21 May 1866[1][a] (letter of request) 1 January 1926[1] (booklet) 1 November 1992[1] (machine-readable passport) 20 March 2006[2] (biometric passport) 31 August 2013[3] 4 February 2020[4][5] (current version)
10 years or 5 years or shorter [6] after acquisition for adults, 5 years for ages under 17
Cost
10 year adult passport; ¥16,000 5 year passport for 12-year-old or over; ¥11,000 5 year passport for 11-year-old or under; ¥6,000[7]
Japanese passports (日本国旅券, Nihonkoku ryoken) are issued to Japanese nationals to facilitate international travel. From 2018 to 2022, it was ranked first on the Henley Passport Index for visa-free travel,[8] and third as of July 2023, with holders able to travel visa-free to 189 countries and territories.[9]
The first travel documents for overseas travel by Japanese citizens were introduced in 1866, near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. These documents took the form of a stamped "letter of request" allowing Japanese citizens to travel overseas for business and educational purposes. The first person to be issued with a Japanese travel document was the acrobat and magician Namigorō Sumidagawa [ja], who received his travel document on 17 October 1866 in order to perform at the 1867 Exposition Universelle held in Paris, France. The term "passport" was formally introduced into the Japanese language in 1878, and in 1900 the first regulations governing the usage of Japanese passports were introduced. The modern form of the Japanese passport first came about in 1926, and the first ICAO-compliant, machine-readable Japanese passports were introduced in 1992.[1]
Ordinary passport: Issued to normal Japanese citizens.
Ordinary passports are issued in two different lengths of validity: 5 and 10 years. Japanese citizens up to 16 years of age can only be issued a 5 years passport, while those who are 17 years of age or older can choose either a 5 years (blue) or 10 years (red) passport for different registration fees.
In accordance with international convention for heads of state, the Emperor and Empress of Japan do not possess passport.
Emergency passport: Issued to overseas Japanese nationals when machine-readable passports are unable to be issued by a diplomatic mission of Japan due to a malfunction and there is no time to wait for the passport to be issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, or to overseas Japanese nationals who failed to be issued a Travel Document for Return to Japan, valid for 1 year from date of issuance.
Japanese passports have the ChrysanthemumImperial Seal of Japan inscribed in the centre of the front cover, with seal scriptKanji characters reading Nipponkoku Ryoken (Japanese: 日本国旅券, lit. 'Japan Country Travel Certificate') inscribed above the Seal and its English translation JAPAN PASSPORT in Latin letters below the Seal. Ordinary passports valid for five years feature dark blue covers, and those valid for ten years feature crimson-coloured covers. Additionally, official passports feature dark green covers, and diplomatic passports feature dark brown covers.
The passports contain a note from the issuing country that is addressed to the authorities of all other countries, identifying the bearer as a citizen of that country and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass and be treated according to international norms. The note inside of Japanese passports states:
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer, a Japanese national, to pass freely and without hindrance and, in case of need, to afford him or her every possible aid and protection.
Japanese passports are entirely printed in both Japanese and English, except for the note of caution that is found at the end of the passport (e.g. on page 51 of the ten-year biometric ordinary passport), which is only printed in Japanese. This note contains information about what the bearer should know when encountering various situations in a foreign country.
The surname, given name and other personalised mentions (like registered domicile) are only indicated in Latin uppercase letters. Japanese names are in principle transcribed according to one variant of the Hepburn romanization system, but exceptions are admitted in certain cases, notably when the name comes from the katakana transcription of a foreign name (such as Japanese spouse or Japanese child of a foreign national), in which case the original spelling of the name in the Latin alphabet (with no diacritics) may be used.
The signature may be written in any language and in any spelling the individual desires.
Countries and territories with visa-free entries or visas on arrival for holders of regular Japanese passports
Visa requirements for Japanese citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states which are placed on citizens of Japan. As of 20 July 2023, Japanese citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 194 countries and territories, ranking the Japanese passport the most powerful passport in the world in terms of travel freedom according to the Henley Passport Index.
^A former surname (旧姓, kyūsei) is a legal Japanese surname that an individual once possessed, thus tied to one of the family registers (koseki) they were once part of.
^ abAn appellation (呼称, koshō) differing from the legal Japanese name (氏名, shimei) can be printed on the passport, enclosed in parentheses: an alternative surname (別姓, bessei), or an alternative name (別名, betsumei). An alternative surname (or given name) may be applied when, for example, another surname (or given name) is recognized by a foreign country of which the bearer is or was a citizen. These optional items are based on the fifth article of the Enforcement Regulations of the Passport Act.
Media related to Passports of Japan at Wikimedia Commons
