Japan tourist visa 2026: single-entry, 3-year or 5-year for China residents

If you hold a Chinese ordinary passport and live in mainland China, you file a Japan tourist visa through a travel agency designated by the Japanese mission that covers where you live; the embassy does not accept direct applications in principle. You choose one of four individual types: single-entry (valid 3 months from issue, stay of 15 or 30 days), a 3-year multiple-entry visa for Okinawa/Tohoku or for anywhere in Japan (up to 30 days per stay), or a 5-year multiple-entry visa (up to 90 days per stay). For applications accepted from 1 July 2026, the embassy fee is CNY 715 for single-entry and CNY 1,430 for multiple-entry.

Quick answer by situation

• Single-entry if you make one trip, or cannot say you will return.
• The student route of the single-entry visa if you are a bachelor, master or doctoral student, or a graduate within three years, of a university on China's Ministry of Education list.
• 3-year Okinawa/Tohoku visa if you plan to return and the first trip includes a night in Okinawa or Tohoku; its Tohoku wording is "a certain level of financial capability", while the unrestricted visa says "a sufficient level of financial capability".
• Unrestricted 3-year visa if you plan to return and the first trip is elsewhere, or you entered Japan two or more times in the past 3 years on certain individual tourist visas; it sets no required destination.
• 5-year visa if you travel often and the agency says you fall in the "substantially high income" category; it is the only tourist visa where you decide and change your own flights, ships and lodging from the first trip.
• Not a tourist visa if your first trip is to visit relatives or friends, or a short business trip (MOFA; the 5-year visa is the exception): apply for a short-stay visa with documents from an inviting person or guarantor in Japan.
• The mission for where you live, not for the province of your hukou (户口), takes your application.
• The embassy or consulate that covers your place of residence is your contact if you are a Chinese national living outside China; MOFA says a 5-year visa ("substantially high income") or a 3-year visa ("sufficient level of financial capability") may be issued to you.

How do the four individual tourist visas compare?

This guide covers individual tourist visas; the group-tour visa is a different single-entry visa, and MOFA gives its stay as up to 15 days. The table follows the embassy's tourist-visa page (1 July 2026) and MOFA's Chinese-nationals page (the English version shows no date; the Japanese version is dated 1 January 2019). A 5-year holder may not run a business that earns income in Japan or receive remuneration (MOFA).

Editorial view, not an official ranking:

Is there an official income or savings figure?

No. None of the official pages listed at the end gives a figure for salary, tax paid, deposit or property, or defines the three wordings in numbers; ask the designated agency for its written list. The embassy's "Documents and fees for tourist visa applications" page (1 January 2019) lists kinds of proof, and you choose one:

• Single-entry: a gold-level or higher international credit card (UnionPay included) with proof it is valid; or an employment certificate showing your position, length of service and annual salary, plus income documents such as the last six months of bank statements; or asset documents such as a pension certificate, property certificate or stock settlement statements.
• 3-year: the same employment certificate and income documents, or the asset documents.
• 5-year: the employment certificate with income documents (for example an income-tax payment certificate and the last six months of bank statements), or the asset documents.

The page names no amount, so none of these items is a threshold.

How does the first-trip rule work for the Okinawa/Tohoku 3-year visa?

Your first trip must include at least one night in Okinawa Prefecture, or in any of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata and Fukushima (MOFA; Qingdao's tourist-visa page, 1 July 2026, also says one night or more). For both 3-year types, from the second trip MOFA says you need not arrange travel through the agency, and the embassy page says they can be used for short visits other than tourism.

If your first trip is Okinawa, see which Okinawa island to build the first trip around.

What should your first itinerary include?

MOFA says you prepare your own itinerary first, then ask an approved agency to arrange the trip and file. The embassy page adds that flights, ships and hotels must be booked by the designated agency, though some visas differ; with the 5-year visa you decide and change them, and the whole trip, yourself.

