Japan Tax-Free 2026: What Does the Shop Keep on Record?

From November 1, 2026 a tax-free purchase in Japan is paid for at the tax-included price, and the tax comes back after a customs confirmation at departure — Japan Tourism Agency (checked November 2, 2026).

The National Tax Agency's Q&A for shops answers most of the title: the shop sends a purchase record to the agency's system and keeps it, with the customs confirmation, for about seven years — National Tax Agency Q&A (checked November 2, 2026).

What does the shop keep after the counter?

The answer has two parts. First, what is in the record: the details from your passport, the shop, the date, and the item names, quantities and pre-tax prices. The shop sends this to the National Tax Agency's system, and customs confirms against it, which is why the departure step can find it later without anyone carrying a file across the city. Second, how long it stays: the shop keeps the record and the customs confirmation for seven years, starting two months after the end of the tax period of the sale, either electronically or as printed paper. The same Q&A says the passport details need not be managed or stored separately from the record.

That is the rule. Which till system or cabinet a particular shop uses is its own arrangement, and a page that named one would be describing a counter it had never stood at.

So this article does not say the shop keeps a photocopy of your passport: the Q&A does not require storing the details separately from the purchase record, and how a shop's own copying is treated is not in the official texts. It says what the sources say, and then turns to the part a traveller can actually act on: what you can hold yourself, and what you can answer if anyone asks.

• The record is tied to the passport, not to a slip of paper in your bag. The purchase is recorded against the passport shown at the register, so the identifying object is the one you are carrying anyway.
• The published description of the departure step names the passport. A terminal reads it, and a result decides whether the goods themselves are shown — Japan Customs (checked November 2, 2026).
• The terminal does not need your receipt. A receipt need not be held or shown at the terminal or the inspection, though customs may ask to see one — Japan Tourism Agency FAQ for shops, Q8 (checked November 2, 2026). A receipt in your own pocket is still worth more than a theory about the shop's filing.
• Your own note costs nothing to make. The shop, the date and the total are the three things any question at a counter tends to start from.
• The refund method differs by shop. Bank transfer, card, app and cash inside the airport or seaport are the examples given — Japan Tourism Agency FAQ for travellers (checked November 2, 2026).

What you keep in your own hands, and whether paper or a screen serves you better between the till and the gate, is set out on our page about the paper and digital copy.

What does one purchase carry from the till to the gate?

The chain is short, and most of the anxiety around it comes from imagining links that are not in the published description.

• The passport shown at the register. The purchase is recorded against it, and that record is what the departure step reads.
• The tax-included price paid in the shop, with the tax returning after the departure step rather than coming off at the till.
• A confirmation at departure, where a terminal reads the passport and the result decides whether the goods are shown — Japan Customs (checked November 2, 2026).
• A refund method set by the shop and its operator, which can be a shop refunding directly or an operator it has outsourced to — the Japan Tax-free Shop Association (checked November 2, 2026).
• Ninety days, counted from the day after the purchase, inside which the customs confirmation happens at departure.
• A non-resident buyer, such as a foreign visitor with short-term stay status.

Read that chain looking for a document that travels with you and none appears by name. What travels is the passport, which is why the practical advice here is unglamorous: keep the passport safe, keep your own copy of the purchase, and stop trying to picture the shop's cabinet. The order of the steps at the counter itself is set out on our page about the steps at the register.

What changed on November 1, 2026?

• The tax comes back after the customs confirmation rather than at the register, so the tax-included price is what is handed over in the shop.
• The general goods and consumables split was abolished, so everything bought at one shop on one day is a single total for each buyer.
• The sealed bag is gone, but consumables consumed in Japan cannot get the customs confirmation or the refund — Japan Tourism Agency FAQ for travellers (checked November 2, 2026).
• The refund can come by bank transfer, card, app or as cash inside the airport or seaport; those are examples, and the method differs by shop — Japan Tourism Agency FAQ for travellers (checked November 2, 2026).
• The former daily ceiling on consumables was abolished.

The answer to the question in the title sits elsewhere, in the part of the Q&A on the purchase record.

