Tax-free shopping before and after 1 November

Tax-free shopping in Japan changes on 1 November 2026. The National Tax Agency is moving shops from an exemption at the counter to a refund after you leave the country. Through 31 October, an eligible visitor can still have the consumption tax taken off at a participating shop. From 1 November, that shop charges the price on the shelf, tax included, and the tax comes back only after customs confirms the goods are leaving Japan with you.

The date on the receipt is the switch. A purchase on 30 October follows the old way, even if you fly on 5 November. A purchase on 1 November follows the new way, even if the rest of the trip felt like October. A trip that crosses the date can hold both kinds of paperwork. Keep them apart. The counter is where you confirm which rules that purchase just used.

At the airport from November

Under the new rules you pay the full price, keep the goods, and complete a customs confirmation at your final departure airport or seaport. The tourism ministry page for visitors says this has to happen within 90 days of the purchase, and that a total of 5,000 yen or more, tax excluded, per shop per day, is what qualifies. Do it in the departure lobby before you check bags. If the goods are in a suitcase the airline is about to take, customs needs to see them first. A terminal tells you whether an officer has to look. If it sends you to the counter, go.

• Bring the passport the shop recorded.
• Keep each receipt with the goods from that receipt. One missing item can take the whole receipt out, not only that item.
• Do not eat, drink, or use up anything you want refunded. Consumed goods are not leaving the country.
• Gold and platinum bullion are outside this system, and so are items already exempt from consumption tax.
• The refund comes from the shop or the service that shop uses, after confirmation. Ask at the register how the money returns. Shops will not all use one method.

The Japan National Tourism Organization has been explaining the same change: pay in the shop, show the goods as you depart, then receive the tax. If a clerk and a blog disagree in November, believe the clerk and the sign at the airport. The paper in your hand was printed for the day you paid.

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Who this is for

A shop that offers this checks your passport before it treats the purchase as tax-free. Who qualifies is on the tourism ministry list, not something this note decides. Department stores and the large drugstores are the easy counters. A small shop may not participate, and one that does will say so. Ask before they wrap the purchase, not after you have paid and left the floor.

Cosmetics, food, and drinks used to need special sealed packs under the old rules. The new system drops that packaging and uses a stricter test: if you consumed it in Japan, there is no refund. Buy the snacks you will eat as ordinary taxed snacks. Buy the unopened gifts as the things you are prepared to show at the airport.

None of this is a reason to shop on the morning you fly. A refund that depends on a terminal, a possible inspection, and a suitcase you have not checked wants a calmer hour than your boarding group. Buy when you see the thing. Deal with the airport while the bag is still in your hands.