International travel to Japan has increased for the past few years following the country’s decision to reopen the borders in 2022 due to the pandemic, lessening travel restrictions, and the weakening value of the Japanese Yen. Coming from 4.5 million tourists in a year in 2020, to an astounding 26 million international tourists in 2024, about 3 million tourists a month, Japan has been finding ways to make travel easier to the country.
One of these systems is a preclearance system, designed to make the arrival process easier and less stressful for foreign visitors.
Tokyo International Airport – Photo Credit: jluggage
What is the Preclearance System?
As many may already be aware, after you have arrived in Japan from an international flight, the standard was that the airport requires you to fill out customs declaration forms, take a photograph, and fingerprint for identification. This form needs a variety of information, and it can be difficult to know where to get the form or where to fill it out, especially for first-timers. On top of that, the line for photograph and fingerprint scanning eats up a lot of time for arrivals.
Thanks to the preclearance system, while waiting for your international flight in departures, you can fill out these forms and take these photographs and scans way ahead of time, save yourself the hassle and stress when you arrive, avoid the long lines, and overall reduce the time needed for arrival procedures.
As of now, Haneda International Airport has kiosks in place for customs and immigration, but starting in early 2025, other airports such as Narita and Kansai’s international airports will receive the same systems, allowing easier arrival to a wider sphere of airports in the country.
Haneda International Airport – Photo Credit: japan-guide
Who gets first access to preclearance?
As this new system is still fresh, it has only one country that can take advantage of this new arrival process. As of January 2025, Taiwan is the only country as of now who can participate in finishing arrival documents and procedures in advance.
Every other country among the 71 countries and territories will be able to enter Japan with a new required electronic documentation. This is the ETA (electronic travel authorization) that will be launched in addition to the aforementioned system in 2025 but arrival procedures will still be quite long when compared to the preclearance system.
ANA Flight Taking off from Narita Airport – Photo Credit: aviaton24.be
As bigger waves of tourism hit Japan, many are facing long lines at arrivals, lengthening the amount of time it takes to enter the country. For all sorts of reasons such as wellness tourism, the weakened yen allowing for affordability, rich culture and history, and popular spots such as Mount Fuji, it is no doubt that Japan has been met with consecutive 3 million visitors each month last year.
Many tourists report repeating trips to Japan, but preclearance could allow new and past tourists to come to Japan smoothly, and encourage them to come back, or just leave them with a good impression on the airport procedures. While other countries will not be able to take part in these yet, there’s no doubt that they will soon be able to join Taiwan in this system for their travels too.
Featured Photo Credit: Asahi
