Japan 5-year multiple visa: “substantially high income,” not a published CNY tax line (as of August 2026)

This is an introduction, not a promise of issuance or landing. Rules change. Use the current pages of the Embassy of Japan in China and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Reopen them before you file.

The 5-year multiple-entry short-stay visa for Chinese citizens living in mainland China is for persons with a substantially high income and their family members (embassy Chinese: 相当高收入人士及其家属; MOFA Japanese: 相当な高所得者とその家族). It is valid for 5 years. Each stay is up to 90 days. Actual landing and the stay granted are decided at immigration.

The embassy and MOFA do not publish a nationwide Chinese-yuan tax, salary, or property line. Figures you see as “Tier-1 cities CNY 70,000 tax / others CNY 200,000” or “property worth CNY 2,000,000 can substitute” are not official policy. They may be an agency’s pre-screen. Meeting an agency number does not mean the mission must issue a 5-year visa.

How to choose among single-entry, 3-year, and 5-year, plus how to open the designated-agency list, is on the Chinese hub 日本旅游签证怎么选. The matching English hub on this site has not been rewritten; do not copy its “about ¥200 / ¥400 / income ¥200K” figures.

Checked 30 August 2026. Facts follow the Chinese 5-year page.

Who should apply, who should not

Embassy tourist-visa page (dated 24 March 2025): only this category may be used, from the first visit, for short stays that are not sightseeing (short-term business, visiting relatives or friends). Flights, ships, and lodging for the whole trip may be booked and changed by the applicant. Destination is not restricted to Okinawa or Tohoku.

MOFA English: holders “are not permitted to perform business activities to generate revenue or receive any remuneration.”

Do not force a 5-year application to “get more value.” A refusal for the same purpose is generally not accepted again within six months (embassy Q&A, dated 1 July 2026).

Apply by residence, through a designated agency

File with the mission that covers where you actually live, not the district rumoured to be “easier.” Hukou in Tianjin and residence in Anhui: Shanghai Consulate-General, not Beijing (Q&A). If you have no local hukou, you usually need a temporary or residence permit.

Tibet Autonomous Region is Beijing embassy only. Chongqing covers Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The embassy “About us” page is the jurisdiction table. Do not paste agency names from this article; lists change.

Tourist visas, including 5-year, must go through a designated travel agency of that mission. Applicants for multiple-entry tourist visas must submit directly to a designated agency. Unofficial sub-agents, friends, and shopfronts that are not on the current list are not allowed. If the embassy finds an intermediary or that the papers do not match the facts, a visa already issued may be cancelled.

How to open the list is in the Chinese hub. Reopen the current page before you pay. Shanghai’s list URL is https://www.shanghai.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_01947.html (reopen; do not treat any crawl date as permanent).

Agencies that advertise “passport only” for multiple-entry tourist visas are called out on the Q&A as unofficial.

Papers: direction only, use the written list you are given

Ask the designated agency for a written list for this mission, this category, this week. Do not assemble a “universal pack” from blogs.

Typical direction, not a printable national checklist:

• Valid ordinary passport, application form, photo in the format that this mission currently asks for (Beijing Q&A: 4.5 cm × 3.5 cm, white background, taken within six months, no retouching; some older lists still say 4.5 cm × 4.5 cm. Use the written list.)
• Identity and residence (and a residence permit if hukou and address differ)
• Evidence that can be checked for “substantially high income.” Freelancers, retirees, and business owners do not get a second national table. Do not fake salary with a one-off deposit.
• Purpose of travel. For this category, you may book flights and hotels yourself. Still do not buy non-refundable tickets before the visa is issued.
• Family members: the official category includes family. Who counts, and whether a family member may file alone, is confirmed in writing with the agency.

The university simplification on MOFA’s China tourist-visa page is for personal single-entry, not a finance-free 5-year.

Embassy fee from 1 July 2026 (Chinese yuan, CNY)

Embassy of Japan in China, Notice of change in visa fees, dated 24 June 2026, for applications submitted to the embassy from 1 July 2026:

• Single-entry: CNY 715
• Double-entry: CNY 1,430
• Multiple-entry: CNY 1,430

Shanghai Consulate-General published the same numbers the same day. Q&A (1 July 2026), quote: 「以上费用均在获批签证时收取。」 (These fees are collected when the visa is issued.) Designated-agency service fees and courier are extra. Ask for a line-item quote before you pay.

