How to Use Visit Japan Web for Arrival in Japan

The plane lands in Japan and everyone around you is filling in paper cards with a borrowed pen. The wrong assumption is that Visit Japan Web is a required visa step or a paid app. It is a free, optional web service from Japan's Digital Agency that replaces the paper immigration card and customs declaration with one QR code, and the paper forms still work if you skip it.

Create an account on the official site

Start at the Visit Japan Web landing page and tap Start using the service now, which opens the Visit Japan Web login. It runs in the browser. Tap Create an account, accept the terms, and enter an email address and a password of at least 10 characters mixing uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols, as set out in the Visit Japan Web instruction manual. Multi-factor authentication is offered but optional. The Digital Agency's June 2025 notice says it never asks users to pay a fee.

Register yourself and your passport

The official how-to page sets out the steps. Choose your entry category, then register your passport with Scan with camera or Enter by yourself.

Add family members traveling with you

On the home screen, tap Details of family members traveling with you. The manual allows up to 10 family members under one account, so a family needs one login.

Enter the trip and the customs declaration

Tap Register your entry/return schedule and enter the flight and where you are staying in Japan. Then open the schedule and complete Immigration clearance and customs declaration, which covers both the foreigner entry record and the declaration of personal effects. Since January 25, 2024, both procedures share one 2D code, and the older separate codes no longer work.

Show the QR code at immigration and customs

Display the code from the procedure page on a phone or tablet. A PC works for registration but not at the airport. Show the code at the immigration counter, then at the electronic declaration terminal in the customs area. Japan Customs says to hold the 2D code and the IC passport over the terminal's scanner, after which you walk through the electronic declaration gate. Officers may still inspect baggage. At Haneda, Fukuoka, and Naha the terminal can be used while waiting for bags.

Prepare for no signal at the gate

Airport Wi-Fi is not guaranteed. The offline usage manual explains adding Visit Japan Web to the phone's home screen from the login page's Use the Visit Japan Web site offline link. After logging in online once and opening the registered trip, the QR code can be displayed without a connection.

If you never registered. Fill in the paper Disembarkation Card for Foreigner, in the format shown by the Immigration Services Agency, and the paper customs declaration form, which Japan Customs still accepts and which can be printed on A4 paper in advance.

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