Japan tax refund: how the new tax-free shopping system works

Japan tax free shopping now works the other way round. For purchases made from 1 November 2026, you pay the full price including consumption tax, show your passport to customs at the airport or port before you check in, and the shop or its refund company pays the tax back afterwards.

To qualify, spend 5,000 yen or more before tax at one store in one day, keep the goods with you, and complete the customs check within 90 days of buying. This guide sets out the steps in order, the airport mistakes that cost people their refund, how the money arrives, and how to avoid fake registration sites.

What changed on 1 November 2026

Until 31 October 2026, eligible visitors paid the tax-exclusive price at the till. From 1 November 2026 the shop charges the tax-inclusive price, and the tax comes back only after customs confirms at departure that the goods are leaving Japan. The National Tax Agency says there is no overlap period, so the date you buy decides which system applies.

NHK reported that the change answers continued misuse of the old scheme, including tax-exempt goods resold in Japan for profit and fraudulent refund claims by retailers.

Some rules got simpler. The sealed packaging for food, drink and cosmetics is gone, and so are the old 500,000 yen daily limit on consumables and the split between general goods and consumables. The 5,000 yen minimum stays. What replaces the limits is a practical one: you can only buy what you can carry out of Japan yourself.

Who can claim

Tax-free shopping is for non-residents. For foreign nationals the test is that you entered Japan less than six months ago, shown by your passport and landing permission, which covers ordinary short-stay visitors. Japanese nationals who have lived outside Japan for two years or more can also claim on a temporary return, with supporting documents, but they cannot use the online airport option.

Take your original passport. The official list of accepted documents names the passport, and only cruise ship passengers may show a copy.

What qualifies

• Minimum spend: 5,000 yen or more before tax, from the same store, on the same day. Where a shop passes its tax-free procedures to a shared counter, as some shopping centres do, purchases from several shops on one day can be added together.
• Excluded: gold and platinum bullion and coins, and anything that is exempt from consumption tax anyway.
• Quantity: only what you can personally carry out of Japan when you leave.
• Food, drink and cosmetics: must not be eaten, drunk or used in Japan. Anything else, such as clothes, shoes or electronics, can be worn or used, as long as you still have it when you leave.
• Expensive items: for a single item of 1,000,000 yen or more before tax, customs may ask to see a certificate of authenticity or a warranty. Bring it.

The process, step by step

• 1. Get Visit Japan Web ready, if you want the phone option. Visit Japan Web is the Digital Agency's free website for immigration, customs and tax-free shopping. Customs says it must be set up and ready before you go through the check if you plan to use it. Some shops will also scan its tax-free QR code instead of reading your passport, so ask at the counter. It is optional: your passport works everywhere.
• 2. Shop at an approved tax-free shop and show your passport. The shop records the purchase against your passport in the National Tax Agency's tax-free sales system. Customs matches you to that record at departure.
• 3. Pay the full price, tax included. Keep the receipt.
• 4. Register how you want to be paid. The Japan Tourism Agency says the shop explains this at the counter, so ask. Many shops use a refund company that has you add a card, payment app or bank account through a QR code or link. Methods differ from shop to shop.
• 5. Keep everything with you. Do not open food or cosmetics you plan to claim.
• 6. At your final departure airport or port, do the customs check before you check in. Scan your passport at a tax-free kiosk, or use Visit Japan Web on your phone at the seven airports that offer it. The screen shows a green or a red result.
• 7. Green means you are done. Red means you take the goods to the customs inspection area in the same hall, where an officer confirms they are leaving with you.
• 8. Check in, then collect or wait for the refund. It is paid after customs confirmation, by the method you registered.

The airport check, and how it goes wrong

This is the step where refunds are lost, and the official guidance is blunt about it.

