Visit Japan Web (VJW) is a free service from Japan’s Digital Agency. You fill in your immigration and customs information before you fly, then show a single QR code when you land instead of writing out paper forms on the plane.
This guide walks through every screen with official screenshots, and covers something most guides skip: which entry lane your specific airport actually gives you. Some terminals at Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Fukuoka have joint kiosks that handle immigration and customs together. Everywhere else works differently, but your QR code is still worth having. All screenshots come from the official VJW site, and every figure below was checked against government sources in August 2026.
Section three below covers account creation in brief. For the full background, see New Rules for Japanese Immigration: mySOS Retired in Favour of VJW →
Three things that changed for 2026
If you last used VJW a year or two ago, the registration process itself is unchanged. Three other things are not.
Rolled out from April 2025, with Fukuoka added in December 2025. These machines pass your passport, photo and declaration to both immigration and customs in one transaction. Coverage details in the next section.
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The Digital Agency has never published a VJW app on Google Play or the App Store. Anything using the name is third-party, and some of it exists to harvest passport details. What the government does provide is an offline service that saves the website to your phone’s home screen — installation steps are further down.
Japan switches from an in-store discount to an airport refund: you pay the full tax-inclusive price in the shop, then claim the consumption tax back before departure. This has nothing to do with entering Japan, but it will change how much time you need at the airport on your way out. See our guide to Japan’s tax-free changes.
Which lane does your airport give you
You will often see VJW described as working at a fixed list of airports. There is no such official list. There are three overlapping systems, and what you get depends on which ones your airport has.
| What you get | Where | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Joint kiosk Immigration and customs data submitted in one go — the fastest option | Narita T3, Haneda T2 and T3, Kansai T1 and T2, Fukuoka (hours below) | IC chip passport and VJW QR code |
| Customs e-gate Walk through customs without stopping | New Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Fukuoka, Naha — seven airports | IC chip passport required |
| All other airports, including Kobe No paper forms, but no automatic gate | Everywhere else | Your QR code is read at the staffed inspection desk |
Yes. Kobe is not on the seven-airport customs e-gate list, but your QR code is still read by a scanner at the staffed inspection desk, which saves you filling in paper forms. The only difference is that there is no automatic gate to walk through.
Joint kiosk terminals and operating hours
| Airport | Terminal | In service since | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kansai International | Terminal 1 | 1 Apr 2025 | 08:00–22:00 |
| Kansai International | Terminal 2 | 1 Apr 2025 | 09:00–21:00 |
| Haneda | Terminal 2 | 1 Apr 2025 | 04:30–23:30 |
| Haneda | Terminal 3 | 11 Apr 2025 | 24 hours |
| Narita International | Terminal 3 | 7 Apr 2025 | 07:00–21:30 |
| Fukuoka | Single terminal | 1 Dec 2025 | 07:00–21:00 |
Hours can shift with the flight schedule, so if you are on a red-eye or an early-morning arrival, check your landing time against the table. Haneda Terminal 3 is the only round-the-clock kiosk, which is worth knowing if you are choosing between late-night flights.
There is no kiosk option to select anywhere in VJW and nothing extra to prepare. The kiosk reads exactly the same QR code the staffed counters use.
Conditions for using the customs e-gate
These details sit on the Japan Customs site and rarely make it into travel guides, but they matter if you are travelling with small children or a lot of luggage.
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Passport | Must be an IC chip passport. Non-IC passports cannot use the gate |
| Families | Each person passes individually with their own QR code |
| Young children | Children under 100cm may pass through holding a parent’s hand |
| Facial recognition | Remove masks, hats and sunglasses for the photo |
| Luggage trolleys | You can push a trolley straight through the gate |
| Wheelchairs | Wheelchair users pass through without leaving the chair |
| Items over the allowance | Anything above the duty-free limit, or any unaccompanied baggage, still needs a staffed inspection desk |
The 100cm exception applies to the customs e-gate. The joint kiosk has a separate rule: travellers under 135cm cannot operate the machine themselves. Different machines, different numbers — don’t mix them up.
Creating your account
First-time users need to register. All it takes is an email address and a password, and it runs about three minutes.
Open the official VJW site, tap Create new account, and agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.
