothing for the procedure, so any fee you see is a private one. And the refund does not have to be money: the same guidance allows paying it in coupons or points redeemable only at particular outlets.
What it means for your trip
First, you are out of pocket for the whole trip. Second, the paperwork lands on your last morning and it happens before check-in: passport into a tax-free terminal in the public part of the international departure lobby, before the baggage desk. Green means done, red means an officer wants to see the goods. At Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka, New Chitose and Naha you can do it on your phone through Visit Japan Web instead, on the lobby wi-fi and before security. Once the suitcase is checked in it does not come back, and that receipt loses its refund. And if you fly out via a domestic connection, Osaka to Tokyo and Tokyo home, the procedure belongs at the airport you actually leave Japan from, not the first one.
The rule that will cost people money is that the check is done receipt by receipt, as a whole. If one item from a purchase is missing, because you gave it away, left it at the hotel or ate it, the refund on that entire receipt goes. Opened or part-used consumables have their own route: skip the terminal and tell a customs officer at the counter. You do not need to bring the receipt, since the procedure runs on your passport, but the payment method is registered in the shop at the moment of purchase: that choice is made at the till, not at the airport. Leave margin, because the machine takes seconds and the inspection queue does not. And the money may not reach you before you land at home.
Questions
I bought something on 30 October and I am leaving Japan now. Do I have to claim anything?
No, nothing. What decides is the date of sale, not the date of your flight: on purchases up to 31 October 2026 the shop already took the tax off at the till and there is nothing outstanding. Only purchases from 1 November onwards go through customs, and you have 90 days from each purchase to do it.
Will I be charged a fee on the refund?
Possibly, and the Japan Tourism Agency itself treats it as normal: it says there is no rule on whether the shop or the traveller pays, that you should settle it with the operator, and that in other countries the traveller usually bears it. The government charges nothing for the procedure, so anything deducted is private. Ask at the till how much, how you get paid and when.
How long before the flight, and before or after checking my bag?
Always before you hand the bag over: once it is checked in you cannot get it back for customs to look at. No official minimum time has been published, by Customs or by the Tourism Agency. The terminal takes seconds, but a red result puts you in a physical inspection queue.
What if I leave Japan from a seaport or a small airport?
This is where the real risk is. Terminals and inspection points sit in the international departure lobbies, but Customs warns that its map does not cover every airport and seaport and that at some the terminal is not permanent, pointing you to the local customs officer. The Visit Japan Web route exists only at the seven big airports. If you are leaving from a cruise port or a small airport, ask before you buy, not after.
What about things I have already eaten or used on the trip?
They are not refunded. A consumable used up in Japan drops out and, because the check is per receipt, it drags the rest of that receipt with it. If you have used part of one, the official instruction is to skip the terminal and tell a customs officer.
Do I have to carry the shopping in my hand luggage, and the receipt?
The receipt is not needed: the procedure runs on your passport. The goods do have to be with you, and they can travel in the big suitcase as long as you clear customs before checking it in and can open it if asked. What does not work is checking in first and looking for the counter afterwards.
Can they refund me in coupons instead of cash?
Yes, and it is worth knowing before you buy. The official guidance for shops allows refunds in coupons or in points redeemable only at particular outlets, and even paying more than the tax. It is lawful. If what you want is money, ask about the payment method at the till, because that is where it is registered.
What is still unclear
The fee is no longer wide open, but it is not settled either. What is written down is that no rule says who pays it, that the government keeps none of it, and that the Japan Tourism Agency treats the traveller bearing it as the normal outcome. What does not exist is an amount, a cap, any duty to tell you before you buy, or a public list of which chains pay cash at the airport and which send a transfer weeks later.
Nor is there a deadline. No rule states how many days a shop has to pay you: shops are merely advised to agree a date with the traveller, and unclaimed money has no statutory holding period.
Which airports and seaports have terminals is still not published as a readable list. Customs has a map, but warns itself that not all of them are on it and that some airports and seaports have no permanent terminal, pointing you to the local customs officer instead. There is no recommended minimum time before the flight either: neither Customs nor the Tourism Agency gives a figure, only to allow plenty of time.
And there is one piece nobody has joined up yet, so it is labelled for what it is: our own conclusion, not a published fact. On 15 September 2026 the Japanese cabinet approved cutting the consumption tax on food to 1% for two years, from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029, a measure that still depends on passing the Diet. If it does pass, and because what is refunded is the tax that was inside the price, the refund on food would fall from 8% to 1% for that window: from 800¥ to 100¥ on every 10.000¥ of food before tax. No official tax-free page mentions the cut, and no page about the cut mentions tax-free.
A note on sources. As of 4 November 2026, with the change already in force, the English version of the Japan Customs site was still written in the future tense, and so was the Osaka tourism bureau's notice. They are not wrong, they are out of date. If you read one and come away thinking this has not happened yet, that is why.
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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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