The 2026 amendment to the Immigration Control Act, promulgated on 5 June 2026 as Act No. 32 of 2026, gives Japan's electronic travel authorisation no start date. It gives it a deadline: the JESTA provisions take effect on a day to be fixed by Cabinet Order, and no later than 31 March 2029. The same provisions end the card the Trusted Traveler Program runs on.
The date the law fixes, and the one it does not
Japanese legislation commonly commences in two stages: the Act names an outer limit, and a Cabinet Order sets the actual day inside it. The fee provisions of this same Act carried an outer limit of 31 March 2027, and the Cabinet Order brought them in ahead of it, on 1 October 2026.
JESTA's outer limit is 31 March 2029, and no Cabinet Order has been issued, so there is no start date to plan around. The Immigration Services Agency's Zero Illegal Residents Plan targets introduction during fiscal 2028, which ends 31 March 2029, flush against the statutory limit. That target was brought forward from an earlier plan of 2030.
Who will need an authorisation
The amendment names three groups: foreign nationals who need no visa and intend a short stay for tourism or similar activities; passengers arriving on a designated cruise ship who wish to land for sightseeing; and some foreign nationals entering temporarily to transfer between vessels or aircraft.
Anyone holding neither an authorisation nor a visa will not be permitted to enter, and the agency's summary states that an authorisation is needed for each new entry rather than once per period. What decides whether you are inside the scheme is whether your nationality allows visa-free entry; our page on visa-exempt countries carries that list.
An authorisation is not permission to enter. The landing examination still takes place. What changes for an authorised visa-exempt traveller who meets the landing conditions is that the landing permission seal is omitted from the passport.
Airlines take on duties of their own, reporting booking holders' names to the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency and refusing to carry anyone the Commissioner flags. Fees will be charged on applying for an authorisation and again on it being granted, in amounts left to Cabinet Order and not yet published.
The Trusted Traveler card is written out
One line of the amendment states that the specified registrant card will not be issued. That card is the Trusted Traveler Program.
The programme lets pre-approved frequent short-stay visitors skip the inspection booth and use the automated gates at Narita Terminals 1 and 2, Haneda Terminal 3, Chubu Terminal 1 and Kansai. It runs through five eligibility categories, among them US nationals enrolled in Global Entry and tourists holding a platinum-rank or higher credit card, and the card costs ¥4,000 in revenue stamps. Holders should treat it as a scheme with an end date tied to JESTA's start.
If you live in Japan and hold a residence card
None of the above applies to you. JESTA covers people arriving as short-stay visitors, and a resident returning on a re-entry permit or on deemed re-entry permission falls outside all three categories.
Your departure and return run on Article 26-2, deemed re-entry permission. It needs a valid passport and your residence card; you tick the box on the re-entry ED card and tell the inspector at departure that you are leaving under it; and you must return within one year of leaving, or by your period of stay expiry if that comes sooner. Special permanent residents get two years. It is closed to anyone on a short-stay status or granted a period of three months or less.
The automated gates have a separate resident registration, free and distinct from the Trusted Traveler Program. You register once at the Tokyo, Nagoya or Osaka immigration bureaus or their airport branches, giving index fingerprints and a photo, then use the gates at any airport that has them. The face recognition departure gates are a third thing again, open to people leaving on a short-stay status and not to departures under a re-entry permit.
One consequence is worth planning for: a gate leaves no passport stamp unless you ask an officer at the booth before leaving the gate area, and a stamp generally cannot be added afterwards. If you need entry and exit dates on paper for a licence renewal, a tax filing or a naturalisation application, ask at the time.
What has not been decided
The start date, the fee amounts, the application window and the authorisation's validity all sit in subordinate legislation that does not yet exist. The Cabinet Order is the thing to watch, and it will reach the agency's page for the 2026 amendment before any traveller-facing system does.
If you hold a residence card, the useful step is unrelated to JESTA: register for the automated gate on your next visit to an immigration office. It is free, it survives renewals, and nothing in this amendment touches it.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency — 令和８年入管法等改正について, 改正法の概要 (PDF), 不法滞在者ゼロプラン (PDF), トラスティド・トラベラー・プログラムの概要, みなし再入国許可（入管法第26条の2）, 自動化ゲート利用案内（在留している外国人の方用）(PDF)