Japanese passport

Japanese passport
The front cover of a contemporary 10 years Japanese ePassport.
Identity Information Page of a contemporary 5 years Japanese ePassport.
Type	Passport
Issued by	Japan
First issued	21 May 1866 (letter of request) 1 January 1926 (booklet) 1 November 1992 (machine-readable passport) 20 March 2006 (biometric passport) 31 August 2013 (current version)
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility	Japanese citizenship
Expiration	10 years or 5 years after acquisition for adults, 5 for ages under 19
Cost	¥16,000 (10 year adult passport)

The Japanese passport (日本国旅券, Nipponkoku ryoken) is a travel document issued to Japanese citizens to enable them to travel outside Japan.

History

First Japanese passport, issued in 1866.

Passports for passengers between Mainland Japan and Okinawa during 1952-1972.

Front cover of a non-machine-readable Japanese passport issued in the 1980s.

The first travel documents for overseas travel by Japanese citizens were introduced in 1866, near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. These documents took the form of a stamped "letter of request" allowing Japanese citizens to travel overseas for business and educational purposes. The term "passport" was formally introduced into the Japanese language in 1878, and in 1900 the first regulations governing the usage of Japanese passports were introduced. The modern form of the Japanese passport first came about in 1926, and the first ICAO-compliant, machine-readable Japanese passports were introduced in 1992.

Types of passports

• Ordinary passport: Issued to normal Japanese citizens.
  • Ordinary passports are issued in two different lengths of validity: five and ten years. Japanese citizens up to 19 years of age can only be issued a five-year passport, while those who are 20 years of age or older can choose either a five-year (blue) or ten-year (red) passport for different registration fees.
• Official passport: Issued to members of the National Diet and public servants.
• Diplomatic passport: Issued to members of the Imperial Family, diplomats and their family members, and high-level government officials.
  • By convention, the Emperor and Empress of Japan do not hold a passport.

All Japanese passports issued after 20 March 2006 are biometric passports.

Japanese passports have the Imperial Seal of Japan inscribed in the centre of the front cover, with the Japanese characters reading Nipponkoku Ryoken (日本国旅券) inscribed above in seal script and its English translation JAPAN PASSPORT in Latin letters below the Seal. Ordinary passports valid for five years feature dark blue covers, and those valid for ten years feature crimson-coloured covers. Additionally, official passports feature dark green covers, and diplomatic passports feature dark brown covers.

Data page

• Photo of the passport holder
• Type
• Issuing country
• Passport number
• Surname
• Given name
• Nationality
• Date of birth
• Sex
• Registered Domicile
• Date of issue
• Date of expiry
• Issuing authority
• Signature of bearer

The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.

Passport note

The passports contain a note from the issuing country that is addressed to the authorities of all other countries, identifying the bearer as a citizen of that country and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass and be treated according to international norms. The note inside of Japanese passports states:

In Japanese:

日本国民である本旅券の所持人を通路故障なく旅行させ、かつ、同人に必要な保護扶助を与えられるよう、関係の諸官に要請する。

In English:

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer, a Japanese national, to pass freely and without hindrance and, in case of need, to afford him or her every possible aid and protection.

Language

Japanese passports are entirely printed in both Japanese and English, except for the note of caution that is found at the end of the passport (e.g. on page 51 of the ten-year biometric ordinary passport), which is only printed in Japanese. This note contains information about what the bearer should know when encountering various situations in a foreign country.

The surname, given name and other personalised mentions (like registered domicile) are only indicated in Latin uppercase letters. Japanese names are in principle transcribed according to the Hepburn romanisation system, but exceptions are admitted in certain cases, notably when the name is the katakana transcription of a foreign name (Japanese spouse or Japanese child of a foreigner), in which case the original spelling of the name in the Latin alphabet may be used, only if you submit the official document with the original spelling issued by the government (spouse or parent's passport etc.).

The signature may be written in any language and in any spelling the individual desires.

Visa requirements

Main article: Visa requirements for Japanese citizens

Countries and territories with visa-free entries or visas on arrival for holders of regular Japanese passports

Visa requirements for Japanese citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states which are placed on citizens of Japan. As of 10 October 2018, Japanese citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 190 countries and territories, ranking the Japanese passport first in the world in terms of travel freedom according to the Visa Restrictions Index. Additionally, Arton Capital's Passport Index ranked the Japanese passport third in the world in terms of travel freedom, with a visa-free score of 163 (tied with Austrian, Belgian, British, Canadian, Greek, Irish, Portuguese and Swiss passports), as of 10 October 2018.

As of October 2018, the passports of Japan, Brunei, Singapore and San Marino are the only ones to allow either visa-free entry or electronic travel authorisation to the world's four largest economies, namely China, India, the European Union and the United States.

See also

• Foreign relations of Japan
• Japanese nationality law
• Visa requirements for Japanese citizens

External links

Media related to Passports of Japan at Wikimedia Commons