{"id":7348,"date":"2026-07-02T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7348"},"modified":"2026-07-02T06:00:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:00:58","slug":"japan-triples-departure-tax-foreign-tourists-and-locals-now-must-pay-more-to-leave-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7348","title":{"rendered":"Japan triples departure tax, foreign tourists and locals now must pay more to leave country"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-737755\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/1_e927d9.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>As of July, it now costs more both to enter <em>and<\/em> leave Japan<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Japanese government decided <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2026\/06\/22\/japan-announces-sudden-500-percent-increase-in-visa-fees-for-foreigners-entering-the-country\/\">\u201cHey, let\u2019s raise the fees for foreigners who need a visa to enter the country by 400 percent!\u201d<\/a> That new pricing went into effect on Wednesday, but on the same day the government made it more expensive to leave Japan too by t<strong>ripling the departure tax for travelers flying out of Japan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Departure taxes are something that many international travelers don\u2019t really think about, because in the vast majority of countries the tax is added into the total for their flight ticket, with payment of the tax then performed by the airline. Make no mistake, though, airlines do charge travelers for coverage of the taxes. <strong>Up until the end of June, the departure tax for leaving Japan was 1,000 yen (US$6.25). As of July 1, it\u2019s been raised to 3,000 yen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, 2,000 yen isn\u2019t exactly a make-or-break-level additional expense when it comes to planning a trip overseas. However,<strong> the 3,000-yen departure tax is a per-person fee<\/strong>, so if you\u2019re thinking about coming to Japan with your spouse, kids, or other family members or friends whose expenses you\u2019re covering, the difference under the new tax system could quickly add up to an additional 10,000 yen or more (note, though, that if your tickets were issued prior to July 1, you\u2019ll still only be charged the 1,000-yen rate, even if your Japan-departure date is after July 1).<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless,<strong> the Japanese government has said that increasing the departure tax is a necessity, and that the extra revenue will go to programs and initiatives designed to combat overtourism<\/strong>, such as attempts to disperse inbound foreign travelers to less-visited parts of Japan and relieve congestion at the country\u2019s most famous tourist attractions. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2025\/11\/14\/japanese-government-considering-tripling-departure-taxes-to-combat-overtourism\/\">as we discussed when the first rumblings were heard about a possible price increase<\/a>, <strong>the departure tax isn\u2019t paid only by foreign tourists on their way back to their home countries. Everyone who\u2019s flying (or sailing) out of Japan has to pay the departure tax, including Japanese residents and even Japanese citizens<\/strong>. The only exceptions for the tax are travelers in transit who will be in Japan for less than 24 hours and children under 2 years old.<\/p>\n<p>\u25bc Wake up, <a href=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/2025\/11\/02\/top-japanese-baby-names-for-2025-feature-flowers-colors-and-a-first-time-ever-favorite-for-girls\/\">Haruto<\/a>. We\u2019re taking that trip NOW!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-737756\" src=\"https:\/\/soranews24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/2_455016.jpg?w=640\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At a time when prices for everything are going up in Japan, asking the local population to pay a higher departure tax in order to compensate for countermeasures to inbound tourism seems both illogical and unfair, especially when vague regional tourism promotional initiatives often involve using tax revenue to help drum up business for private companies, whose increased profits won\u2019t be of any benefit to locals paying the higher departure taxes.<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nta.go.jp\/publication\/pamph\/kansetsu\/kanko\/index.htm\">National Tax Agency<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jiji.com\/jc\/article?k=2026062900565\">Jiji<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Top image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pakutaso.com\/20200119008post-25075.html\">Pakutaso<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Insert images: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pakutaso.com\/20170103020post-10093.html\">Pakutaso<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RocketNews24En\">Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RocketNews24En\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As of July, it now costs more both to enter and leave Japan. Last week, the Japanese government decided \u201cHey, let\u2019s raise the fees for foreigners who need a visa&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}