Purchases up to October 31, 2026 stay under the older arrangement and purchases from November 1, 2026 fall under the new one, with no transition period between the two dates. The shape of the choice between the listed methods is set out on our page about the refund methods.

How much is riding on the record?

At the 10% rate, a tax-included price holds one eleventh of itself as tax. A price of ¥10,000 including tax holds ¥909. A price of ¥11,000 including tax holds ¥1,000.

That fraction is the size of what the record is standing in for, and it is worth naming because it sets how much effort the record deserves from you. It is enough money to justify a photograph of a receipt and a line in a notes app. It is not enough money to justify a theory about how a till system is built.

What does not change?

• The passport is presented at the register, and the purchase is recorded against it there.
• The purchase is counted per buyer, per shop, per day, and receipts from different shops do not combine as a rule.
• The goods leave Japan with the buyer, with the confirmation at departure within 90 days. Day 1 is the day after you buy, and the last day is day 90: a November 1 purchase can be confirmed until January 30.
• The system is for non-residents, such as foreign visitors with short-term stay status.
• Separate shipment was abolished at the end of March 2025.
• The buyer and the passport stay the same person from the till to the departure gate.

The second and last lines are the ones that make your own note useful. A purchase belongs to a shop, a day and a passport, so the three things worth writing down are exactly the three things that identify it.

What does a purchase have to reach to qualify?

A purchase qualifies at ¥5,000 before tax, counted for one buyer at one shop on one day. Receipts from different shops do not combine as a rule; the exception is a shop that outsources the procedure to a tax-free counter, which can add up one buyer's same-day purchases from several shops to judge the minimum, though not every counter does — Japan Tourism Agency (checked November 2, 2026).

Shelf tags usually carry the tax-included figure, and a tag of ¥5,500 including tax sits on that line rather than under it.

The line explains why the shop and the day matter enough to write down. Two baskets bought at two counters stay two purchases however similar they look, and a traveller who noted where and when will answer any question about them in a sentence. Which page of the passport is presented at that counter is set out on our page about the passport page.

When does this come up?

The staff hold your passport and type for a while

This is the moment that starts the worry, and almost all of it is misread. Typing at a counter means a record is being made from the passport. Where it goes next and how long it stays are in the Q&A: to the National Tax Agency's system, and about seven years with the shop.

A screen at the counter asks you to confirm something

Reading before confirming is good practice in any country, and it is the one moment where you see the shop's own wording rather than a summary of it. What a particular screen displays is that business's own arrangement, so no page can tell you in advance what will be on it. If a line puzzles you, asking at the counter costs one sentence and gets an answer from the only people who can give it.

You want your own record of what you bought

Make it before you leave the shop, because that is when everything is in front of you. The shop, the date and the total are enough to identify a purchase, and a photograph of the receipt captures all three without any typing. Doing this does not depend on what the shop keeps, which is the whole point of doing it.

You buy at more than one shop on the same day

Each counter makes its own record against the same passport, and receipts from different shops do not combine as a rule. A short note per shop keeps them apart in your own head, which matters more than it sounds when several bags come home on the same evening and none of them look distinct.

The bag is handed over with a receipt and nothing else

That may well be the whole of it, and it is not evidence that something went wrong. A receipt is not even necessarily needed at the terminal. Keep what you were given and move on with the day.

You want to know how long the shop holds your details

This is the question the page exists for. The Q&A sets seven years for the purchase record and the customs confirmation, starting two months after the end of the tax period of the sale. Anything a shop holds beyond that record is not in the Q&A, so ask the shop what it does at its own counters.

You expect the departure terminal to ask for a document

The published description of that step names the passport and, on a result that calls for it, the goods themselves. Japan Customs published the locations on a map on October 23, 2026 — Japan Customs map (checked October 25, 2026). The terminal takes a few seconds, but a Red check and the queue have no official time, so allowing time rather than rehearsing a script is the sensible preparation. The step itself is set out on our page about the customs terminal.

You want to return an item before leaving Japan

Whether a completed sale can be undone, and what a shop does about a purchase that was rung up tax-free, is decided by that shop, and no page can state it for a particular store. The useful move is to carry your own copy of the purchase to that conversation, since the shop, the date and the total are what any counter will ask for first.

