Joint kiosks that fold the immigration and customs formalities into one machine began operating at Narita Airport Terminals 1 and 2 on 24 September, running daily from 7:00 to 21:30. Both the Immigration Services Agency notice and the Japan Customs guidance describe the gain for arriving travellers, and neither says anything about the foreign nationals who live in Japan and are simply coming home.
Those two groups do not go through the same process, so the rest of this is split by which one you are.
What the kiosk does
It reads a passport and a Visit Japan Web QR code, photographs the user's face, and checks that photograph against the image on the passport's IC chip. One stop collects two sets of inputs that used to be handed over separately: the data for the immigration check, and the personal effects declaration for customs. The machine then displays a routing letter, a, b, c or d, for the lane to take next.
Japanese nationals go from the kiosk to a walk-through gate, or a facial recognition gate where none is installed. Foreign travellers, in the wording both notices use, go to booths reserved for kiosk users to finish 入国手続, the entry procedure.
Where else the kiosks run
Kansai Terminals 1 and 2 and Haneda Terminal 2 got them on 1 April 2025, Narita Terminal 3 on 7 April, Haneda Terminal 3 on 11 April, and Fukuoka on 1 December 2025. Narita Terminals 1 and 2 close the programme, and no regional airports have been announced.
If you are arriving as a visitor
This is the traveller the kiosk was designed around. Register on Visit Japan Web before you board, keep the QR code reachable without a data connection, and carry an IC passport. Arriving at T1 or T2 after 21:30 means the old two-stop route, which matters on a tight connection.
Whether you need a visa at all is settled long before the kiosk. Our visa-exempt countries list covers which nationalities enter for a short stay without one, and the conditions attached to a short visit are on our tourist visa page.
If you live here and hold a residence card
Treat the kiosk as two halves, because only one was built with you in mind.
The customs half applies to you in full. Japan Customs states the personal effects declaration is required of 「日本に入国（帰国）する全ての方」, everyone entering or returning to Japan, with no carve-out for residents or returning Japanese nationals. So the QR code is worth generating before a flight home.
The immigration half is a different route. The system built for residents is the automated gate, open to foreign nationals living in Japan who hold a residence card, a re-entry permit, or deemed re-entry permission. At Narita those gates sit in Terminals 1 and 2 and not Terminal 3, the opposite of the kiosk rollout order, so the two systems only came together there this week.
Registration for that gate happens on the way out, not the way back, which is why many residents have never done it. You register at a counter in the airport inspection area on the day you depart, with a short form, your passport and your residence card. It takes about five minutes and there is no fee: 「手数料はかかりません」. The gate omits the passport stamp, so if you need one, ask an officer after you pass through and before you clear customs.
One trap for residents leaving on deemed re-entry permission: the gate requires the version of the user registration that covers it, and the agency's guide states that anyone holding an older registration without it has to register again.
What neither notice says
Neither document says whether a registered automated-gate user can file the customs half at the kiosk and then use the gate for immigration, rather than the kiosk-user booth. Both are written for passengers undergoing a landing examination. Until that is addressed, the Visit Japan Web code is worth having either way, since the declaration is required whichever lane you use.
Restrictions, and what to do before your next trip out
Passengers shorter than 135cm cannot use the kiosk, which excludes most young children and means families will usually be processed together at a counter. Passengers whose passports have no IC chip may use the kiosk but cannot go on to the electronic customs gate, which depends on the face-to-chip comparison. Anyone selected for customs inspection goes to a staffed counter regardless.
For residents the useful action is not at arrivals at all. If you have never registered for the automated gate, the place to do it is the departure floor on your next trip out of Japan, with your residence card in hand.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency — 共同キオスクの運用について, Japan Customs — 成田空港第１・第２ターミナルにおいて、共同キオスクの運用を開始します, Japan Customs — 入管・税関手続がまとめて一度に（共同キオスク運用開始）, Immigration Services Agency — 自動化ゲートの運用について, Japan Customs — 携帯品・別送品申告書の提出