The Diet passed the bill amending the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act on 29 May, during the special session. It was promulgated on 5 June as Act No. 32 of 2026.
The two halves
The legislation does two things that have almost nothing to do with each other beyond sharing a bill number.
It creates JESTA, the Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization, which will require travellers from visa-exempt countries to obtain online authorisation before travelling to Japan.
And it raises the statutory ceiling on fees for residence procedures from ¥10,000 to ¥300,000.
What JESTA will mean
JESTA applies before departure, not at the border. Travellers submit passport and trip details online, the system screens them, and the airline checks the authorisation at check-in.
At the Japanese airport the existing landing examination still happens. An approved JESTA is permission to travel, not permission to enter.
Implementation is set out around 2028 in the government's immigration planning documents — building the system, connecting it to airline reservation data and setting the fee all take time. Nothing changes for travellers now.
What the fee ceiling will mean
This is the half that affects people already in Japan, and it moves faster.
A ceiling is not a price, but the previous ceiling had been fixed since 1982 and was the binding constraint on what the ministry could charge. Lifting it to ¥300,000 removes that constraint entirely, and the actual amounts are set by ordinance underneath.
Those ordinances followed in August, with new amounts effective 1 October. Our 2026 fee changes page carries the figures.
Reading the two together
The pairing is not accidental. Both measures are cost-recovery arguments: that people who use Japan's immigration system should pay closer to what administering it costs, and that screening should happen earlier and more thoroughly.
Whether ¥300,000 bears any relationship to the cost of processing an application is a separate question, and it was raised in the Diet debate.
For anyone with a renewal or change of status due in the next year, the practical consequence is the fee, and the practical response is to know when your period expires and what filing before or after 1 October costs.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency, The Japan Times