Guides · Mon 26 Oct 2026
Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November: the new refund system, explained
From 1 November 2026 you pay the full price, tax included, at tax-free shops in Japan, and you get the consumption tax back only after customs confirms at the airport or seaport that your purchases are leaving the country with you. The new steps, in order, and the traps that cost people the refund.
The short answer: tax-free shopping in Japan is not ending, but from 1 November 2026 it stops being a discount at the till. For purchases made on or after that date you pay the full price, consumption tax included, at the tax-free shop, exactly as a Japanese shopper would. The tax comes back to you later, and only after customs has confirmed, when you leave Japan, that the goods are going out of the country with you. Japan Customs calls the new arrangement the Refund Method. Everything below is the order the steps now run in, what has genuinely got simpler, and the three or four mistakes that quietly cancel a refund.
What changes, and from when
Until 31 October 2026, eligible visitors at a tax-free shop pay the price with the consumption tax already removed. The saving happens at the register and the transaction is finished in the shop. For purchases made on or after 1 November 2026, the register takes the tax-inclusive price, and nothing is settled until departure: the amount equivalent to the consumption tax is refunded after a customs inspection at your airport or seaport of departure confirms the goods are being taken out of Japan.
Which set of rules applies follows the date you buy, not the date you fly. A trip that straddles the changeover can hold purchases under both systems: October purchases keep the old treatment, with the tax already off at the till, and purchases from 1 November follow the refund steps in this article. The scheme itself is unchanged in who it serves: it is for eligible non-resident visitors, with ordinary tourists on a Temporary Visitor status of residence at the centre of it, as before.
| Until 31 October 2026 | From 1 November 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price at the till | Tax-exclusive: the tax is taken off in the shop | Tax-inclusive: you pay the full price |
| Getting the tax back | Settled at the register, nothing more to do for the saving itself | Refunded after customs confirms the goods are leaving Japan |
| Minimum spend | 5,000 yen or more, before tax, per store per day | No change: 5,000 yen or more, before tax, per store per day |
| Goods categories | General goods and consumables counted under separate rules | The distinction is abolished; one combined total |
| Consumables | Capped at 500,000 yen per store per day, in special sealed packaging | No cap and no sealed packaging; the limit is what you can personally carry out |
| Departure step | None needed to secure the saving | Customs confirmation at departure, within 90 days of purchase |
Step one: in the shop, pay the full price
The shopping itself feels much as it did. You buy at a tax-free shop, you show your passport when you purchase, and the sale is recorded against it; that record is what customs will call up when you leave. The difference is the total: it includes the consumption tax, so budget for the full ticket price coming out of your account or off your card on the day, with the tax portion returning later. Treat the refund as money in transit, not as a discount you have already spent.
One question is worth asking at the till, because the official guidance leaves the answer to each shop: how will this store pay the refund? The refund is provided by the tax-free shop itself, or by a refund service provider the shop has appointed, once customs has confirmed the export. The Japan Tourism Agency's traveller guidance is explicit that the details sit with the shop, so the moment to learn them is while you are standing in it, not at the airport. Keep the receipts with the goods they belong to; the departure procedure works receipt by receipt, as the next sections explain.
Step two: keep the goods, all of them, with you
Between the till and the airport the rule is simple to state and easy to break: everything you bought under the scheme has to travel out of Japan in your baggage, in the quantities you can personally carry out at departure. Posting purchases home does not substitute for carrying them: the old documentary route for unaccompanied baggage, proving export with shipping papers, was abolished on 31 March 2025, so there is no version of this where the goods leave by parcel and the refund follows.
The strictest part of the design is the receipt. Customs checks are made per purchase transaction, and if even one item from a receipt is missing when you present yourself, none of the goods on that receipt can be confirmed, and that receipt's refund is gone. So shop with the receipts in mind: one bag of tax-free purchases, kept together, kept complete, and kept accessible rather than buried at the bottom of a packed case.
Step three: at the airport, before you check your bags
The departure procedure sits earlier in the airport journey than most people expect: in the international departure lobby, before baggage check-in, not after security. That order matters. You must have all your tax-free purchases with you when you do it, and once a bag has been checked in with the airline it cannot be retrieved so you can complete the procedure. If the goods you are claiming for are going in the hold, the customs step comes first and the check-in desk second.
The procedure itself starts with your passport. Within 90 days of the purchase date, you present your passport at a tax-free procedure terminal, a kiosk or electronic terminal, at your departure airport or seaport. The count runs from the day after you buy: a purchase made on 1 November 2026 must clear customs confirmation by 30 January 2027. The terminal reads your purchase records and answers one of two ways. A green result means no customs inspection is required and the procedure is complete. A red result means an inspection is required: you take your tax-free purchases to the designated customs inspection area, where the goods are verified, and then the procedure is complete.