Enter your email and set a password. It must be at least 10 characters and include uppercase, lowercase, a number and a symbol — for example Ab1234567+. Permitted symbols are +-*/=.,:;`@!#$%?|~^()[]{}_.
A confirmation code arrives by email. Do not close the page before you enter it — closing it invalidates the code and you start over. If nothing arrives, check your spam folder and make sure @vjw.digital.go.jp is not being blocked.
At login VJW asks whether you want to set up multi-factor authentication. It is optional and the service works fine without it, but if you want it you will need an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. Given that your passport number lives in this account, the extra lock is not unreasonable.
Part 1: Register your details (one-time setup)
This section only needs completing once. Your details are saved to the account and reused on every future trip.
Step 1: Open “Your Details”
From the VJW home screen, tap Your Details to start registering your personal information.
Step 2: Entry or return
VJW will ask whether you are making a new entry into Japan or returning to Japan. Choose the answer that matches your actual situation. For the second question, select “No” if you are a tourist, short-term visitor, or first-time visitor to Japan. Select “Yes” if you are a long-term resident with a Japanese residence card, such as a student, worker, or permanent resident.
If you hold a long-term Japanese visa, submitted a “special re-entry permit” form at the airport when you left, and are returning while your residence card and visa are still valid, answer Yes. First-time visitors, anyone who did not submit that form, and anyone whose residence card has expired should answer No. The same applies on a working holiday visa. If you are unsure, answer No and explain at the counter.
Step 3: Passport details
You can scan your passport with the camera or choose to type the details in manually. Names must be entered in capital letters exactly as printed on the bio-data page.
Make sure the name matches your airline booking, including middle names. If your ticket shows JOHN SMITH but your passport shows JOHN WILLIAM SMITH, go with what the passport says and contact the airline if the two genuinely differ.
If your passport has less than six months of validity remaining, VJW displays an alert at this step. It will not stop you continuing, but it is a prompt to check that your passport covers the whole trip.
Step 4: Intended address in Japan (optional)
Optional at this stage. If you have a regular address or a hotel you use often, entering it here means it will be pre-filled when you register a trip. If you stay somewhere different every visit, leave it blank and fill it in per trip instead.
Tap Enter automatically using postal code and type your hotel’s seven-digit code. The prefecture and municipality fill themselves in, leaving only the street number. This avoids having to interpret a Japanese address at all — your hotel’s postal code is usually in the booking confirmation or the website footer.
Step 5: Registration complete
How accompanying family works
This is where most people go wrong, and the two common misunderstandings point in opposite directions.
The first is assuming only infants can be registered. In fact the rule is that family members entering Japan at the same time can be registered as accompanying family, up to ten per account, with no age restriction. The second is assuming that registering them means the family shares one QR code. That is also wrong — each family member still needs their own registered details and their own QR code, and each is processed individually at the border. The same applies at a joint kiosk: accompanying family members each operate the machine themselves.
What accompanying family saves you is the trouble of setting up separate accounts. It does not merge anyone’s border formalities.
After completing your own details, return to the home screen and tap Family member accompanying you to add them.
Accompanying family covers spouses, direct ascendants and direct descendants. Friends cannot register each other. Everyone registered must also travel together throughout — arriving and departing as a group. If you may split up, the feature does not apply and each adult needs their own account.
Part 2: Register your trip
With your details saved, each trip to Japan is registered separately with its own flight and accommodation information.
Step 1: Start a new registration
From the home screen, tap New registration. If you have travelled before, you can copy the details from a previous trip rather than starting from scratch.
A single account holds up to 100 planned entries at once, and arrival dates can be set as far ahead as 31 December of the following year. If you already have several Japan trips booked, you can enter all of them now.
Step 2: Enter your flight details
Use the details of your final arriving flight into Japan, not a connecting one. Flying London to Tokyo via Seoul means entering the Seoul–Tokyo leg. The trip name is your choice; leave it blank and VJW fills in the arrival date instead.
Step 3: Enter your address in Japan
Enter where you will be staying on this trip. Postal code, prefecture, city, street address, hotel name and a contact phone number are all required.
Ask your host for the full address including postal code. For the hotel name field you can write your friend’s name or simply “Private residence”, and use their mobile number as the contact.
