Updated October 2026
Tax-Free Shopping in Japan (2026):
The ¥5,000 Rule and the New Airport Refund
¥5,000 before tax in one shop on one day, a non-resident passport, and the 10% consumption tax comes back. From 1 November 2026 it comes back at the airport rather than at the till.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. The rules on this page come from the National Tax Agency, the Japan Tourism Agency and the Ministry of Finance, and nothing we earn changes them. Full disclaimer →
Three conditions: ¥5,000 or more before tax in a single shop on a single day, a non-resident passport, and the goods leaving Japan with you. What you get back is Japan's consumption tax — 10%, or 8% on food and non-alcoholic drink (National Tax Agency, checked 21 Oct 2026). Where you get it back changes on 1 November 2026: until then it comes off at the till, and from that date you pay the tax-inclusive price in the shop and the shop refunds the tax after you show your passport at a customs terminal in the international departure lobby — before bag drop, within 90 days of the purchase date (Japan Tourism Agency, checked 21 Oct 2026).
Tax you get back
10%, or 8% on food & drink
Minimum purchase
¥5,000 before tax, per shop per day
Who qualifies
Non-residents, on their own passport
Where you claim it
From 1 November 2026: the airport, before bag drop
What Changes on 1 November 2026?
Japan is moving from an exemption at the till to a refund at the border. The Ministry of Finance's FY2025 tax reform outline sets the switch for goods sold from 1 November 2026, and what matters for a traveller is that the date is tied to the purchase date, not the travel date. Buy on 31 October and the tax never leaves your pocket; buy the next morning and you pay it in the shop and claim it back on the way out.
| Bought up to 31 Oct 2026 | Bought from 1 Nov 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay in the shop | The tax-free price — the 10% (or 8%) comes off at the till | The full tax-inclusive price, the same as a Japanese shopper |
| How you get the tax back | You never pay it, so there is nothing to get back | The shop refunds it after customs confirms you are taking the goods out |
| What you do at the airport | Nothing, unless customs stops you for an inspection | Show your passport at a tax-free procedure terminal before you check your bags |
| Deadline | No fixed deadline on the purchase itself | Customs confirmation within 90 days of the purchase date |
| Food, drink, cosmetics, medicine | Sealed by the shop in special packaging you must not open | Special packaging abolished — but using them in Japan still voids the refund |
| Upper limit | ¥500,000 per shop per day on consumables | Abolished, along with the general-goods / consumables split itself |
Two things are quietly better under the new system. The ¥500,000 daily cap on consumables goes, as does the split between general goods and consumables that produced it — so the ¥5,000 floor is now judged on one combined total — and the requirement that shops seal food, drink, cosmetics and medicine in special packaging goes with it. The requirement that the goods not be for ordinary daily use is also abolished. What does not change is the reason behind the packaging: the goods have to leave Japan unused.
How Does Tax-Free Shopping Work in Japan?
Japan charges a 10% consumption tax on most things and 8% on food and non-alcoholic drink. Its tourist exemption covers that tax in full on qualifying purchases, and the whole procedure fits in six steps.
Find the shop's tax-free desk, or ask at the till
Shops that offer this display the Japan Tax-free Shop symbol mark at the entrance. Coverage is per branch rather than per chain, so a shop in one district may handle it when the same brand in the next does not.
Clear ¥5,000 before tax, in that one shop, on that one day
¥5,000 is the floor and it is counted per shop per day. You can combine as many items as you like within one shop on one day; you cannot add two shops together, or two days.
Hand over your actual passport
The original, not a photo and not a copy. The procedure has been fully electronic since 1 October 2021 — your purchase record goes to the National Tax Agency's system from the till, so nothing is stapled into your passport any more.
Pay — and, from 1 November 2026, register how you want the refund
For purchases from that date you pay the tax-inclusive price and the shop sets up the refund: bank transfer, a credit-card refund, an app, or cash at the departure port. Which of those you get is the shop's choice, so ask before you pay.
Do the customs confirmation before you check your bags
At the airport, show your passport at a tax-free procedure terminal in the international departure lobby, with the goods still in your hand luggage. Within 90 days of the purchase date. After bag drop is too late.
The refund arrives once customs has confirmed the goods
Nothing is refunded before that confirmation. Japan's consumption tax law sets no rule for how or when the shop pays it out, which is the reason the method varies from shop to shop.
