--- title: "Japan Tax Refund 2026: Where Does Your Purchase Record Data Go?" description: "From November 1, 2026, each tax-free sale gets a purchase record the shop sends to the National Tax Agency, not customs; 909 yen per 10,000 yen returns." lang: en canonical: https://refund-japan.com/articles/purchase-record-data published: 2026-10-17 updated: 2026-10-17 publisher: "RefundJapan" --- # Japan Tax Refund 2026: Where Does Your Purchase Record Data Go? > From November 1, 2026, each tax-free sale gets a purchase record the shop sends to the National Tax Agency, not customs; 909 yen per 10,000 yen returns. Last checked: 2026-10-17 From November 1, 2026, every tax-free sale in Japan produces a purchase record that the shop creates at the counter and that is sent to the National Tax Agency, not to customs, while the tax inside the price, 909 yen on a 10,000 yen purchase, comes back only after customs has confirmed the goods leaving Japan with you. The [Japan Tax-free Shop Association](https://zenmenkyo.jp/refund/) (checked October 7, 2026) describes the shop confirming that you qualify and creating that record, and an approved sending and receiving operator sending it to the National Tax Agency on the shop's behalf, unless the shop has built its own system and sends it itself. At departure customs confirms the goods, the operator obtains the resulting customs confirmation information, the shop keeps that information, and only then is the tax paid back. One record covers one sale, and the [Japan Tourism Agency](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/tax-free/page01_000001_00019.html) (checked October 15, 2026) states that if customs cannot confirm even one item in a purchase record, none of the items in that record are tax-free. Which fields the record carries, for example whether it names each item, was not published as of August 19, 2026, and the public pages we checked give no list of them. A purchase record (購入記録情報 in the Japanese material) is the information a tax-free shop creates for each tax-free sale. Customs confirmation information is what exists once customs has confirmed the goods at departure. Neighbouring pages take the other halves of this subject: what the shop holds after the counter is on [what the shop keeps](https://refund-japan.com/articles/what-the-store-keeps), which company pays you back is on [the shop or its refund operator](https://refund-japan.com/articles/approved-operator-contract), and what you yourself keep for the day is on [the paper or digital copy](https://refund-japan.com/articles/paper-vs-digital-receipt). Goods that never leave Japan are followed on [items used up before departure](https://refund-japan.com/articles/used-it-all-up) and [an item handed over in Japan](https://refund-japan.com/articles/gave-item-away-in-japan). This page stays with the record itself: what it is, where it travels, and what its one-sale unit means for your refund. ## Where does a purchase record go between the counter and your refund? - At the counter you pay the tax-included price. The shop confirms that you qualify as a tax-free buyer and creates a purchase record for that sale. - The record is sent to the National Tax Agency by the shop's approved sending and receiving operator, or by the shop itself through its own system. - On the day you leave, you bring the goods to the airport or seaport yourself. A terminal reads your passport; Green means passing through and Red means showing the goods, according to [Japan Customs](https://www.customs.go.jp/) (checked August 19, 2026). - Customs confirms the goods one purchase record at a time, and the operator obtains the customs confirmation information. - The shop keeps that information and returns the consumption tax equivalent, either itself or through a refund operator it has contracted. Customs appears in that chain as the party that confirms the goods. It is not named as the destination of the record; the National Tax Agency is. Of everything in the chain, the only part you carry from the counter to the departure gate is the goods themselves. | What | Who makes or holds it | What is not published | | --- | --- | --- | | Purchase record | Created by the shop; sent to the National Tax Agency by the shop or its approved operator | The list of fields it carries, not published as of August 19, 2026 | | Customs confirmation information | Obtained by the operator after customs confirms the goods; kept by the shop | How long it is kept, not published as of August 19, 2026 | | Receipt, app screen or email | Handed to you by the shop or its operator, in whatever form that shop uses | Which one is asked for at departure, not published as of August 19, 2026 | ## What changes on November 1, 2026 for the purchase record? - The tax is no longer taken off at the register. It comes back after customs confirmation information exists for the record. - A record is judged as a whole at departure, so a single unconfirmed item takes every item in that record out of tax-free treatment. - The refund is paid by the shop or a refund operator on the basis of the customs confirmation