Visiting Japan as a Temporary Visitor
This replaces the general rule for you
Nationals of Switzerland: an arrangement of six months, but ninety days at the border
Japan's arrangement with Switzerland permits a stay of up to six months, which is longer than any period the Immigration Control Act lets an immigration inspector grant on landing. The Act's ministerial regulation caps a Temporary Visitor permission at ninety days, and the foreign ministry says in its own note what follows: a national of Switzerland who wants more than ninety days applies to the Ministry of Justice for an extension, inside Japan, before the permission already granted runs out. So the six months is real and it is not given at the counter - it is ninety days and an application, and missing the date turns a lawful stay into an overstay.
Japan admits visitors under one of twenty-nine statuses of residence, the one for tourism being Temporary Visitor. The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act requires a valid passport carrying a Japanese visa, and lifts that requirement for nationals of countries with which Japan has a visa exemption arrangement - 74 countries and regions, on the Foreign Ministry's own count. The permission granted at the border is ninety days, thirty days or fifteen days, and which of the three you get is set by the arrangement with your country rather than by anything you do at the counter. Paid work is not among the activities a Temporary Visitor may carry out.
At a glance
- Status of residence for tourism
- Temporary Visitor (短期滞在)
Appended Table I(3) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
- Period of stay granted
- 90, 30 or 15 days
Appended Table II of the Regulation for Enforcement of the Act, which also lets the Minister of Justice designate any period in days up to 90.
- Longest a Temporary Visitor permission can run
- 90 days
The Regulation caps the designated period at 90 days. Article 2-2(3) of the Act caps a period of stay generally at 5 years, which is a different ceiling and does not reach this status.
- Countries and regions with a visa exemption arrangement
- 74
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs page of 1 September 2025, which lists them by name.
- Visa exemption written into the Act
- No country is named
Article 6(1) exempts whoever an international agreement or a notification to a foreign government exempts, and names nobody. The list is the Foreign Ministry's.
- Paid work as a Temporary Visitor
- Not among the authorised activities
The Appended Table I(3) entry lists sightseeing, recreation, sports, visiting relatives, tours, lectures or meetings and business liaison. Earning is not on it.
- Fingerprints and photograph at the border
- Required
Article 6(3) of the Act, which excepts special permanent residents, people under sixteen, and holders of Diplomat or Official status.
Requirements
- A passport valid for the stay
- A Japanese visa, unless your nationality is covered by a visa exemption arrangement or you hold a re-entry permission
- An onward or return ticket, or a carrier's guarantee in its place
- A valid passport allowing entry to a country other than Japan
- Evidence that you can meet all your costs while in Japan
- Fingerprints and a facial photograph at the border, unless you are under sixteen or hold a Diplomat or Official status
In detail
The exemption is not in the Act and the Act names nobody
Article 6(1) says a visa is required and then lifts the requirement for anyone exempted by an international agreement or by a notification the Japanese Government has made to a foreign government. It names no country, sets no period and states no condition. Everything a traveller actually needs to know - whether their nationality is covered, for how long, and whether an electronic passport is a condition of it - lives on the Foreign Ministry's list and in the exchanges of notes behind it, not in the statute. That is why a change to this list takes no amendment to any law and can be announced and applied within weeks.
Ninety days is the usual answer and three of the seventy-four get less
The Regulation offers the immigration inspector ninety, thirty or fifteen days. The Foreign Ministry states which one each arrangement carries: fifteen days for Indonesia and Thailand, thirty for Brunei and Qatar, and ninety for everyone else on the list.
Seven nationalities have six months, and not at the border
The Foreign Ministry marks Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom with a note saying their bilateral arrangements permit stays of up to six months - and then says that anyone wishing to stay beyond ninety days must apply to the immigration bureau for an extension before the permitted period expires. The two statements fit together exactly: the landing permission itself cannot exceed ninety days, because the Regulation does not allow a longer one for this status, so the second half of a six-month visit is an extension granted inside Japan rather than something stamped on arrival.