At the seven busiest international airports, Narita, Haneda, Kansai, Chubu Centrair, Fukuoka, New Chitose and Naha, there is a second route to the same step: the initial procedure can be completed online through Visit Japan Web, using the dedicated Wi-Fi provided in the departure lobby before the security checkpoint, provided your Visit Japan Web is set up and ready beforehand. If it does not work on the day, the fallback is the kiosk.
Do the procedure where you actually leave Japan. If you are connecting from a domestic flight onto an international one, the procedure happens at the airport of your international departure, your final exit point, and the same applies to fly and cruise itineraries that return to Japan before a final flight out: the last departure airport is where it is done. Cruise passengers should note that a landing permit is needed alongside the passport.
Step four: the money comes back from the shop
Customs does not hand you the money. Customs' confirmation that the goods are leaving Japan is what unlocks the refund, and the refund itself is then paid by the tax-free shop or by the refund provider it appointed, by whatever arrangement that shop explained when you bought. That is why the till question in step one matters: the timing and the channel are the shop's, and they differ between shops. What customs gives you at the airport is the completed confirmation, and without it there is no refund to collect at all.
What genuinely gets simpler
Not all of the change is friction. The old system's two-category maze goes entirely: the split between general goods and consumables is abolished, so electronics and snacks now count toward the same 5,000 yen minimum at the same store on the same day, rather than having to qualify separately. The 500,000 yen ceiling on consumables goes with it, and so does the special sealed packaging that consumables used to travel in, the tamper-evident bags you were not allowed to open until you were home. The check that purchases were not for business use is also abolished. In their place there is one quantity rule a traveller can actually judge for themselves: only buy what you can personally carry out of Japan when you depart.
The exclusions that remain are narrow ones. Gold and platinum bullion, gold and platinum coins, and items that are already exempt from consumption tax do not qualify. Everything else sold by a tax-free shop is in the same single scheme.
What catches people out
Eating the souvenirs. The sealed bags are gone, but the rule underneath them is not: consumables such as food, drinks and cosmetics that you consume or use up in Japan are not eligible for the refund. The chocolate you opened on the train is no longer a tax-free purchase, and if one item from a receipt has been consumed, that receipt cannot be confirmed at all. If you have used up part of a purchase, the official instruction is not to use the procedure terminal: report the consumption to a customs officer at the counter instead.
Checking the bags first. The single most expensive ordering mistake. Claim first, check in second, every time; a suitcase already on the belt cannot be brought back for inspection.
Running out of time. The procedure, inspection included, has to be finished before your boarding process. If you abandon it because the flight is calling, the inspection counts as not completed and the refund is lost, and neither customs nor the airline compensates you if the tax-free queue makes you miss a departure. Build the time into the airport run, especially in the first months while everyone, staff included, is learning the layout.
Leaving the goods behind after the check. Once goods have passed customs confirmation they must be exported without delay. Goods that stay in Japan after a refund can see the tax collected after all, with penalties on top.
What stays the same
Step back and the bones of the scheme are familiar: the same tax-free shops, the same passport shown at purchase, the same 5,000 yen minimum per store per day, the same requirement that the goods genuinely leave Japan with the person who bought them. What has moved is a single moment, the moment the tax comes off: from the register, where it was invisible, to the departure lobby, where you now have one job to do before you check your bags. Do that job in the right order and the system is, if anything, simpler than the sealed bags and category arithmetic it replaces.
Money at the border is one strand of the practical side of a trip. Our guide to cash or card in Japan covers what to carry and where to find it, and the practical page rounds up the rest of the small print, from plugs to customs rules, that catches visitors out.
Sources: Japan Customs, Tax Exemption (Refund) Program for Foreign Visitors, and its FAQ on consumption tax exemption for exports (eligibility limited to non-residents with Temporary Visitor, Diplomat or Official status since 1 April 2023; the unaccompanied baggage confirmation route abolished 31 March 2025); Japan Tourism Agency, traveller page on the new tax-free shopping system (Refund Method), including its Changes to Tax-Free Goods comparison (category distinction, the 500,000 yen consumables cap, special packaging and the business use check abolished; gold and platinum bullion and coins excluded; refund provided by the shop or its appointed refund provider); National Tax Agency, Refund Method pamphlet (the 90 days counted from the day after purchase, so a 1 November purchase must be confirmed by 30 January; confirmation is per purchase record, and one missing item prevents confirmation of the whole record); Japan National Tourism Organization, Everything You Need to Know: Japan's New Tax-Free Shopping System (terminals before baggage check-in, green and red results, Visit Japan Web at seven airports, landing permits for cruise passengers). Checked 26 October 2026. Shops set their own refund arrangements, and the instruction given at the till is the final word for a given purchase.
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