How to Use Visit Japan Web (2026): One QR for Immigration & Customs

Visit Japan Web is the government website you use to do Japan's arrival paperwork online: your immigration (arrival) card and your customs declaration. You fill it in before you fly, and it generates a QR code you show at the airport instead of paper forms. If you have read elsewhere that there are two codes, that is out of date - immigration and customs were merged into a single code in January 2024. It is free, run by Japan's Digital Agency, and there is no app to install.

What is Visit Japan Web and do you actually need it?

It is a browser-based service (vjw.digital.go.jp) that lets you complete two arrival procedures ahead of time: immigration clearance and the customs declaration. You do not need it - the Immigration Services Agency only recommends it, and paper cards are still handed out on the plane and accepted - but it saves you filling forms in line and lets you clear both steps from one code.

Bottom line: it is a convenience, not a visa and not an entry requirement. If your phone dies you can still enter Japan on paper. It does not replace a visa, and most short-stay visitors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the EU do not need one in the first place - check our Japan visa guide before you worry about paperwork.

Is there a Visit Japan Web app to download?

No. Visit Japan Web is a website, not an app - Japan's Digital Agency runs it as a web service you open in your phone's browser. The Digital Agency has itself published a warning about suspicious lookalike apps using the name, so anything in an app store is not the official product. You log in at vjw.digital.go.jp and the QR code loads in the browser. Nothing to install before you fly.

What happened to the paper arrival card?

It still exists. The paper arrival card - the disembarkation, or ED, card - is handed out on the plane and accepted at every airport, and the Immigration Services Agency explicitly tells travellers who are not comfortable with a smartphone to submit it instead. Visit Japan Web replaces it with a QR code: the same details, entered online rather than on cardboard. Do one or the other, not both.

When and how do you fill it in, step by step?

Do it before you fly, not at the airport. You can register a trip well ahead - the service holds up to 100 planned entries per account - and Japan publishes no cut-off a set number of hours before landing. Doing it at home on Wi-Fi rather than on the plane is the whole point. The official flow runs through the screens below.

Step 1 - Create an account with an email address and a password. Step 2 - Register the traveller: scan your passport with the camera or type the details exactly as printed, and add any companions. Step 3 - Register the trip: arrival date, flight number and your address in Japan (your first hotel is fine). Step 4 - Link a visa if you hold one; this screen is optional. Step 5 - Answer the quarantine health questions. Step 6 - Complete the combined immigration and customs registration. Step 7 - On arrival, open the QR code.

Travelling as a family? One account holder can register up to 10 travel companions and generate a code for each of them - you do not need a separate email per passenger. Note the catch at the airport: Japan Customs states that even families are processed one person at a time at the machines. Have your flight number and hotel address ready before you start; see our Japan booking timeline for when to lock those in.

How does the arrival QR code work at the airport?

You get one 2D code carrying both your immigration record and your customs declaration. They were unified on 25 January 2024, a change that also retired the old standalone Customs Declaration App - codes made in that app stopped working the same day. At Narita Terminal 3, Haneda, Kansai and Fukuoka, joint kiosks read the code and capture your passport and photo in one stop, covering immigration and customs together.

Everywhere else you show the same code twice: once at the immigration counter, then again at an electronic declaration terminal in the customs hall. Seven airports have the walk-through electronic customs gates that follow - New Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chubu Centrair, Kansai, Fukuoka and Naha. Those gates need an IC (chipped) passport; with a non-chipped passport you can still use the kiosk but you will be sent to a staffed counter. Children under 135cm cannot use the joint kiosks.

You need a live connection to open the code when you land, because it is generated in your account rather than stored on the device. Airport Wi-Fi right after a long-haul flight is patchy, so the safe move is to land already online. An eSIM you activate before departure means data works the second you switch off airplane mode. See our best eSIM for Japan guide to pick one.

What are the common mistakes to avoid?

The frequent ones: a passport typo (names must match the passport exactly, or the code fails), leaving it until you land, and still hunting for a second code - there is only one. If the camera scan of your passport keeps failing, switch to manual entry and type the details yourself; that clears most registration errors.

Two more: your account, not the airport, holds your data, so log in with the same email you registered with - a forgotten password at the immigration counter is the worst place to discover this. And do not complete both the online form and the paper card. Pick one, and carry the paper card only as a fallback if your phone dies.

What changes with the new tax-free system on 1 November 2026?

A lot, and Visit Japan Web is barely part of it. From 1 November 2026 Japan moves to a refund method: you pay the full tax-inclusive price in the shop, present the goods and your passport to customs when you leave - within 90 days of purchase - and the consumption tax is refunded afterwards. The instant discount at the register disappears.

Visit Japan Web still issues a separate tax-free 2D code that hands your passport details to a shop, but the National Tax Agency is explicit that accepting it is optional for retailers and not a condition of their tax-free licence. It plays no part in the customs check on departure, which is the step that now decides your refund. For what qualifies and how the money reaches you, read our Japan tourist taxes guide.