What Is the Minimum Purchase for Tax-Free Shopping in Japan?
¥5,000 before tax, per shop, per day. The Japan Tourism Agency puts it as purchases totalling 5,000 yen or more excluding tax at a single store on a single day — which is why a ¥3,000 purchase in two different shops gets you nothing, and neither does ¥3,000 today and ¥3,000 tomorrow in the same shop. The practical consequence is that a tax-free day means fewer, larger stops rather than browsing everywhere, and that department stores are easy mode: every receipt from the same store on the same day counts toward the one total.
There is no ceiling on purchases made from 1 November 2026. Every other condition is in the table below, and all of it is from the National Tax Agency and the Japan Tourism Agency, read 21 Oct 2026.
| Condition | What it means |
|---|---|
| Minimum spend | ¥5,000 or more before tax, totalled per shop and per day. Separate shops and separate days do not add up. |
| Who you have to be | A non-resident: a foreign national on short-stay, diplomatic or official status, or a Japanese national who has lived outside Japan continuously for two years or more. |
| What you show | Your actual passport, at the shop and again at the airport. A photo or a photocopy is not accepted. |
| What is excluded | Gold and platinum bullion, and anything already exempt from consumption tax. |
| How much you can buy | Only what you can personally carry out of Japan — the goods have to be with you at the terminal. |
| Deadline to leave | Customs confirmation within 90 days of the purchase date, for anything bought from 1 November 2026. |
| Using the goods | Not in Japan. Eat the snacks or open the cosmetics and that purchase record no longer qualifies. |
| Posting things home | Not by yourself — sending your own tax-free goods home as mail or a parcel was abolished on 31 March 2025. |
Who Qualifies for Tax-Free Shopping in Japan?
Non-residents. The National Tax Agency's own definition has two halves: a foreign national holding short-stay, diplomatic or official status under Japan's immigration law, and a Japanese national who has lived outside Japan continuously for two years or more. Almost every tourist reading this is in the first group simply by virtue of the entry stamp they were given at the airport.
The second group is the one that trips people up. A Japanese passport holder living abroad does qualify, but has to prove it — the Agency names a residence certificate, a family-register attachment, or a My Number card showing the move abroad, created within six months before the most recent entry to Japan. A foreign resident of Japan on a work or student visa does not qualify at all, whatever passport they hold.
One condition applies to everyone: the purchase has to be for yourself. Anything bought for a business, or to resell, is outside the scheme (National Tax Agency No.6559, checked 21 Oct 2026).
What Can You Buy Tax-Free?
From 1 November 2026 the categories stop mattering: the general-goods and consumables split is abolished, so everything in one shop on one day is totalled together against the ¥5,000 floor. The exclusions are narrow — gold and platinum bullion, and anything that is already exempt from consumption tax — plus one practical limit: you may only buy what you can personally carry out, because the goods have to be with you at the terminal on the way out.
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| Electronics and cameras | No category restriction and no upper limit from 1 November 2026, so a single large purchase is the simplest way to clear ¥5,000. |
| Clothing, bags and shoes | Any combination reaching ¥5,000 before tax in one shop on one day. Do not wear the shoes before you fly. |
| Cosmetics and medicine | Eligible, and from 1 November 2026 they no longer have to be sealed in the shop's special packaging. Opening and using them in Japan still voids the refund. |
| Food, snacks and drink | Eligible at the 8% reduced rate. The ¥500,000 consumables cap is abolished from 1 November 2026; eating any of it in Japan is not. |
| Souvenirs and crafts | Ceramics, lacquerware and textiles all qualify. Gold and platinum bullion does not, and never did. |
Where Can You Shop Tax-Free in Japan?