A passport that Japan does not accept
Uruguay is on the exemption list with a condition attached to the document rather than to the person. The Foreign Ministry states that the new Uruguayan ordinary passport issued after 16 April 2025, which omits the place of birth from the data page, is not recognised as valid by the Japanese government, and that such passports are not eligible for travel to Japan at all. Uruguayan nationals holding the older design keep the exemption even if the booklet was issued after that date. This is a condition on the booklet's design, and it bites whether or not the traveller has a visa.
What applies to you
Nationals of Switzerland: an arrangement of six months, but ninety days at the border
Japan's arrangement with Switzerland permits a stay of up to six months, which is longer than any period the Immigration Control Act lets an immigration inspector grant on landing. The Act's ministerial regulation caps a Temporary Visitor permission at ninety days, and the foreign ministry says in its own note what follows: a national of Switzerland who wants more than ninety days applies to the Ministry of Justice for an extension, inside Japan, before the permission already granted runs out. So the six months is real and it is not given at the counter - it is ninety days and an application, and missing the date turns a lawful stay into an overstay.
What the law says
«第六条 本邦に上陸しようとする外国人（乗員を除く。以下この節において同じ。）は、有効な旅券で日本国領事官等の査証を受けたものを所持しなければならない。»Our translation - not official
Article 6(1) A foreign national seeking to land in Japan (except for a crew member; hereinafter the same applies in this Section) must possess a valid passport bearing a visa issued by a Japanese consular officer or the like.
Ours. The sentence continues with the exceptions, which is where visa exemption lives: the proviso covers a passport for which no visa is required under an international agreement or under a notification made by the Japanese Government to a foreign government.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Article 6(1)Any foreign national (except for a crew member; hereinafter the same applies in this Section) who seeks to land in Japan must possess a valid passport with a visa issued by a Japanese consular officer, etc.; provided, however, that a visa is not required for the passport of a foreign national for whom a visa issued by a Japanese consular officer, etc. is unnecessary pursuant to an international agreement or through notification to that effect from the Japanese Government to a foreign government»Known to be out of date. The e-Gov text in force on 1 October 2026 points the same proviso at Article 61-2-15(1) for refugee travel documents; this 2019 translation still says Article 61-2-12(1). The renumbering is one visible consequence of the 2023 amendments, which this translation does not carry.
The Ministry of Justice's own English. Its NOTICE TO USERS says the translations are not official texts and that only the original Japanese has legal effect, so this is printed beside the Japanese rather than instead of it. This file is the Act as it stood at Act No. 63 of 2019.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«本邦に短期間滞在して行う観光、保養、スポーツ、親族の訪問、見学、講習又は会合への参加、業務連絡その他これらに類似する活動»The whole of what a Temporary Visitor may do. Nothing in it is paid.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Activities for sightseeing, recreation, sports, visiting relatives, tour of facilities, participating in lectures or meetings, business liaison or other similar activities during a short stay in Japan.»The Ministry of Justice's unofficial English for the same row.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«九十日、三十日又は十五日（法務大臣が個々の外国人について九十日を超えない範囲内で日を単位とする期間を指定する場合にあつては、当該指定する期間）»Our translation - not official
Ninety days, thirty days or fifteen days (where the Minister of Justice designates for an individual foreign national a period measured in days not exceeding ninety days, that designated period).
Ours. This is where the ninety days comes from; the Act itself fixes no number for this status.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«一 本邦から出国するための航空機等の切符又はこれに代わる運送業者の発行する保証書 二 本邦以外の国に入国することができる当該外国人の有効な旅券 三 在留中の一切の経費の支弁能力を明らかにする資料»Our translation - not official
(i) a ticket for an aircraft or the like for departure from Japan, or a guarantee issued by a carrier in its place; (ii) a valid passport of the foreign national permitting entry to a country other than Japan; (iii) material making clear the ability to meet all expenses during the stay.