You are buying something priced at ¥1,000,000 or more

A purchase at that level needs a serial number or something similar registered at the shop, so the paperwork takes longer than a normal sale by design. That is a good moment to note the details for yourself, because they are being read out at the counter anyway and writing them down costs nothing while you wait.

Your basket is close to the qualifying line

A basket sitting near ¥5,000 before tax is one where the shop and the day decide whether the purchase counts at all, since the line is counted for one buyer at one shop on one day. Noting which counter it happened at is therefore worth more on that basket than on a large one, where nothing about the line is in doubt.

Everyone in the family buys their own things

The count follows each passport, so a family ends up with one record per traveller rather than one shared record with several people behind it. Keeping the receipts separate on the way home mirrors the way the purchases were counted, and saves an argument about whose bag held what.

Someone tells you the shop sends your data somewhere

That part is true and official: the shop provides the purchase record to the National Tax Agency's system, itself or through an approved operator, and customs confirms against it. Anything past that point is somebody's guess in a confident voice. Treat a confident voice at a counter and a confident voice on a forum with the same care.

You are shopping on the morning of your flight

Time is shortest on the day the record matters most, and a receipt pushed into a coat pocket at speed is the one that goes missing. Photographing it before you leave the shop takes a second and removes the need to find the paper again in a queue.

What is left to shops and operators?

Four items.

• Records. The Q&A sets the record and the seven years. Which system a shop uses, and anything it holds beyond the record, are left to each business.
• Terminals. The locations are on the Japan Customs map of October 23, 2026.
• Fees. The government takes no handling fee, and no rule says whether the traveller or the shop bears an operator's fee — Japan Tourism Agency FAQ for shops, Q17 (checked November 2, 2026).
• Days. The refund comes after the confirmation, and no number of days is set.

The official text is with the Japan Tourism Agency (checked November 2, 2026) and the Japan Tax-free Shop Association (checked November 2, 2026), and a shop can describe what happens at its own tills.

The plan that does not depend on a shop's filing is the one above: let the passport carry the record, keep your own copy of the shop, the date and the total, and leave the filing to the people whose counter it is.

Questions people ask

Does the shop keep a copy of my passport?

The Q&A puts the passport details in the purchase record and says they need not be stored separately from it. How a shop's own copying is treated is not in the official texts, so ask the shop if one is taken.

What is the purchase recorded against?

The passport presented at the register, which is what the departure step reads.

Do I have to carry a document from the shop to the airport?

The official description of the departure step names the passport and, on a result that calls for it, the goods themselves. A receipt is not required, though customs may ask to see one.

Should I keep my own copy of the receipt?

Keeping it, or photographing it before leaving the shop, costs nothing and does not depend on what the shop holds.

What should I write down about a purchase?

The shop, the date and the total, because a purchase is counted per buyer, per shop, per day.

How long does a shop hold the record?

Seven years for the purchase record and the customs confirmation, starting two months after the end of the tax period of the sale.

What does the terminal read at departure?

The passport, and the result decides whether the goods themselves are shown.

Where are the terminals in the airport?

Japan Customs published the locations on a map on October 23, 2026 — Japan Customs map (checked October 25, 2026). The Japan Tourism Agency places them before baggage check-in, in the international departure lobby or similar.

What are the refund methods?

Bank transfer, card, app and cash inside the airport or seaport are the examples given, and the method differs by shop.

When does the tax come back?

After the customs confirmation at departure, rather than at the register.

How much of a tax-included price is tax?

One eleventh of it at the 10% rate.

What does a purchase have to reach to qualify?

¥5,000 before tax for one buyer at one shop on one day, which reads as ¥5,500 on a tax-included tag.

How long is there to leave Japan?

Day 1 is the day after you buy, and the last day is day 90: a November 1 purchase can be confirmed at departure until January 30.

Who is the system for?

Non-residents, such as foreign visitors with short-term stay status.

Is a fee deducted from the refund?

The national government charges no fee, and no rule says whether the traveller or the shop bears an operator's fee. Ask the shop.

Where is the answer about records published?

In the National Tax Agency's Q&A for shops, and a shop can describe its own counters.