Official source Checked 10 September 2026 EU or national government source. Source

No start date has been published, and launch timing is on the launch status tracker rather than here.

There is no Japanese equivalent, and that is the useful fact

Most guides on this site can point at a comparable system in the reader's own country. For Japan there is not one. Japan operates Visit Japan Web, which the Digital Agency describes as A service that allows you to perform arrival procedures, immigration and customs, and tax-free shopping service, online.

Official source Checked 10 September 2026 EU or national government source. Source

Read those two things next to each other and the distinction becomes obvious. Visit Japan Web moves paperwork online: it is free, it is completed close to travel, and nobody decides anything about you as a result. An authorisation is the opposite in each respect. It carries a fee, it is obtained well before departure, and it produces a decision that can be refused.

Point of comparisonETIAS, before travelling to EuropeVisit Japan Web, when arriving in Japan
What it is A pre-travel authorisation, decided before departure. An online route through arrival procedures.
Cost EUR 20 No fee is charged for it.
Can it be refused Yes, with a right of appeal. There is no decision to refuse.
When you do it Well ahead of travel. It will last Three years, or until the travel document used in the application expires, whichever comes first. Around the journey itself.

The practical instruction that falls out of this is one word: early. A system that decides something cannot be treated like a form filled in at the airport, and the habit Visit Japan Web builds is the wrong habit to bring to Europe.

What it will cover, and what it will not

One authorisation will cover every participating country for the length of its validity, with no limit on the number of trips inside that period, so a multi-country itinerary needs one application rather than one per country.

It will cover tourism, business visits such as meetings, conferences and trade fairs, transit, and short medical treatment. It will not cover employment. For a Japanese company posting staff to a European office, the relevant instrument is a national work permit from that country, and an authorisation neither substitutes for one nor helps obtain one.

How long you may stay

The limit is 90 days in any 180 day period, counted across every participating country together. Days in France, Italy, Germany and Spain are added into one total rather than counted separately, and the window moves forward continuously rather than resetting at a year boundary or on departure.

Since 10 April 2026, that counting has been done by the Entry/Exit System rather than by hand stamping, which means the total a border officer sees is exact. For a traveller making several European trips in a year, that arithmetic is now worth doing in advance, and the 90 in 180 day rule shows how.

Your passport

Your travel document should not expire in less than three months and it should not be older than 10 years.

Official source Checked 10 September 2026 EU or national government source. Source

Both tests apply to the document rather than to the traveller. The second one is about how old the passport is, which is not the same question as how long is left on it, so the issue date is the number to check. An authorisation lives and dies with one specific document, so a renewal ends it whatever remains of its own period. Renewing first avoids paying twice.

Families and children

Every traveller will need their own authorisation against their own passport, infants included, and an adult will be able to apply on behalf of a child. Applicants under 18 years or above 70 years of age at the time of the application. That is an exemption from the fee only; the authorisation is still required. Where a family holds passports issued at different times, each authorisation ends with its own passport, so a family will not necessarily be on one renewal cycle.

Common questions

Will the application be available in Japanese?

We do not know, and we will not guess. The EU has published what the application will ask for, which is set out in how the application will work, but it has published nothing we could read about the interface languages at launch.

Does an authorisation guarantee entry?

No. It is permission to travel to the border. Admission is decided at the border by an officer, which is the same division of responsibility Japan applies to its own arrivals.

Sites in Japanese are already offering this. Should I use one?

No. ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point. Nothing can be processed by anyone at present, so a site taking payment today is selling something that does not exist. The patterns are on avoiding ETIAS scams.

Guides for other nationalities

Each of these covers the same requirement from a different starting point, because the comparison that makes it clear is different in each country.

Nationalities without a guide are listed in the data table on countries and territories. We would rather list a country once, accurately, than write a thin page about it.

Last verified 10 September 2026. How we verify