The old English page’s consulate fee of CNY 850 (and single CNY 200 / 3-year CNY 400) is not the current table. Some pages still show the pre-1 July rates (Shanghai’s own table listed CNY 145 / 285 until 30 June). Pay against the July notice, not a screenshot from 2025.

Do not write yen and yuan with the same ¥ sign. Embassy fees on these pages are in Chinese yuan (CNY).

Timeline, passports, refusal

Tourist visas: result on the 5th business day after the mission accepts the file from the designated agency. That clock does not include agency intake, pre-check, supplements, or returning the passport. The embassy says a result might not come within that window. It does not, as a rule, issue early because you asked, and it does not answer case-by-case progress.

Q&A: there is no fixed “apply N days before departure.” Single-entry visas expire three months after issue. A 5-year visa is used within the dates printed on it. There is no separate public rule that “the first entry within 90 days activates the five years.” Validity and each stay are different; the stay you actually get is on the landing permit.

If you renew the passport and personal data (nationality, name, sex, date of birth) are unchanged, enter with both the new passport and the old passport that still holds the sticker. There is no embassy page here for a “visa transfer, about CNY 200, 3–5 business days.” Electronic visas are currently issued only for single-entry tourism short stays of 30 days or less, and must be re-applied for on a new passport. If the passport with the visa is lost, follow the embassy: police loss report through a designated channel, then a new application. You cannot just change a number.

After a refusal, you generally cannot file again for the same purpose within six months. The embassy does not explain individual refusals. Validity cannot be extended. A visa is not a landing guarantee.

The embassy tourist-visa page does not publish an “180 days per calendar year” quota for this 5-year visa. It publishes 90 days per stay. Frequent long stays can still be questioned at the border. This visa is not residence and not work.

After the visa: Tokyo hotels and China–Tokyo flights (sample)

Because this category may book its own tickets, you can compare after issuance. Dates below are a comparison sample only: check-in 17 October 2026, check-out 24 October 2026, two adults. Change the cities and dates. Prefer free cancellation.

• Tokyo hotels (17–24 Oct 2026, 2 adults)
• Shanghai Pudong–Tokyo (NRT/HND), 17 Oct out, 24 Oct back, 2 adults
• Beijing–Tokyo, same dates, 2 adults

Do not buy non-refundable tickets to gamble on issuance day. For 3-year visas the first itinerary is still arranged by the designated agency; do not use these links as fake application bookings for a 3-year file.

Before you file

1. You are applying for the substantially-high-income 5-year category, not 3-year, not single-entry.
2. The agency’s full name is on this mission’s current designated tourist-agency list.
3. You have a written list for this week and this category.
4. Income, job, residence, and family papers match each other and are real.
5. Embassy multiple-entry fee from 1 July 2026 is CNY 1,430, charged when issued; service fee is a separate line.
6. You have not bought a non-refundable itinerary.
7. You understand validity, per-stay limit, and landing permission are three different things.

Related reading

English hub, 3-year, and single-entry pages below still carry old fee and income figures. Use them only as navigation. For numbers, use this page, the Chinese 5-year page, or the embassy.

• Chinese 5-year page (checked counterpart)
• English Japan visa hub (not yet rewritten)
• English 3-year page (not yet rewritten)
• English single-entry page (not yet rewritten)
• Chinese hub: which visa, designated agencies

Sources (reopen before you file)

• Embassy of Japan in China, notice of visa fee change, dated 24 June 2026, in force 1 July 2026: https://www.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_zh/00_000485_00222.html
• Consulate-General in Shanghai, visa fees from 1 July 2026: https://www.shanghai.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00633.html
• Visa Q&A (fees charged when issued; residence; refusal; passports): https://www.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_zh/visa_qa.html
• Tourist visas (group and individual), including the 5-year category: https://www.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_zh/visa_kanko.html
• MOFA, visas for Chinese nationals (English): https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/topics/china.html
• MOFA, 中国団体観光・個人観光査証: https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/toko/visa/topics/china.html
• Embassy jurisdiction: https://www.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_zh/aboutus.html
• Shanghai designated travel-agency list (current page): https://www.shanghai.cn.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_01947.html

Compiled from the pages above as of 30 August 2026 (Wayback where live access was denied). Not a promise of issuance or landing. Designated-agency lists, forms, and district practice can change. Before filing, use the mission site and the written list from that agency.