As Japan has been welcoming more international visitors than ever, the country is looking for ways to tackle overtourism while increasing its revenue stream. Visa fees, departure taxes, and hotel taxes are set to become more expensive in 2026.
Between January and September 2025, Japan welcomed a record-breaking 31.65 million international visitors, a 17.7% increase compared to the same period in 2024. While last year’s total visitor number stood at 36.87 million, government officials believe the 40 million threshold will be reached in 2025. The weak yen and a rebound of Chinese traveller arrivals are some of the main reasons for the tourist boom.
On the one hand, such a high number of tourists is benefiting the Japanese economy. On the other hand, overtourism is creating tensions – both between locals and between locals and tourists. More funds are needed to adapt the local infrastructure to the increased number of travellers, to prepare local tourism organisations for the future, and to make sure locals benefit from the tourism boom as well. For example, the government has been looking to secure €2.25 billion needed to expand free tuition for all high school students – increasing the tourism revenue would be a way of doing so without putting an extra toll on local taxpayers.
🇯🇵 The number of foreign visitors to Japan in August grew 16.9 percent from a year earlier to 3.4 million, a record for the month.
— World of Statistics (@stats_feed) September 17, 2025
By country and region, China topped the list with 1 million visitors, up 36.5 percent, followed by South Korea at 660,900, up 8.0 percent, and…
Visa fee
On Friday, 24 October, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya shared that the government is looking into the matter of visa fees, as the charges have not changed much since the 1970s and are not in line with other visa fee averages among countries in the Group of Seven (G7) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). At the moment, visitors have to pay ¥3,000 (€17) for a single-entry visa and ¥6,000 (€34) for a multiple-entry visa. In comparison, the EU’s Schengen visa costs €90, and the visa fee for the UK amounts to £127 (€145).
“The details of the review are undecided, but we are considering various factors, including a possible impact on inbound tourism. We’ll examine the fees set in other countries. I believe Japan’s fees are quite low at present. I personally don’t think the potential raise will have a direct impact on overtourism”, Japanese news agency Kyodo News quoted Iwaya.
Japan’s raising departure taxes and visa fees to tackle overtourism… shouldn’t they be raising the entry tax instead? pic.twitter.com/0grwWhqP0H
— Shohei Kondo (@shoheikondo) October 24, 2025
Departure tax
In addition to possibly increasing the visa fee, the Japanese government is also looking at the so-called departure fee. That fee was introduced in 2019, is collected from all those leaving the country, locals and foreigners alike. At this moment, the fee amounts to ¥1,000 (€5,50), which is on the lower end compared to many other countries. According to the Japanese newspapers The Nikkei and The Asahi Shimbun, increasing the flat fee could improve airport infrastructure, strengthen security screenings, and fund domestic programs.
While the new departure fee would also apply to Japanese citizens, officials might reduce the cost of passport application and renewal fees in order to prevent them from having to pay more overall.
At the moment of writing, it remains unclear whether or not the visa fees and departure fees will actually increase at the start of 2026 and if so, by how much. However, both decisions would be in line with recent measures of the Japanese government to combat overtourism. At the start of October 2025, it also became clear that the city of Kyoto would be introducing a tiered hotel tax for tourists, thus heavily increasing the previous tax, especially in regard to more expensive hotel rooms.