information. ## What stays the same around the purchase record? - Consumption tax is 10%, and the tax inside a tax-included price is one eleventh of it: 909 yen on 10,000 yen. - Only non-residents qualify, meaning travellers who have stayed in Japan for less than six months. - Separate shipment by the shop was abolished on March 31, 2025, and tax-free treatment is established only when the buyer brings the goods to an airport or seaport. ## Which purchase record situation matches yours? ### You ring up ten items together and finish one before you fly Ten items paid for in one go are one sale, so they sit on one purchase record. If a lotion from that sale is used up in Japan, customs cannot confirm it at departure, and under the Japan Tourism Agency wording the other nine lose tax-free treatment along with it. The record does not shrink to the items you still have; it is confirmed whole or not at all. ### You pay separately for things you will use in Japan Because one record covers one sale, a separate payment makes a separate record. An item you expect to open and finish during the trip, paid for on its own, cannot pull down the goods you do take home. Whether a shop will divide one basket into two sales at your request is that shop's decision, and the pages we checked do not describe it. ### You buy at the same shop twice on the same day Two payments are two sales and therefore two records, and each is confirmed on its own at departure. The all-or-nothing rule is written about the items in one record, so a gap in the morning's record does not reach the afternoon's. ### The staff take your passport and type for a while That is the shop doing the two jobs the association gives it at the counter: confirming that you qualify and creating the purchase record. Which details go into the record was not published as of August 19, 2026, so the typing tells you that a record is being made, not what it holds. ### You leave with a paper receipt and nothing else The receipt is yours and the purchase record is the shop's. They describe the same sale, but the record is created and sent on the shop side while the paper stays in your pocket. Keep each receipt with the goods it covers until you are through departure, so any bag can be matched to its sale. ### The shop's operator gives you a QR code or sends an email A registration screen or a message from an operator belongs on your side of the line, next to the receipt. What it shows, and whether anything of it is asked for at departure, was not published as of August 19, 2026. Keep it until the refund has been paid. ### Someone says the shop sends your purchases to customs The association names the National Tax Agency as the place the purchase record goes. Customs comes in at departure to confirm the goods, and the confirmation that results is collected by the operator and kept by the shop. The shortened version mixes up two steps, and the only part that changes anything for you is the order: nothing reaches the refund stage before customs has seen the goods leave. ### You wonder whether customs can see what you bought The terminal reads your passport, and a Red result asks for the goods themselves. What the terminal displays, and which parts of the purchase record appear at that moment, was not published as of August 19, 2026. Packing the goods so they can be shown works whatever the answer is; [getting ready for a Red result](https://refund-japan.com/articles/red-result-preparation) covers that moment. ### You will leave with a different passport from the one you showed The pages we checked do not describe a passport read at departure that differs from the one used when the shop confirmed you qualified. Treat that passport as part of the purchase and travel with it; [showing the original passport](https://refund-japan.com/articles/passport-original-only) explains why the original matters at the counter. ### Someone else's card paid for your items The record is created for the buyer the shop confirmed, and the goods have to leave Japan with that buyer. How a payment card in a different name is treated was not published as of August 19, 2026; [a name that does not match](https://refund-japan.com/articles/name-mismatch) follows that point. ### A travel companion offers to carry part of your shopping home A record belongs to the buyer the shop confirmed, and the Japan Tourism Agency page describes that buyer bringing the goods out. Goods from your record leaving on someone else's earlier flight are not a case the pages describe, so keep each person's purchases with that person; [shopping as a family](https://refund-japan.com/articles/family-combining) looks at who should pay for what. ### You buy a watch priced at ¥1,000,000 or more An item at that price needs a serial number or similar detail registered. Whether that detail is held inside the purchase record or alongside it is not set out on the public pages we checked, so allow extra time at the counter and keep the box with the watch; [watches bought tax-free](https://refund-japan.com/articles/watches) has more. ### You want to return one item before leaving Japan