What you need to enter Japan with a Costa Rican passport

Authorization system

None operational yet (JESTA approved, not launched)

Japan's parliament approved the legal basis for JESTA (Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization) on 29 May 2026, a future mandatory electronic authorization for nationalities currently exempt from a visa. As of the verification date there is NO application portal yet; the rollout must begin by 31 March 2029 at the latest. Don't confuse this with "JAPAN eVISA" (mofa.go.jp), which is an electronic visa already operating through an online application for specific nationalities (including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the US since 15 May 2026), not a universal authorization system.

Required documents

• A passport that is valid and, where your nationality requires one, a valid visa affixed to it (Immigration Control Act, Art. 7(1)(i))
• The activity you state you will carry out must be genuine and fall under one of the residence statuses listed in the Act's appended tables (Art. 7(1)(ii))
• The period of stay you apply for must conform to what the Ministry of Justice Order provides (Art. 7(1)(iii))
• You must not fall under any of the grounds for denial of landing in Art. 5(1) of the Act (Art. 7(1)(iv))
• The burden of proof is on you: Art. 7(2) requires the traveller to produce documentation showing these conditions are met

Vaccinations

• None mandatory for most travelers. A yellow fever certificate may be required only if arriving from a country with transmission risk (not required by Japan itself).

Health insurance

Not mandatory for this destination.

Transit rules

Japan has its own mechanism for transit: the transit landing permission. If you are travelling onward to a destination outside Japan, it lets you land temporarily for up to 72 hours to rest or shop in the vicinity of the port or airport of call. There is a useful variant where your itinerary is not a round trip through the same place: you may make a stop and leave Japan from another port of entry and departure near the one you arrived at, within three days.

Customs limits

Cash

Declare if cash or other means of payment exceed 1,000,000 JPY.

Alcohol

Up to 3 bottles (~760cc each) duty-free for those over 20; under-20s have no exemption.

Tobacco

500g combined (400 foreign cigarettes, 100 cigars, or 500g of other tobacco forms) plus 200 Japanese cigarettes separately, only for those over 20.

Overstay penalties

Staying beyond your authorised period of stay is a ground for deportation. And deportation does not end when you leave: as a rule it carries a bar on entering Japan for 5 or 10 years. Where the deportation follows certain criminal punishments or other particular grounds, the bar is indefinite. There is also a departure order system: anyone ordered to leave Japan who does not depart without delay has deportation procedures enforced against them.

Common reasons for denial

• Falling under one of the grounds for denial of landing in Article 5 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
• Having a past record of criminal punishment relating to narcotics, marijuana, opium, stimulants or psychotropic substances: the agency itself gives this as an example of an Article 5 ground, and it applies even where the conviction is old and already served.
• Carrying a 5- or 10-year entry bar from an earlier deportation, or an indefinite one where that deportation followed certain criminal punishments.