Refund JapanThis page is written for English-speaking travellers going to Japan.
What is confirmed, and what is not
Nine points about the November 1, 2026 change are published. Six that travellers ask about are not. This page keeps the two apart.
What has been published
Everything in this table traces to the Japan Tourism Agency, the Japan Tax-free Shop Association or Japan Customs. Where a number appears anywhere else on this site, it comes from here.
| Point | What it says | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The start date | November 1, 2026. There is no transition period: buy on October 31 and the old rules apply, buy on November 1 and the new ones do. | Published |
| The minimum spend | ¥5,000 excluding tax — ¥5,500 including it — at one shop, on one day. Receipts from different shops cannot be added together. | Published |
| The deadline to leave | 90 days from the date of each purchase. Each purchase starts its own clock. | Published |
| What happens at departure | A terminal reads your passport, and the system either lets you through or asks you to show the goods. | Published |
| Sealed packaging is gone | The requirement to keep consumables in a sealed bag ends with the old system, along with the split between general goods and consumables. | Published |
| The daily ceiling is gone | The ¥500,000 per-day limit on consumables is abolished from November 1, 2026. | Published |
| High-value goods are registered | Goods of ¥1,000,000 and above need serial numbers or equivalent details recorded at purchase. | Published |
| Who qualifies | Non-residents — broadly, foreign travellers who have been in Japan for less than six months. It follows the passport. | Published |
| Shipping straight home is not an option | The separate-dispatch route, where a shop posted your purchase abroad for you, ended on March 31, 2025. | Published |
What has not been published
These six are the ones that decide whether the refund is worth your time, and none of them has an official answer yet. We will not fill them with an estimate, and we would treat any site that does with care.
| Open question | What is missing | What to do meanwhile |
|---|---|---|
| The handling fee | Whether an operator takes a cut of your refund, and how much. | Treat every figure on this site as the maximum before any fee. |
| How long the money takes | The number of days between customs confirmation and the money arriving. | Any site telling you 'one to two weeks' is guessing. We will measure it. |
| Whether cash is handed over | The industry body lists cash among the refund methods. Whether it is actually paid out at departure has not been published. | Do not plan on walking away from the airport with yen in hand. |
| Where the terminals are | The location, number and screen languages of the customs terminals at each airport. | This is why we cannot yet tell you how early to arrive. |
| What happens if the names do not match | Whether a refund can be paid to a card in a different name from the passport. | If you can, use a card in your own name. |
| How the 8% food rate is treated | Japan charges a reduced 8% consumption tax on most food and drink. How that interacts with the refund has not been published. | Assume nothing about groceries and snacks until it is. |
How this page changes
We re-read the three primary sources every week and re-date this page whether or not anything moved. When one of the six is answered, it moves into the table above and every page that depends on it is updated in the same pass.
From November 1, 2026 the fee and the payout timing stop being a question of announcements and become a question of measurement. We will be at Narita, Haneda and Kansai on the first day.