--- title: "Japan Tax-Free 2026: How Do You Reach ¥5,000 Per Shop in Shinjuku?" description: "Shinjuku puts many shops within a short walk, but the tax-free count stays per buyer, per shop, per day. How a building holding many shops is divided into shops is not written into the published conditions as of August 19, 2026, so it is asked at the shop." lang: en canonical: https://refund-japan.com/articles/shinjuku published: 2026-09-06 updated: 2026-09-06 publisher: "Refund Japan" --- # Japan Tax-Free 2026: How Do You Reach ¥5,000 Per Shop in Shinjuku? > Shinjuku puts many shops within a short walk, but the tax-free count stays per buyer, per shop, per day. How a building holding many shops is divided into shops is not written into the published conditions as of August 19, 2026, so it is asked at the shop. Last checked: 2026-09-06 Shinjuku puts a great many shops within a short walk of each other, and the count still runs per buyer, per shop, per day, with a single shop on a single day needing ¥5,000 before tax — [Japan Tourism Agency](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/tax-free/page01_000001_00019.html) (checked August 19, 2026). A day of shopping there is therefore not one total but a set of separate totals, and the way the money comes back changes on November 1, 2026. ## How do you reach ¥5,000 at one shop in Shinjuku? By treating each shop as its own count and each day as its own count, which is exactly what the published conditions describe. Two shops that share a street, a floor or a roof are still two counts, because receipts from different shops never combine. What the published conditions do not describe, as of August 19, 2026, is how a building that holds many shops is divided into shops for this purpose. That question is asked at the shop before paying. It is not something a page like this one can settle for any particular building, and an answer that sounds confident about a specific address is an answer someone invented. ## What does the count actually read? Six things, and the district you are walking through is not one of them. - **The buyer.** One passport, registered at the till when the purchase is recorded. The buyer is a non-resident, a foreign traveller staying under six months. - **The shop.** The total belongs to one shop, and receipts from different shops never combine. - **The day.** The total belongs to one day. - **The line.** ¥5,000 before tax, which shows as ¥5,500 on a tax-included price tag. - **The carrying out.** The goods leave Japan with the buyer, and departure happens within 90 days of the purchase date. - **The confirmation.** A terminal reads the passport at departure, a Green result means passing through and a Red result means the goods are shown — [Japan Customs](https://www.customs.go.jp/) (checked August 19, 2026). The amount itself is one eleventh of the tax-included price. A tax-included ¥11,000 holds ¥1,000 of tax, and a tax-included ¥110,000 holds ¥10,000, before any deduction that may exist. ## What changes on November 1, 2026? - **The general goods and consumables split is abolished**, so what one buyer bought at one shop in one day becomes a single total instead of two. - **The tax-included price is what is handed over at the till**, and the tax comes back after the customs confirmation at departure. - **The sealed bag is gone**, so a purchase can be opened and used during the trip. - **The count stays with the shop and the day**, and nothing in the change groups neighbouring shops together. - **The former daily ceiling on consumables is abolished.** None of that turns a walk between shops into a single purchase, so a busy district still produces as many separate counts as it has shops you bought in. Purchases up to October 31, 2026 stay under the old system, and purchases from November 1, 2026 fall under the new one. There is no transition period between them. ## What has not changed? - **The line is ¥5,000 before tax**, counted per buyer, per shop, per day. - **Receipts from different shops never combine**, however close together those shops stand. - **The passport is registered at the till**, when the purchase is recorded. - **The goods leave Japan with the buyer**, and departure happens within 90 days of the purchase date. - **The system is for non-residents**, foreign travellers staying under six months. - **Separate shipment was abolished** at the end of March 2025. - **A purchase of ¥1,000,000 or more** needs a serial number or something similar registered at the shop. ## When does this come up on a day in Shinjuku? ### You go from a large electronics shop to a drugstore Two shops, two counts. Receipts from different shops never combine, so the line has to be reached inside each of them on its own for each of them to produce anything. ### You buy on several floors of one department store The floors are yours to walk, but the count is per shop, and how a building holding many shops is divided into shops for this purpose is not written into the published conditions as of August 19, 2026. Ask at the shop before paying instead of assuming either answer. ### You are in a station building full of tenants Same question, same honest answer. The count is per shop, and the division of one building into shops is not described in the published conditions as of August 19, 2026. The staff at the till are the people who can say how their own shop records a purchase. ### You are shopping in an underground street Being underground, and being connected to everything else by a passage, changes nothing in the conditions. What is counted is a shop and a day. ### You buy at the same shop in the morning and again