At licensed shops, which display the Japan Tax-free Shop symbol mark at the entrance. That mark is the only reliable check: the licence belongs to the individual shop, not the brand above the door, so a branch in Shinjuku may handle it when the same chain two stations away does not. In the big shopping districts — Shinjuku, Ginza, Shibuya, Akihabara, Namba, Shinsaibashi, Kyoto's Shijo — coverage at the larger retailers is close to universal.
| Store type | Examples | How it usually works |
|---|---|---|
| Department stores | Isetan, Takashimaya, Mitsukoshi, Matsuya, Daimaru | One tax-free desk for the whole building, usually on an upper or basement floor. Keep every receipt from that store that day — they are totalled together. |
| Electronics | Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera, the Akihabara chains | Dedicated multilingual counters, and the category where 10% on one purchase is worth the most. |
| Discount and variety | Don Quijote | Don Quijote's own English site states that its stores handle tax-free sales and have in-store tax-free counters (donki.com, checked 21 Oct 2026). |
| Drugstores | Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sundrug and similar chains in tourist districts | Cosmetics and medicine. From 1 November 2026 the shop no longer has to seal them in special packaging — but you still cannot use them here. |
| Fashion | Large branches of the chains in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Namba and Shinsaibashi | Often handled at the ordinary register rather than a separate desk. Coverage is per branch, not per brand. |
From 1 November 2026 there is a second thing worth asking at the counter: how that shop pays the refund. The law sets no rule for it, so bank transfer, a credit-card refund, an app and cash at the departure port are all possible, and which one you get is the shop's decision rather than yours.
How Should You Plan a Day of Tax-Free Shopping?
The ¥5,000-per-shop rule shapes the day more than anything else on this page. Two or three large stores beat a dozen small ones, and anything bought under the threshold is simply bought at the full price — so it is worth deciding in advance which shop the electronics are coming from, and keeping the souvenir run inside a single department store rather than spreading it across an arcade.
The second thing the rule shapes is where you sleep. Ginza, Shinjuku and Shinsaibashi are the three districts where the big tax-free retailers sit close enough together to clear the threshold several times in an afternoon and still carry everything back to the room between stops — which matters more than usual under the new system, because the goods have to survive unused until you reach the airport.
And it is worth being honest that a full day of this is tiring. If the trip has one shopping day in it, the half-day sightseeing options below are the normal way people split it up — and a guided or chartered day is the one way to do several districts without carrying the bags between them.
Where to Stay if the Trip Is Built Around Shopping
Four districts where the ¥5,000-per-shop minimum is easy to clear on foot, and where you can drop bags at the hotel between stops rather than carrying them all day.
- ▸Ginza, Tokyo — The department-store district — Mitsukoshi, Matsuya and Ginza Six within a few blocks of each other, which is the one layout where the ¥5,000-per-store minimum is easy to clear in an afternoon. Hotels on Klook →
- ▸Shinjuku, Tokyo — Isetan and the big electronics floors on one side of the station and the drugstores on the other, with the Metro and Toei lines a subway ticket covers running underneath. Hotels on Klook →
- ▸Shinsaibashi, Osaka — A covered arcade that runs for most of a kilometre into Dotonbori, so a wet afternoon of shopping does not need a train at all. Hotels on Klook →
- ▸Namba, Osaka — Walking distance from the south end of the Shinsaibashi arcade, and the Nankai terminus — which is where the Rapi:t to Kansai Airport leaves from on the day you fly out. Hotels on Klook →
Hotel links go to Klook's own search for that area, which pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and availability are Klook's.
Worth Booking Before You Shop
Two things that are cheaper or simply easier to sort out before you fly than from the arrivals hall:
- ▸Klook Japan eSIM — Every step of the refund runs off your phone — finding a shop's tax-free desk, and, at the seven airports that allow it, doing the customs confirmation through Visit Japan Web instead of queueing at a terminal. See eSIM options on Klook →
- ▸Tokyo Subway Ticket (24 / 48 / 72 hour) — The ¥5,000 minimum is per store, so a tax-free day means moving between stores; the large department stores and electronics chains sit on Tokyo Metro and Toei lines a 24, 48 or 72-hour ticket already covers. Check the subway ticket →
These go to Klook, which pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and availability are Klook's — we do not quote them here because its product pages block automated checks.
Can I Get a Tax Refund at the Airport in Japan?
Yes — and from 1 November 2026 that is the only way it works. For anything bought from that date, the sequence at the airport is: go to a tax-free procedure terminal in the international departure lobby, with the goods still with you, and present your passport. The screen then tells you whether customs wants to see the goods. Green and you are finished; red and you take them to the customs inspection area. The shop pays the refund once that confirmation exists, and not before.
Three details decide whether this goes smoothly. First, the terminals sit before bag drop — once a suitcase is checked in you cannot show what is inside it, and the Japan Tourism Agency's FAQ is explicit that you cannot get it back for this. Pack anything you claimed on into hand luggage. Second, the confirmation is judged per purchase record: one missing item from a receipt disqualifies everything on that receipt, not just the item. Third, the terminal itself takes seconds, but a red result does not — leave slack on a shopping-heavy departure.
At Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka, New Chitose and Naha there is an alternative: the same confirmation can be done online through Visit Japan Web, from inside the departure lobby's dedicated wireless area, any time before the security checkpoint. That needs a working connection on your phone and a few minutes you are not spending in a queue (Japan Tourism Agency, checked 21 Oct 2026).
One route that used to exist no longer does: posting your own tax-free purchases home as mail or a parcel was abolished on 31 March 2025. Shipping arranged by the shop itself may still be available — ask in the shop, not at the airport.
Getting to the Airport With More Bags Than You Arrived With
The refund procedure has one knock-on effect people do not plan for: you have to arrive at the airport with the goods in hand, with enough time for a possible inspection, carrying noticeably more than you did on the way in. That makes the trip out to the airport a different problem from the trip in — a reserved seat with somewhere to put luggage, or a bus that takes cases into the hold, is worth more than the fastest connection with two changes.
Booked Seats Out to the Airport
The airport runs from the two cities this guide's shopping districts sit in, as a seat you have already paid for rather than a rush-hour local:
- ▸Narita limousine bus + Tokyo Subway Ticket — The limousine bus takes hold luggage into the hold and runs from central Tokyo hotels to the Narita terminals, and this listing sells the ride together with the subway pass you want for the shopping days before it. Check the bus and pass combo →
- ▸Keisei Skyliner ticket — The faster way out to Narita if you are staying on the Ueno and Asakusa side — a reserved seat with luggage space, rather than a rush-hour local with four shopping bags. Check the Skyliner ticket →
- ▸JR Haruka airport express ticket — For Kansai Airport out of Kyoto, Shin-Osaka or Tennoji, with a reserved seat; Klook's listing states it is sold only to non-Japanese passport holders with a Temporary Visitor stamp. Check the Haruka ticket →
- ▸Nankai Limited Express Rapi:t ticket — The Namba and Shinsaibashi version of the same thing — a reserved seat from Namba out to Kansai Airport, which matters more on the way out than it did on the way in. Check the Rapi:t ticket →
These go to Klook, which pays us a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and availability are Klook's — we do not quote them here because its product pages block automated checks.
Important Rules to Know
The confirmation is judged per receipt, not per item
If one item from a purchase record is missing — eaten, used, already posted home — the whole of that record loses the exemption, not just that item. The Japan Tourism Agency's own FAQ states this outright.
Do not use tax-free goods in Japan
The exemption exists because the goods are leaving. The special sealed packaging on consumables goes away on 1 November 2026, but the rule behind it does not: if you have used any of it, tell a customs officer rather than using the terminal.
Always carry your passport
A tax-free sale needs your original passport in the shop. A photo on your phone is not accepted, and there is no way to claim the exemption afterwards on a purchase that was rung up at the full price.
Keep the goods in your hand luggage on the way out
The terminals sit in the departure lobby before bag drop, and you have to have the goods with you. Pack anything you claimed on into your carry-on, and leave time in case the screen comes back red and customs wants to see it.
Common Questions
1. How does tax-free shopping work in Japan?
2. What is the minimum purchase for tax-free shopping in Japan?
3. Can I get a tax refund at the airport in Japan?
4. Who qualifies for tax-free shopping in Japan?
5. Do I still pay the consumption tax in the shop from November 2026?
6. How long do I have to take tax-free goods out of Japan?
7. Can I open or use tax-free purchases in Japan?
8. Is Don Quijote tax-free for tourists?
9. Do I need to declare tax-free goods at customs?
Where These Figures Come From
Every rate, threshold and deadline on this page was read off a primary official source on 21 Oct 2026: the National Tax Agency for the consumption tax rates and for the definition of an eligible purchaser, the Japan Tourism Agency's consumption-tax-free shop site — including its English traveller page and its refund-method FAQ — for the ¥5,000 threshold and the procedure at the airport, and the Ministry of Finance's FY2025 tax reform outline for what the 1 November 2026 switch abolishes. Anything we could not confirm on one of those is not on this page. Shop-level details — whether a particular branch is licensed, and how it pays a refund out — are the shop's to state, not ours.
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