Steps 4 and 5: Add family, then confirm
If you have registered accompanying family, tick the ones travelling on this trip. If you have not, VJW skips this screen entirely.
Part 3: Complete your entry procedures
With the trip registered, two forms remain: the Disembarkation Card for immigration and the Customs Declaration. Your QR code appears only once both are done.
Both forms can be completed any time before departure. Once done, your QR code is ready and you will not need a connection at the airport to show it.
Disembarkation Card (immigration)
This is the digital version of the paper immigration card. Japanese nationals and foreign residents holding a residence card do not fill it in — the button appears greyed out.
On the Japan Entry/Return Procedure screen, tap Disembarkation Card For Foreigner and fill in your name, date of birth, nationality and city of birth.
Enter your purpose of visit, arriving flight number and intended length of stay. The stay fields cap at 5 years, 12 months and 180 days, and you cannot leave all three at zero.
Enter your Japan address again, then answer the short declaration questions about deportation history and criminal convictions, and submit.
Customs Declaration
This replaces the paper declaration form previously handed out on the plane.
Tap Declaration of Personal Effects and Unaccompanied Articles, then fill in your passport number, name, occupation, arrival date, flight name and point of embarkation. If you are travelling with others, select the group size here.
Enter the address once more, then work through the declaration questions: excess cash or securities, restricted items, unaccompanied baggage, and commercial goods or samples.
The itemised section of the customs declaration holds up to eight entries. Personal purchases worth 10,000 yen or less per item do not need listing at all, and unaccompanied baggage goes in its own field rather than here.
Your QR code: one code for everything
Since 25 January 2024 the immigration and customs codes have been merged into a single QR code. One code now covers both procedures.
The Immigration Services Agency states plainly that the QR code can be used as a screenshot. The one condition is that if you edit your registered information afterwards, you must regenerate the code and take a fresh screenshot — the old one stops working. Capture the whole code including the coloured header above it.
What actually happens when you land
Most guides stop at the QR code, which is exactly where the questions start. Here are both versions of the arrival process.
If your terminal has joint kiosks
Follow the kiosk signage. The machines sit on the arrivals route before immigration, usually with staff alongside directing people.
Scan your QR code, place your IC passport on the reader, then have your photograph and fingerprints taken. The kiosk switches to your language automatically when it reads the code. Masks, hats and sunglasses come off for the photo.
Continue to immigration through the dedicated lane for kiosk users and show your passport to an officer. Foreign travellers cannot skip this — the non-stop walk-through gate is for Japanese nationals only. What the dedicated lane buys you is a much shorter queue, not the absence of a counter.
Collect your baggage and pass the automated customs gate. This part is the same for everyone: if no inspection is required, facial recognition opens the gate and you are out.
Even after a clean run at the kiosk, customs officers can still select you for a baggage inspection. The QR code replaces the paperwork, not the officer’s judgement. And if you are carrying anything above the duty-free allowance, or have unaccompanied baggage, you must use a staffed desk regardless.
If it doesn’t
Join the immigration queue and show your QR code with your passport. The officer scans it, takes your photograph and fingerprints, and stamps you in.
After collecting your bags, present the same code at customs. Airports with an e-gate — New Chitose, Chubu, Naha and the rest of the seven — let you through on facial recognition. Airports without one, Kobe among them, read your code at the staffed desk instead. Either way, no paper forms.
The thing that actually catches people out in the arrivals hall is not the queue, it is having no phone signal. Free Wi-Fi exists at every major Japanese airport but slows to a crawl at peak arrival times. A screenshotted QR code is immune to that; your onward train booking and hotel map are not. Our guide to getting online at Japan’s airports covers what is available where.
An eSIM activates the moment you land — no counter to find, no queue after a long flight, and no gap between the plane door and your first train. CDJapan Rental’s eSIM runs on the docomo network, which has the widest coverage in Japan, and installs before you leave home.
Installing the offline service
For the gap between landing and finding airport Wi-Fi, VJW can show your QR code offline. This is not an App Store download — it saves the website to your home screen.
iPhone (Safari)
Open the VJW site in Safari, tap the share button at the bottom of the screen, choose Add to Home Screen, then confirm.
Android (Chrome)
Open the VJW site in Chrome. A prompt reading “Add Visit Japan Web to Home screen” appears at the bottom — tap it. If nothing appears, use the three-dot menu at top right and choose Install app.
