Departure Tax from Japan Starting Today

onetwothreefour on 07/01/2019 - 16:11

Thought this might be of interest as Japan is such a popular place for Ozbargainers to visit. I'm sure it won't stop people going but it's never fun paying tax.

International Tourist Tax

Effective from Monday, 7th January 2019, visitors to Japan will pay a 1,000 yen departure tax to expand and enhance the country’s tourist infrastructure — a small tax that will make a significant difference.

Revenue from the International Tourist Tax will be allocated to the following three areas:

Create a more comfortable, stress-free tourist environment.
Improve access to information about a wide variety of attractions of Japan.
Develop tourist resources taking advantage of the unique cultural and natural assets of respective regions.
Please note that travellers meeting certain conditions, such as “children under the age of 2” and “those leaving Japan on or after January 7, 2019, using an air ticket issued before January 7, 2019,” are exempt from paying the “International Tourist Tax”.

Travel Asia Japan Tax

Comments

  • CyberMurning on 07/01/2019 - 16:14
    +1

    what? pay to depart?> then i will just stay in japan, forever….

    • onetwothreefour on 07/01/2019 - 16:20

      Good plan, I think I will too next time I go.

  • GG57 on 07/01/2019 - 16:17
    +1

    Departure taxes are more common than we might think, but are included in the relative air tickets so are almost invisible.
    Not sure how this will be collected for Japan.

    • onetwothreefour on 07/01/2019 - 16:35

      How do they know if you are a tourist or not when booking your ticket unless you give them your passport details when booking?

      • GG57 on 07/01/2019 - 16:46

        Ok, so I had a look at the details:
        https://www.jnto.org.au/app/uploads/2018/06/International-To…

        It would appear that, despite the label being "international tourist tax", the Japanese authorities do not distinguish between incoming and outgoing tourists.
        It would appear that this will apply like the majority of other departure taxes.
        If you are travelling on a cruise liner or an aircraft, you will be deemed to be a "tourist", regardless if Japanese or foreigner.

  • IceCreamBandit on 07/01/2019 - 16:21

    Pretty sure I paid for something similar in Japan last year. Saw a poster about in a hotel lift in Kyoto that a small part of my accomodoation costs went towards the upkeep of tourist attrations.

  • BOGOF on 07/01/2019 - 16:23
    +9

    Works out to be around $13 AUD and will be added automatically to airline tickets. A bargain compared to the Australian departure taxes of around $100 AUD.

  • [Deactivated] on 07/01/2019 - 17:06

    Many countries had these for decades and added them to the plane ticket. In Bali, it used to be near the departure gates and made you pay cash only. This is no longer the case.

    Many countries such as USA charge a bed tax at your hotel. Its annoying because after you pre-pay for everything, you check-in and make you pay more things like facility fee, even if you don't use the gym or pool.

    • Kandrew on 07/01/2019 - 17:55
      +1

      Almost every price ticket in the USA is annoying. You end up paying sales tax, or some other tax, on top of whatever the ticketed price is.

      Then you can cross the street, to a different county, and the sales tax will be different. You might save some money, or you might have wasted some. But we're off-topic, just a little bit.

  • HighAndDry on 07/01/2019 - 19:35

    Create a more comfortable, stress-free tourist environment.

    It's probably not, but it amuses me that this could easily be read as a euphemism for "keeping out those poor ungroomed masses".

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