• Do it before you check in. You must have all the goods with you when you scan your passport. Once a bag is checked, you cannot take it back for the tax-free check, so the refund is gone. Chubu Centrair airport notes that once you are through passport control you cannot return to the lobby, and Narita says customs confirmation cannot be done after the departure procedure, even through Visit Japan Web.
• Allow time. The scan takes seconds, but a red result sends you to an inspection queue. If you give up halfway, customs treats it as not confirmed. If you miss your flight because of the tax-free check, neither the airline nor customs compensates you.
• Use your last airport in Japan. If you fly domestically before an international flight, do the check at the airport you leave Japan from, not the first one.
• It works receipt by receipt. Customs confirms each purchase, meaning each receipt. If even one item from a receipt is missing, none of the items on it can be confirmed. If you ate or drank something you bought, do not use the kiosk for that receipt: tell a customs officer at the counter.
• Do not bring goods back. Once confirmed, the goods must leave Japan without delay. If they do not, the tax is collected and penalties apply.
• Receipts are not always checked, but carry them. The kiosk does not need them, but customs may ask to see receipts at the inspection area.

How the refund reaches you

The shop, or a refund company it works with, pays you after customs confirmation. Neither the National Tax Agency nor the Japan Tourism Agency fixes the method or the speed, so what you get depends on the shop. Ask three things at the counter: how you will be paid, what fee comes off, and roughly when.

How much. The refund equals the consumption tax in the price you paid. At the standard 10 percent rate that is about 9.1 percent of the tax-inclusive price: 1,000 yen on an 11,000 yen purchase. Takeaway food and drink carry a lower rate, so the refund is smaller.

Fees. The government charges nothing on refunds. Who pays a refund company's fee is not set by law: the Japan Tourism Agency tells shops it is up to them and their provider, and notes that it is common abroad for the traveler to pay. Nikkei Asia reported that Don Quijote is dropping its handling fees, which shows how far policies can differ.

Cash. Some places pay cash in yen only, and not every shop supports it. Narita has cash refund machines both before and after security, and at Haneda the cash is collected after customs confirmation, past the departure checkpoint. A few chains also pay in town: Yodobashi Camera offers an in-store cash refund at 11 large stores, which needs a registered credit card, and if customs confirmation is not completed when you leave, the advance is charged to that card.

Timing. Official sources give no standard timing, only that the refund follows the customs check. Keep the receipt and the customs result until the money lands.

If you skip a step. No customs confirmation means no refund. If customs confirms your goods but you never registered a way to be paid, the shop can still keep its own tax exemption even though it could not pay you, so registering your refund method at the counter is your job.

Which airports and ports

Tax-free kiosks sit in the international departure lobby before baggage drop, and customs inspection areas are alongside. Customs publishes a map for each airport and seaport, and warns that a few places have no permanent kiosk, so check the map for your departure point a few days ahead.

The Visit Japan Web phone option is available at New Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chubu Centrair, Kansai, Fukuoka and Naha airports. You connect to a dedicated Wi-Fi network in the departure lobby before security. Customs lists the network name as Customs_WiFi_For_TaxRefund, and at Narita the coverage is the 4th floor of Terminal 1, the 3rd floor of Terminal 2 and the 2nd floor of Terminal 3. At Haneda the kiosks are in Terminals 2 and 3, and the airport says Terminal 1 has none.

Cruise passengers do the check at the last port or airport they leave Japan from, before checking in baggage.

How to avoid fake registration and refund scams

The official warnings so far are about fake Visit Japan Web sites and paid QR code services. On 28 May 2026 Japan Customs warned that fake sites imitating Visit Japan Web, and private sites offering to handle the electronic customs declaration for you, were asking for fees or personal information. One reported case was a traveler who paid a site to create their Visit Japan Web QR code. Customs says it charges no fee for the electronic declaration on arrival, and the Digital Agency says it never asks Visit Japan Web users to pay. Because the tax refund also runs partly through Visit Japan Web, the same traps now reach tax-free shoppers.

These checks follow from how the official process works:

