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August 14, 2026
 

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PASSPORTS

At a plenary session on Friday, the House of Councilors passed a bill cutting application fees for 10-year passports to ?8,900 for online applications and to ?9,300 for in-person applications.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2026
Japanese passport fees going down to ?9,000 in July
Under the revised passport law, which takes effect on July 1, adult Japanese nationals aged at least 18 can apply for passports valid for 10 years only.
Â鶹´«Ã½ passport is among the world¡¯s most powerful. Still, according to the Foreign Ministry, as of 2024, the total number of valid passports stood at about 20.77 million out of a population of 123 million.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 17, 2026
Â鶹´«Ã½ inbound tourism booms as outbound travel lags
Passport ownership remains low at 16.8% of the population, and outbound travel and study have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Japan plans to cut application fees for passports next year.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2025
Japan to cut passport fees by up to ?7,000
The application fee will be lowered to about ?9,000 from about ?16,000 for 10-year passports.
The Republic of Nauru is one of the world's smallest nations, with a total landmass of just 21 square kilometers.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 9, 2025
Pacific microstate sells first passports to fund climate action
The remote Pacific nation has approved just six applicants since early this year, but officials say interest in joining the low-lying, largely barren island is increasing.
Japanese passport holders have visa-free access to 190 destinations out of 227 globally.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 24, 2025
Japan ties with South Korea for second most powerful passport
Japan continues to hold the world¡¯s second most powerful passport ¡ª tied with South Korea ¡ª according to a new global ranking.
New Japanese passports will be printed using laser technology based on banknote printing techniques, making forgery more difficult.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2025
Applications for forgery-proof passports start in Japan
Passports issued?for?applications submitted from Monday onward will feature a new design.
The weak yen is often cited as one reason why many Japanese don't go abroad.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 25, 2025
Only 17% of Japanese people own passports, Foreign Ministry says
Around 3.7 million passports were issued domestically in 2024,?a 8.8% increase from the year before but?down 15.2% from prepandemic numbers in 2019.
Passengers walk past a sign directing them to specific lines for EU and non EU passports as they arrive at Dublin Airport in Ireland in September 2019.
WORLD / Society
Jan 11, 2024
These are the world¡¯s most powerful passports in 2024
A decade ago, the two countries shared the top spot, but comparing this year¡¯s list to the 2014 ranking reveals some other major shifts.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2023
Â鶹´«Ã½ travel industry urges people to get their mighty passports
Â鶹´«Ã½ passport gives visa-free entry to 192 global destinations, according to the latest Henley Passport Index.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
May 5, 2023
Japan Times 1923: Many tourists ignore Japan passport rule
Stories about tourists and immigrants abound in editions of The Japan Times from 1923, 1973 and 1998.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2023
These are the best passports for travelers to hold in 2023
Japan starts the year with the world¡¯s most powerful passport, allowing visa-free entry to 193 global destinations.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2020
Japan to improve how its passports show birth names of married citizens
The Foreign Ministry will change the way it records birth names in passports for those who adopt the surname of their spouse, in order to display both names more clearly, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2019
Passports, maiden names, brackets: Japan Foreign Minister Taro Kono wades into a minefield
When Foreign Minister Taro Kono wrote on Twitter that he would order his ministry to look into the contentious issue of maiden names on passports in response to a tweet in early June, he may not have been aware of the minefield he was about to step into.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Apr 25, 2019
¡®Creeping annexation¡¯: Putin confronts new Ukraine leader with rebel-zone passports
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree offering passports to people in breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, triggering calls for more sanctions against Moscow from the incoming leadership in Kiev.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2019
Gender-neutral Canadian activist shows solidarity with Â鶹´«Ã½ LGBT communities
Gemma Hickey entered Japan this week with something no Japanese national can obtain ¡ª a gender-neutral passport in which the gender category shows neither female nor male, but an ¡°X.¡±
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2019
Journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka ordered to surrender passport in Tokyo on way to report on Yemen humanitarian crisis
At immigration control, an officer told Tsuneoka that his passport had been invalidated and that he was ordered to relinquish it ¡ª in effect banning him from leaving.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2018
Japan has the strongest passport in the world according to new Henley & Partners ranking
Passports carried by Japanese nationals allow holders to travel freely to 190 countries and territories, according to the latest study by the global law firm.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Deep Dive
Apr 19, 2018
Dual citizenship in Japan: A ¡®don¡¯t ask, don¡¯t tell¡¯ policy leaves many in the dark
Do you have to renounce citizenship? Do you switch passports at the airport? Has anyone ever been punished? Dual nationals tell their stories.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2018
Lawsuit challenges Â鶹´«Ã½ ban on dual citizenship
Plaintiffs sue Japan over its ban on dual nationalities, claiming they were unconstitutionally deprived of their Japanese citizenship upon becoming citizens of foreign countries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Mar 12, 2018
Let¡¯s discuss passports and visas
Japanese and Singaporean passport holders have the greatest travel freedom worldwide, according to a survey.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
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Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
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