For tourist multiple-entry visas other than the 5-year visa, the first trip must follow the itinerary you filed. You can change it only to a trip within 3 months of the visa's issue date, and your designated agency must submit a change report to the embassy beforehand (embassy page and Q&A). The embassy's 2019 documents page says single-entry trips must follow the itinerary filed, with any change reported through the designated agency before departure. So file dates and cities you can keep. If your first trip on the unrestricted 3-year or 5-year visa is Tokyo, see where to stay in Tokyo.

How much is the visa fee, and who else charges you?

For applications accepted from 1 July 2026, the embassy fee is CNY 715 for single-entry and CNY 1,430 for multiple-entry, so the 3-year and 5-year visas cost the same. The embassy Q&A says it is collected when the visa is approved, and MOFA's fee page (24 June 2026) says no fee is charged if no visa is issued.

The embassy's fee notice (listed on its visa page as dated 24 June 2026), Shanghai's table (24 June 2026), Chongqing's visa page (24 June 2026) and Qingdao's notice (6 July 2026) give the same CNY figures; Shanghai's table also shows the earlier CNY 145 and CNY 285 for applications up to 30 June 2026. MOFA quotes yen: about JPY 15,000 for single-entry and about JPY 30,000 for multiple-entry, and says the fee may be waived or differ by purpose and nationality.

An approved agency charges its own handling fee on top (MOFA; embassy Q&A). No official page states that amount, so ask the agency for it in writing. Shenyang's visa page (30 September 2026) adds that for tourism the agency also collects a deposit besides the visa fee; ask about the terms. Shanghai's visa page (15 May 2023) says the consulate charges nothing beyond the visa fee, rush fees included.

Can you apply at the embassy yourself, and which mission covers you?

No. For multiple-entry tourist visas you must file directly with a designated agency; any other agency or go-between is not allowed, and the embassy page says a visa already issued may be cancelled if it was applied for through a go-between or friend, or the documents do not match the facts. The Q&A says agencies advertising "only a passport is needed" mostly win customers by methods the embassy does not recognise, such as high service fees.

File with the mission that covers where you live, not where your hukou is: with hukou in Tianjin and residence in Anhui, you file at Shanghai (embassy Q&A). In the Beijing embassy's area without a local hukou, you need a temporary residence permit or a residence permit.

The embassy Q&A links to every mission's home page. The Beijing list page's province headings leave out Qinghai, Ningxia and Tibet, which are in the embassy's area. Shanghai's list page notes that some agencies are on a trial period and some temporarily cannot accept applications; check an agency's status there.

What documents do you prepare?

The embassy's tourist-visa page links to a PDF of required documents. Its separate documents page is dated 1 January 2019, so ask the designated agency for the current written list; that page names: passport; application form with your photo; consent form for processing personal data; household register or other proof of where you live; financial documents (above); family papers when family members apply (a household register copy or notarial proof of relationship, and for a multiple visa a copy of the main applicant's multiple visa if the main applicant already holds that type); other documents the mission asks for.

For multiple-entry visas, family members can apply only for the same type of visa as the main applicant. Chongqing's 5-year visa page (22 November 2016, residents of Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou) defines family as relatives by blood or marriage within the second degree who live with the applicant or share the same source of living. The student route needs a certificate of enrolment or graduation instead of financial documents and covers the student only; family members apply for the regular single-entry visa. If you entered Japan two or more times in the past 3 years on specified individual tourist visas, you apply for the unrestricted 3-year visa with the (old) passport showing those trips and may leave out the financial documents. The 2019 page also lists an (old) passport showing earlier Japan trips as "if needed" for the 3-year visa; ask the designated agency whether you need it.

Photo: the embassy Q&A asks for 4.5 cm by 3.5 cm, white background, taken within 6 months, no retouching; the embassy's 2019 page and Chongqing's page say 4.5 x 4.5. Follow the agency's written list for the size. Documents must have been issued within 3 months, or be inside any validity printed on them, and the embassy returns nothing except originals such as your passport and residence permit (embassy visa page, 24 June 2026).

