The short answer: 15, 30 or 90 days, sometimes six months
Arriving in Japan without a visa does not mean arriving without a status. You are admitted under tanki taizai (tanki滞在, temporary visitor), a status of residence with a fixed period written in your passport stamp on the day you land. That period is what governs your stay, not your ticket and not your plans.
| Period granted | Who | Can it be extended? |
|---|---|---|
| 15 days | Indonesia, Thailand | No, except in humanitarian emergencies |
| 30 days | Brunei, Qatar | No, except in humanitarian emergencies |
| 90 days | Most exempt nationalities: EU member states, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and others | Only for the seven nationalities listed below |
| Up to 6 months | Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland, United Kingdom | Yes, by application before the 90 days expire |
Read your stamp, not the internet
Immigration officers grant the period, and they may grant less than the maximum if your answers are vague or your return ticket is far out. The number stamped in your passport is the only one that counts. Photograph it on arrival: it is the date you will need if you ever have to prove you left in time.
Which countries get visa-free entry to Japan
Japan maintains bilateral visa exemption arrangements with more than 70 countries and regions. The list moves: it was expanded again in 2025, and individual arrangements are suspended and restored from time to time. Two rules make this manageable.
- Check the source, not a blog. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (外務省, MOFA) publishes the authoritative list and updates it when an arrangement changes. Any other page, including this one, is a snapshot.
- Exemption is not entry. Being on the list lets you board and apply for admission. The immigration officer still decides, and can refuse.
What you must be able to show
Visa-free admission is granted for tourism, visiting relatives, business meetings and similar short purposes. Officers routinely ask for an onward or return ticket, an address in Japan, and enough funds for the stay. If you own a property, give the address of the property: it is a perfectly good answer, and a much better one than a vague "I am travelling around".
Note that a paid job in Japan is never covered, whatever your nationality. That point is developed below, and it is the single most common misunderstanding among owners who buy a house first and think about the rest later. If you are still at the buying stage, our complete guide to buying a house in Japan sets out the sequence in order.
How to extend a visa-free stay to six months
Seven nationalities benefit from a longer bilateral arrangement: Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. They still land with 90 days, then apply to extend up to a total of six months.
The procedure, step by step
- Apply before your current period expires, at a Regional Immigration Services Bureau (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and others). Applying after expiry is an overstay, not a late application.
- Bring your passport, the application form for extension of period of stay, a reason for staying, and evidence that you can support yourself.
- Pay the fee of 4,000 yen (about $26), payable by revenue stamp when the extension is granted.
- Expect the decision to take days to a few weeks. Your legal stay continues while the application is pending, which is one more reason to file early.
And if you hold another passport?
Extension of temporary visitor status outside these seven nationalities is granted, in principle, only for compelling humanitarian reasons: a serious illness or injury that physically prevents departure, a death in the family in Japan, a natural disaster that closes the airports. Loving the country, finding a house you want to renovate, or wanting more time to view properties are not qualifying reasons, and applying on those grounds wastes a day and 4,000 yen.
What a visa-free stay does not allow
Ninety days is generous by international standards, but the status is narrow. Three limits catch foreign buyers out.
No paid work in Japan
Temporary visitor status prohibits remunerated activity in Japan. Managing your own rental from a laptop is a grey area that depends on where the work is performed and who pays you; running a guesthouse, meeting guests, cleaning between stays or being paid by a Japanese company is not grey at all. If short-term letting is your plan, read our article on the 180-day minpaku licence before you buy, not after.
No residence card, and everything that follows
A temporary visitor receives no zairyu card (在留カード, residence card) and no juminhyo (住民票, residence certificate). That single fact closes a long list of doors: an ordinary bank account, a mobile contract, a registered seal, national health insurance. Owners work around it, and our guide to opening a Japanese bank account as a foreigner explains how, but the workarounds are real work.
The re-entry trap
There is no written rule capping your days per year. There is, however, a consistent practice: immigration expects a visitor to spend roughly as much time outside Japan as inside it. Someone who chains 90-day stays with short trips to Seoul in between is building a pattern that officers can see on their screen, and the sanction is not a fine but a refusal of landing, at the airport, with a flight home the same day. Owners are not exempt from this scrutiny. If anything, a Japanese address plus repeated long stays plus no visa is exactly the profile that prompts a second interview.