Offline you can display an already-generated QR code, select a trip you registered earlier, and complete or edit the immigration and customs forms. You cannot create an account, log in, register your personal details, add a new trip, link a visa, or generate a tax-free QR code for the first time. You also have to log in online at least once before any of the offline functions work.
Anything registered while offline is stored on the device alone. Delete it and it is gone, and it will not sync to your other devices. After filling anything in offline, reopen the trip once you have a connection so the data uploads.
The tax-free QR code, and what changes in November
VJW also generates a tax-free QR code that some duty-free shops will scan instead of photographing your passport. You enable it by answering Yes to the tax-free question when registering your details and adding your passport photo page. After arriving in Japan you then scan the landing permission stamp in your passport to finish the setup.
Not every tax-free counter supports it, and plenty will still ask for the physical passport as a second check. The code also expires, and renewing it means re-scanning your landing permission data.
Japan is moving from an in-store discount to an airport refund. You will pay the full tax-inclusive price at the till and reclaim the consumption tax before departure. That changes how you handle receipts and how much time to leave at the airport on your way home. Our guide to the tax-free changes covers the detail.
JESTA, coming in 2028
VJW is not mandatory. Travellers who skip it fill in paper forms at the airport, which simply takes longer.
A genuinely mandatory step is on its way, though. Japan has legislated JESTA, an ESTA-style travel authorization for visa-free visitors, targeted for fiscal 2028. Unlike VJW, without it an airline will not board you at all. It is a separate system, it is not expected to replace VJW, and there is nothing to apply for yet.
Common questions
What if my passport has no IC chip?
You can still register and your QR code still works, but you cannot use joint kiosks or the customs e-gate — both require an IC chip. You will go through the regular staffed lanes instead, and you still save yourself the paper forms. Most passports issued in the last fifteen years have the chip; the symbol on the cover is the giveaway.
My QR code won’t scan at the airport
Raise your screen brightness to maximum and wipe the screen. If it still fails, try showing a saved screenshot rather than the live page — it often scans better. If neither works, tell the officer. They can process you manually and it happens often enough that nobody will be surprised.
I can’t log in to my account
VJW uses one-time verification emails rather than a stored password reminder. Check spam and junk folders, and make sure @vjw.digital.go.jp is not blocked. If the original email address is gone for good, register a fresh account — the old data is tied to that address and will not transfer. There is a delete-account option on the login screen if you want to tidy up, though information already submitted to government agencies is not removed by it.
I entered something wrong — can I fix it?
Yes, right up until you enter Japan. Open the planned entry and tap Edit. If you have already generated a QR code you will need to regenerate it and take a new screenshot. Small errors spotted at the airport can simply be raised with the officer.
My registration says “under review” — is that a problem?
No. It is common for first-time users and your QR code remains valid. The officer performs a brief routine check.
Can I use VJW if I arrive by cruise ship?
No. VJW currently supports air arrivals only. Cruise and ferry passengers complete paper forms. Check with your cruise line about what to bring.
My connecting flight number isn’t in the airline list
Enter the final flight that lands in Japan, not the departure or connection. If the airline itself is missing from the dropdown, select “Other airline” and type the flight name manually. For codeshare flights, use the operating carrier’s flight number.
Can I declare for my whole family at once?
For customs, partly. Once accompanying family are registered, VJW offers to fill in their declarations together, which lets you skip repeating some fields. Immigration is still handled individually, and every person needs their own QR code.
Is it required? How far in advance? VJW versus paper forms? Those are answered in our VJW FAQ and troubleshooting guide.
Entry sorted? The next question is where to actually go. If you would rather skip the crowds, browse our pick of hidden-gem destinations across Japan.
Sources
Immigration Services Agency of Japan, “Operation of Joint Kiosks” — terminals, operating hours, arrival flow
Japan Customs, Ministry of Finance, “Electronic Declaration Gates at Seven Airports“, updated April 2025 — e-gate airport list and conditions
Digital Agency, “Visit Japan Web Operation Manual” v3.16, 22 July 2026, English edition — system limits, offline restrictions
All screenshots from the official VJW site, Digital Agency. Official sources checked 28 August 2026.
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