Passport: you can apply if it is valid when you enter Japan, but the Q&A advises renewing first if it expires during your stay. The Q&A lists "too little validity" and "no blank visa page" as reasons for non-acceptance without defining "too little", so ask the designated agency about your passport; Chongqing's visa page asks for at least 2 blank pages and says the remaining validity need not be 6 months.

How long does it take, and can you rush it?

The embassy page, the embassy Q&A and Shanghai's visa page give 5 working days for a tourist visa, counted from the day after the mission accepts the file from the designated agency, if the examination has no problem. That clock leaves out the agency's own review and the return of your passport; Shanghai says the agency needs "several working days" before filing and again after issue, and that eVISA delivery is shorter.

Chongqing's visa page (24 June 2026) counts the day of acceptance and gives 5 working days as the fastest, with the example of a file accepted on a Tuesday and issued the following Monday. Guangzhou's visa page (29 March 2024) says 4 working days in general, with no separate tourist-visa figure.

Results can take longer: a file with a problem goes to the Ministry in Tokyo, and issue can take more than a month (MOFA processing-time page, 5 December 2022). The embassy issues early in principle only for humanitarian reasons, such as a family member in Japan who has died or is seriously ill, and does not answer case-status questions. Chongqing's page recommends buying flights after the visa is issued; the consulate will not speed up a case because tickets are already bought.

On when to file: Guangzhou suggests two weeks to three months before departure, and the Q&A sets no fixed number of days. A visa cannot be extended, and a single-entry visa is valid 3 months from issue (MOFA validity page, 22 July 2015), so do not file too early.

What is the JAPAN eVISA, and what do you show at the airport?

The JAPAN eVISA is an electronic visa for single-entry short-stay tourist visas. MOFA's eVISA page (15 May 2026) lists "nationals of China who reside in China" under applications made through an accredited agency, with an eVISA stay of 15 or 30 days. The embassy Q&A says the eVISA is issued only for single-entry tourist visas for stays within 30 days, and sends you to the designated agency.

MOFA says visas for other purposes are filed with the mission and give a visa sticker. The 3-year and 5-year visas are multiple-entry and not in MOFA's eVISA list, so they should be stickers; that is an inference from those two pages.

At check-in at the departure airport, you show the "Visa issuance notice" on a device with internet access; PDF files, screenshots and printouts are not accepted (MOFA; embassy Q&A). MOFA also says you may be asked to attend an interview at the mission, and the eVISA covers arrivals by air or by the scheduled passenger ferries between Japan and Busan or Shanghai.

FAQ

Do you need travel insurance?

The embassy's travel-insurance page (24 October 2023) urges visitors to buy travel insurance before the trip, citing high medical costs, hospital referral and interpreting. It does not say insurance is required.

Do you need a new visa if you renew your passport?

If your nationality, name, sex and date of birth have not changed, you can go through immigration inspection in Japan with the new passport plus the old passport that holds the valid visa. If the visa is an eVISA, apply again with the new passport (embassy Q&A).

What happens after a refusal?

The embassy does not give reasons for a refusal (embassy Q&A). You generally cannot re-apply for the same purpose within six months; for humanitarian reasons, contact the embassy beforehand. The Q&A also lists reasons an application is not accepted at all, such as already holding a valid visa or re-entry permit, an incomplete application or untrue documents, or another mission having accepted it.

Is the stay on your visa the stay you get in Japan?

Not necessarily. The embassy Q&A separates validity (the dates between "Date of issue" and "Date of expiry", when you can enter) from the period of stay. The immigration officer sets your actual stay on entry day, shows it on the landing permission, and counts the day after entry as day one.

After your visa is issued

Once your visa is issued, contact us with your travel dates for a flight or hotel quote.