Coming soon: JESTA
Japan adopted in 2026 the principle of an electronic travel authorisation, JESTA, modelled on the American ESTA: an online form and a fee, to be completed before boarding, for travellers who need no visa. Deployment has been announced for the 2028 fiscal year. It will not change how long you may stay, only the formality before you fly.
Owning a house in Japan does not extend your stay
This is the question we are asked most often, and the answer has not changed: buying property in Japan grants no visa, no residence status and not one extra day of stay. Japan has no golden visa, no residence by investment, and no plan to create one. A billionaire with a tower in Minato and a retiree with a 3,000,000 yen (about $19,000) akiya (akiya, vacant house) hold exactly the same 90 days.
Foreigners may nonetheless buy freely, with no residence requirement and no special authorisation, which is unusual in Asia. We covered that asymmetry in buying a house in Japan without a visa.
What ownership does change
| Area | Effect of owning |
|---|---|
| Length of stay | None. 90 days remains 90 days. |
| At the border | Helps: a verifiable address and a clear purpose make for a shorter interview. |
| Property tax | A non-resident owner must appoint a nozei kanrinin (nōzei kanrinin, tax agent) to receive and pay the annual notice. |
| Rental income | Taxable in Japan whatever your residence, with 20.42 % withholding in several cases. |
| Day-to-day management | Utilities, neighbourhood association, snow, post: someone must be there while you are not. |
The tax agent is the obligation owners discover late, usually when the first notice goes unanswered. Our article on the Japanese tax agent explains who can act and what it costs, and the one on Japanese property tax gives the rates.
Legal routes to stay longer than 90 days
If 90 days is not enough, the answer is a status of residence, not a longer tourist stay. Here are the routes a property owner realistically considers.
| Route | Duration | Key requirement | Work allowed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visa exemption | 15, 30 or 90 days | Nationality | No |
| Extension of temporary visitor | Up to 6 months | One of seven nationalities, applied for in time | No |
| Long stay for sightseeing and recreation (tokutei katsudo, 特定活動) | 6 months, renewable once | Savings of 30,000,000 yen (about $192,000), 60,000,000 yen (about $385,000) if a spouse stays separately, plus private medical insurance | No |
| Digital nomad | 6 months, no renewal | Income of 10,000,000 yen (about $64,000) a year from outside Japan, nationality among the 51 eligible countries and regions, private insurance | Remote, for non-Japanese clients |
| Working holiday | Up to 1 year | Age limit (usually 18 to 30) and a partner country | Yes, incidental |
| Student | 6 months to several years | Enrolment in an accredited school | Limited, with permission |
| Business manager | 1 year and up | Since 16 October 2025: 30,000,000 yen (about $192,000) of capital, at least one full-time employee, Japanese at B2 level and a vetted business plan | Yes |
| Spouse of a Japanese national | 1 to 5 years | Marriage | Yes |
The two that matter most to owners
The long stay for sightseeing and recreation is the closest thing Japan has to a retirement visa: six months renewable once, no work, and savings that must be shown and maintained. It suits an owner who wants a full season in the house rather than a fortnight. See our article on retiring in Japan for the detail.
The digital nomad status, open since 2024, gives six months without renewal to remote workers above the income threshold. It is covered in our article on the Japanese digital nomad visa.
Note what is not on this list: any route based on owning property. The business manager status is sometimes presented as the property investor's door into Japan, and since the October 2025 reform it is a heavy one: read the business manager visa and real estate before you build a plan on it.
Worked example: an American owner with a kominka in Nagano
Take a concrete case. An American buyer acquires a kominka (kominka, old farmhouse) in Nagano for 4,500,000 yen (about $28,800) and wants to use it as often as the law allows.
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | 4,500,000 yen ($28,800) | |
| Acquisition costs | Up to 270,000 yen ($1,730) | 6 % ceiling: agency fee, registration, stamp duty, acquisition tax |
| Annual property tax | About 34,000 yen ($218) | On an assessed value of 2,000,000 yen ($12,800): 1.4 % fixed asset tax, plus up to 0.3 % planning tax where it applies |
| Tax agent | Variable, often 20,000 to 50,000 yen ($128 to $320) a year | Mandatory as a non-resident |
| Days of use per year | 90 maximum | For example three stays of 30 days |
What the calendar actually looks like
Three stays of 30 days, spaced across the year, with at least as long spent outside Japan between them, stay well within both the written rule and the unwritten practice. The house sits empty nine months a year: that is the real cost of the 90-day limit, and it is why owners end up choosing between a caretaker, a rental arrangement or a status of residence. Testing the rental option against the local market is the obvious next step: our Nagano page gives the prefecture's real figures.