Ours. The documents the Regulation attaches to this status. They are rarely asked for at the counter and they are what the Regulation says may be.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The exemption list was read as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published it on 1 September 2025. It changes by exchange of notes and not by legislation, so the page is the thing to re-read rather than the Act.
Nothing read here is the text of any exemption arrangement itself. The arrangements are exchanges of notes between Japan and each partner, and none of them has been read for this record.
The Foreign Ministry page also carries a note about Colombia, whose nationals it advises to obtain a visa in advance although Colombia does not appear in the table. No instrument read here explains the status of that arrangement.
Eight of the arrangements are conditional on holding an ICAO-compliant electronic or machine-readable passport, and two - Indonesia and Qatar - also require the passport to have been registered in advance with a Japanese mission. The Foreign Ministry names which.
- consolidates出入国管理及び難民認定法 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidates出入国管理及び難民認定法施行規則 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- publishesImmigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act - Japanese/English
Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice) · consolidated to 2019
About this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- administersVisa Exemptions for Short-Term Stays
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
About this source
Japan's foreign ministry, which issues visas through its missions abroad and publishes the list of countries and regions whose nationals do not need one. The visa exemption list is the authoritative statement of a thing that appears in no statute: article 6(1) of the Immigration Act exempts whoever an international agreement or a notification to a foreign government exempts, and names nobody, so this page is where the names are. Each entry carries the period of stay the arrangement grants and any condition on the passport itself, and the page is dated.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It describes arrangements rather than publishing them: the arrangements are exchanges of notes with each partner and the texts are not on this site. It is not a source for anything after landing - periods of stay granted at the border, extensions, and every status of residence other than Temporary Visitor belong to the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Services Agency. It must not be cited for the Immigration Act itself.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersVisa Exemptions for Short-Term Stays - period of stay
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
About this source
Japan's foreign ministry, which issues visas through its missions abroad and publishes the list of countries and regions whose nationals do not need one. The visa exemption list is the authoritative statement of a thing that appears in no statute: article 6(1) of the Immigration Act exempts whoever an international agreement or a notification to a foreign government exempts, and names nobody, so this page is where the names are. Each entry carries the period of stay the arrangement grants and any condition on the passport itself, and the page is dated.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It describes arrangements rather than publishing them: the arrangements are exchanges of notes with each partner and the texts are not on this site. It is not a source for anything after landing - periods of stay granted at the border, extensions, and every status of residence other than Temporary Visitor belong to the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Services Agency. It must not be cited for the Immigration Act itself.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersVisa Exemptions for Short-Term Stays - six-month arrangements
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
About this source
Japan's foreign ministry, which issues visas through its missions abroad and publishes the list of countries and regions whose nationals do not need one. The visa exemption list is the authoritative statement of a thing that appears in no statute: article 6(1) of the Immigration Act exempts whoever an international agreement or a notification to a foreign government exempts, and names nobody, so this page is where the names are. Each entry carries the period of stay the arrangement grants and any condition on the passport itself, and the page is dated.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It describes arrangements rather than publishing them: the arrangements are exchanges of notes with each partner and the texts are not on this site. It is not a source for anything after landing - periods of stay granted at the border, extensions, and every status of residence other than Temporary Visitor belong to the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Services Agency. It must not be cited for the Immigration Act itself.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersVisa Exemptions for Short-Term Stays - Uruguayan passports
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
About this source
Japan's foreign ministry, which issues visas through its missions abroad and publishes the list of countries and regions whose nationals do not need one. The visa exemption list is the authoritative statement of a thing that appears in no statute: article 6(1) of the Immigration Act exempts whoever an international agreement or a notification to a foreign government exempts, and names nobody, so this page is where the names are. Each entry carries the period of stay the arrangement grants and any condition on the passport itself, and the page is dated.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It describes arrangements rather than publishing them: the arrangements are exchanges of notes with each partner and the texts are not on this site. It is not a source for anything after landing - periods of stay granted at the border, extensions, and every status of residence other than Temporary Visitor belong to the Ministry of Justice and the Immigration Services Agency. It must not be cited for the Immigration Act itself.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source