at night Two visits to one shop on one day are not two days, because the total belongs to one day. Whether two separate receipts from those two visits are put together into one count is not something the published conditions settle as of August 19, 2026, so it is asked at that shop. ### A shop is still open late in the evening Opening hours belong to each shop and are not part of the published conditions. The count runs per day, and how a purchase made late in the evening is placed into a day is not spelled out in the published conditions as of August 19, 2026. ### You come back to Shinjuku on another day Another day is another count at the same shop, because the total belongs to one day. What fell short on the first day does not join the second day. ### You and a friend are shopping together The count is per buyer. Two passports are two counts even at the same till, and one passport carries everything registered on it at that shop on that day. ### You are making small purchases at many shops This is the shape that returns nothing. Several shops each holding a basket that stays under the line produce nothing at all, while the same money spent inside one of them can pass ¥5,000 before tax and produce a record. ### You are buying one expensive item A purchase of ¥1,000,000 or more needs a serial number or something similar registered at the shop, and that registration sits on the same passport as everything else bought there that day. ### You buy food or drink along the way Some items carry the reduced 8% rate, and how the reduced rate is handled inside the refund is unannounced as of August 19, 2026. That is an open point rather than a settled one, so treat it as open when planning a basket. ### You are paying at the till from November 1, 2026 The tax-included price is what is handed over in the shop, and the tax comes back after the confirmation at departure. Plan the day around the full price rather than around the price minus the tax. ### You are going from Shinjuku to the airport The confirmation happens at departure, where a terminal reads the passport, and where those terminals are placed is unannounced as of August 19, 2026. A Red result means the goods are shown, so keeping them reachable until that step is finished follows from the published conditions. ### Someone tells you the whole building counts as one shop That claim is not among the published conditions as of August 19, 2026, and neither is the opposite claim. The count is per shop, the definition of one shop for one particular building is not published, and the shop is where the question belongs. ## What is unannounced as of August 19, 2026? Six points remain open. Whether a handling fee is deducted, where the terminals are placed and how many there are, whether cash stays one of the ways the money is handed back, how many days the refund takes, how a mismatch between a card name and a passport is treated, and how the reduced 8% rate is handled are all unannounced as of August 19, 2026. Answers would appear via [the Japan Tax-free Shop Association](https://zenmenkyo.jp/refund/) (checked August 19, 2026) or [the Japan Tourism Agency](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/tax-free/page01_000001_00019.html) (checked August 19, 2026). None of the six changes the part of the day you can plan, because the count itself is published and it is the count that decides which purchases are worth grouping. ## Questions people ask ### What is the minimum at one shop? ¥5,000 before tax, counted per buyer, per shop, per day. ### Do receipts from two shops in Shinjuku add up? No. Receipts from different shops never combine. ### Is a department store one shop or many shops? That is not written into the published conditions as of August 19, 2026, so it is asked at the shop before paying. ### Are tenants inside a station building counted separately? The same answer applies. The published conditions as of August 19, 2026 do not divide a building into shops, and the shop is where to ask. ### Do two receipts from the same shop on the same day combine? The published conditions do not settle that as of August 19, 2026, so it is asked at that shop. ### Does a second day start a new count? Yes. The total belongs to one day. ### Can a friend's purchases be added to mine? No. The count is per buyer, on the passport registered at the till. ### How much comes back? One eleventh of the tax-included price, before any deduction that may exist. ### When does the money come back? After the customs confirmation at departure. How many days that takes is unannounced as of August 19, 2026. ### Can it be received in cash? Cash is among the listed ways the money can be returned, together with cards, payment apps and approved operators, and whether cash is available in a given case is unannounced as of August 19, 2026. ### Is a fee taken out? Whether a handling fee is deducted is unannounced as of August 19, 2026. ### How long is there to leave Japan? 90 days from the purchase date. ### Is the sealed bag still used? From November 1, 2026 the sealed bag is abolished, so a purchase can be opened during the trip. ### Can the goods be posted home from Shinjuku instead? No. Separate shipment was abolished at the end of March 2025. ### Where are the rules published? The Japan Tourism Agency and Japan Customs. ## Sources - [Japan Tourism Agency](https://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/tax-free/page01_000001_00019.html) — checked August 19, 2026 - [Japan Customs](https://www.customs.go.jp/) — checked August 19, 2026 - [the Japan Tax-free Shop Association](https://zenmenkyo.jp/refund/) — checked August 19, 2026