The same arithmetic applies to a cheaper property. Browse what is actually on the market in our akiya listings, our selection of Japanese houses under $50,000 or the kominka for sale hub.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Counting from the date you booked, not the date stamped. The period runs from admission. A flight delayed overnight does not move it.
- Assuming 90 days means three months. It means 90 days. Entering on 1 March gives you until 29 May, not 1 June.
- Planning a renovation on tourist time. Supervising a site, dealing with the craftsmen and passing the final inspection rarely fits in one stay, and none of it may be paid work. Managing a site from abroad is a project in itself.
- Chaining stays with short hops abroad. The pattern is visible and it is the classic cause of a refused landing.
- Believing that a purchase will be looked on favourably by immigration. The two administrations are separate. The Immigration Services Agency does not consult the land registry.
- Overstaying "by a few days". Overstaying is a criminal offence: fines of up to 3,000,000 yen (about $19,000) and a re-entry ban, five years as a rule, reduced to one year if you report yourself under the departure order system. For an owner, a five-year ban means five years without seeing the property.
- Forgetting the tax agent before leaving. Appoint them while you are still in Japan: it is far simpler than doing it from abroad.
Conclusion: plan the stay before the purchase
Ninety days without a visa, six months for seven nationalities, 15 or 30 days for four others: the rule is simple, public, and applies identically to owners and to tourists. What differs is the consequence. A tourist who misjudges the limit loses a holiday; an owner who misjudges it leaves a house unattended, a tax notice unanswered and, in the worst case, cannot return for five years.
So sequence the two decisions. Decide first how much time you genuinely want to spend in Japan each year, then choose the property that fits: a house you visit for three weeks in spring is not the house you would buy to live in six months a year. If the plan calls for a status of residence, budget the time and the requirements before signing, not after.
If you would rather have the whole purchase handled from search to keys, our support package sets out what that covers, and questions in writing are always welcome.
Frequently asked questions
How long can you stay in Japan without a visa?
90 days for most exempt nationalities, including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and EU member states. Indonesian and Thai passport holders receive 15 days, Bruneian and Qatari passport holders 30. The period is granted by the immigration officer and stamped in your passport on arrival.
Can I extend a 90-day stay in Japan?
Only nationals of Austria, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom may extend up to six months, by applying at a Regional Immigration Services Bureau before the first period expires, for a fee of 4,000 yen (about $26). For everyone else, extension is granted only for compelling humanitarian reasons such as serious illness.
Does buying a house in Japan give you a visa?
No. Japan grants no residence status on the basis of property ownership, and there is no golden visa. Foreigners may buy freely with no residence requirement, but the purchase adds no day of stay and no right of entry.
Can I leave Japan and come back to reset the 90 days?
There is no written annual cap, but immigration expects you to spend roughly as much time outside Japan as inside. Repeated long stays separated by short trips abroad are a recognised pattern and the usual reason for a refusal of landing at the airport.
Can I work remotely from Japan as a tourist?
Temporary visitor status prohibits remunerated activity in Japan. Remote work for foreign clients sits in a grey area that depends on where the work is performed and who pays; the digital nomad status, six months for income above 10,000,000 yen (about $64,000) a year, exists precisely to remove that ambiguity.
How long can you stay in Japan on a digital nomad visa?
Six months, with no renewal. You must earn at least 10,000,000 yen (about $64,000) a year from outside Japan, hold the nationality of one of the eligible countries and regions, and carry private medical insurance.
Do I need a residence card as a tourist in Japan?
No. A residence card is issued only for stays of more than three months under a status of residence. A temporary visitor has neither a residence card nor a residence certificate, which is why an ordinary bank account and a mobile contract are out of reach on a tourist stay.
What happens if I overstay in Japan?
Overstaying is a criminal offence, punishable by fines of up to 3,000,000 yen (about $19,000), detention and a re-entry ban of five years as a rule. Reporting yourself to immigration before being caught may reduce the ban to one year under the departure order system.
Official sources
Start from the beginning
This article covers one step; the immoJapon guide covers the whole purchase in Japan, from finding the property to the final signature: free, in 7 chapters.