What happens to a purchase record when part of a sale is reversed is not described on the pages we checked, and a return is the shop's decision in any case. Settle it with the shop before departure, because the check at the airport is made record by record. ### You hand a present to a friend who lives in Japan A present that stays in Japan is an item customs cannot confirm. If it was paid for together with other goods, every item on that record loses tax-free treatment, the ones in your suitcase included. ### Your purchase is dated October 31, 2026 A purchase on or before October 31, 2026 follows the old system, in which the tax was taken off at the register. The flow on this page, from purchase record to refund, applies to sales from November 1, 2026; [purchases made on October 31](https://refund-japan.com/articles/october-31-purchase) covers the earlier receipts. ### The shop says it sends its records with its own system The association allows for that: a shop that builds the system needed can send purchase records to the National Tax Agency itself instead of through an operator. Nothing in your own steps changes. What does differ from shop to shop is who pays the money back and how you register for it. ## What is not published about the purchase record? As of August 19, 2026, the contents of the purchase record had not been published: the public pages we checked describe who creates it and where it is sent, but give no list of the fields it carries. How long a shop keeps the record and the customs confirmation information was also unpublished as of August 19, 2026. How a card in a different name from the passport is treated, and whether a handling fee is deducted from the refund, were not announced as of August 19, 2026 either. Any answer would appear first on the pages of the Japan Tourism Agency, the Japan Tax-free Shop Association or Japan Customs, and [the tracker of open points](https://refund-japan.com/articles/not-published-yet) follows each one. ## What do travellers ask about Japan's purchase record? ### What is a purchase record in Japan's tax refund? The information a tax-free shop creates for each tax-free sale, after confirming that the buyer qualifies. ### Is the purchase record sent to customs? No. The association names the National Tax Agency as where it is sent. Customs confirms the goods at departure. ### Who sends the purchase record? The shop's approved sending and receiving operator, or the shop itself if it has built the system to send it. ### What information does the purchase record contain? That was not published as of August 19, 2026. The public pages we checked give no list of its fields. ### Is one payment at the counter one purchase record? Yes. A record covers one sale, so one payment makes one record. ### If one item from a record stays in Japan, what happens to the rest? None of the items on that record are tax-free, including the ones you take home. ### Can I split my shopping into separate records? Separate sales make separate records. Whether a shop divides a basket at your request is for the shop to decide. ### What is customs confirmation information? What exists once customs has confirmed the goods at departure. The operator obtains it and the shop keeps it. ### Who pays the refund once customs has confirmed the goods? The shop, or a refund operator working on the shop's behalf. ### Can I see my own purchase record? The pages we checked do not describe a traveller viewing it. What you hold is the receipt and anything the shop or its operator hands you. ### How long does the shop keep my purchase record? That was not published as of August 19, 2026. ### What does customs read at departure? Your passport. A Green result means passing through, and a Red result means showing the goods. ### How much tax comes back on one record? One eleventh of the tax-included price, after the customs confirmation: 909 yen on 10,000 yen. ### Does a purchase made on October 31, 2026 go through this flow? No. It follows the old system, in which the tax was taken off at the register. ## Sources - Japan Tourism Agency, Consumption Tax Tax-free Shop page: the refund system from sales on November 1, 2026 and the end of separate shipment (checked August 19, 2026); the buyer bringing goods to an airport or seaport, and the rule that one unconfirmed item makes a whole purchase record not tax-free (checked October 15, 2026). - Japan Tax-free Shop Association, refund system page: the roles of the shop, the approved sending and receiving operator and the refund operator, including the purchase record sent to the National Tax Agency and the customs confirmation information kept by the shop (checked October 7, 2026). - Japan Customs: the terminal reading the passport and the Green and Red results (checked August 19, 2026). ## Sources - [Japan Tax-free Shop Association](https://zenmenkyo.jp/refund/) — checked October 7, 2026 - [Japan Tourism Agency](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/tax-free/page01_000001_00019.html) — checked October 15, 2026 - [Japan Customs](https://www.customs.go.jp/) — checked August 19, 2026