Japan will introduce a new passport design from 24 March, 2024, featuring a plastic photo page with an embedded chip for enhanced security. The design includes a decorative sakura pattern and a ...

Passport ownership in Japan is much less common compared to the 60% of British and 50% of American nationals who own passports, according to data from the Japan Association of Travel Agents.

As of December 2024, there were 21.6 million valid Japanese passports in circulation, representing around 17.5 per cent of the overall population, the foreign ministry said on Feb 21.

Only around one in six Japanese citizens hold valid passports, fresh data shows, with the number of residents travelling abroad slowly recovering but still below pre-pandemic levels.