• Government registration is free. Visit Japan Web costs nothing, the government takes no fee on refunds, and none of the official steps above involves paying anyone. A page that asks for a fee, a processing charge or an agent's commission to register, create a QR code or unlock your refund is not official.
• Start from an official link. The Digital Agency's page is services.digital.go.jp/en/visit-japan-web/, and Japan Customs links to it. Type the address or follow it from the customs or airport page, not from a search ad or a message. The Digital Agency describes the service as a website you use in a browser.
• You do not need an account for the customs check. A passport scan at a kiosk is enough, so nobody else's registration is a requirement for customs confirmation.
• Register your refund method only through the shop. The shop names its refund company, and staff or the QR code or link printed for you lead you there. Do not register through an email, text message, social media message or search ad that turned up on its own.
• Be wary of any request for money first. Under the official process the refund comes after customs confirmation, and the government charges nothing. A demand to pay a release fee or a tax before you can be refunded does not fit that process.
• Guard your card details. Add a card only in the flow the shop gave you. Registering a place to send money should not need your card's security code or a one-time password, so stop if a page asks for either.
• Take the Wi-Fi name from the customs page. Use the network that Japan Customs lists, not one named in a message.
• Treat urgency as a warning sign. The real deadline is the 90 days and the check at departure. Nothing online extends or replaces it.

If you already paid or typed in details, call your card issuer first and ask them to block the card and review the charge. Keep screenshots, the web address and any receipt email. For general help in Japan, the JNTO Japan Visitor Hotline answers 24 hours a day in English, Chinese and Korean on 050-3816-2787, and the police number for emergencies is 110.

Shopping as a group or family

The purchase record is tied to the passport shown at the till, and the goods must leave with the person who bought them: the rules limit purchases to what you can personally carry out. The 5,000 yen minimum counts per person, per store, per day. Buying with each person's own passport, then having each person carry and scan what they bought, keeps every receipt clean. Children need their own passports for this too.

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Sources

• Japan Customs, Tax Exemption (Refund) Program for Foreign Visitors: refund method from 1 November 2026, 5,000 yen minimum, 90 days, green and red result, Visit Japan Web at seven airports.
• Japan Customs, customs procedure details: purchase at the tax-inclusive price, passport check before boarding, refund by the shop.
• Japan Customs, online procedure details: the dedicated Wi-Fi network for the Visit Japan Web option.
• Japan Customs, kiosk and inspection area maps: where kiosks and inspection areas are, and that some places have no permanent kiosk.
• Japan Tourism Agency, information on the new tax-free shopping system: the rules for travelers, the 90 days, the receipt-by-receipt rule, goods leaving without delay, no compensation for a missed flight.
• Japan Tourism Agency, Q&A on purchasing: quantity limited to what you can carry, consumables, direct shipping.
• Japan Tourism Agency, Q&A on departure and customs confirmation: check before baggage check-in, receipts, items of 1,000,000 yen or more, used goods other than consumables.
• Japan Tourism Agency, Q&A on refunds: refund method instructions are given at the shop, and refund methods vary by shop.
• Japan Tourism Agency, Q&A for shops (refunds): no rule on who pays refund fees, the government takes no fee, and a shop keeps its exemption if it cannot pay the traveler.
• Japan Tourism Agency, changes to tax-free goods: the 500,000 yen consumables limit, special packaging and the general and consumable split abolished.
• Japan Tourism Agency, list of eligible tax-free goods purchasers: who is eligible and which documents to show.
• National Tax Agency, shift to the refund method (April 2025): start date, no overlap period, how the 90 days are counted, purchase records.
• National Tax Agency, online customs verification guide and FAQ: how the Visit Japan Web option works.
• Digital Agency, Visit Japan Web: the official service, now covering tax refund procedures.
• Digital Agency, announcement on use of Visit Japan Web (5 June 2025): the Digital Agency never asks users to pay fees.
• Japan Customs, Beware of Fake Websites Related to Customs Procedures (28 May 2026): fake Visit Japan Web sites and paid QR code services.
• NHK World-Japan, Japan starts tax-refund system for foreign shoppers: the change took effect on 1 November 2026, and why.
• Narita International Airport, consumption tax refund procedure: kiosks, Wi-Fi coverage by terminal, cash refund machines.
• Haneda Airport, tax refund: kiosks and self-service cash refund machines by terminal, none in Terminal 1.
• Chubu Centrair International Airport, tax refund procedures: do the procedure before check-in, and not after passport control.
• Yodobashi Camera Group, new tax-free system notice: the in-store cash refund at 11 stores and the card charge-back if customs confirmation is not completed.
• Nikkei Asia, Don Quijote drops refund fees for tourists: an example of a retailer waiving handling fees.
• JNTO, Japan Visitor Hotline: 24 hour help in English, Chinese and Korean.