Japan visitor visa from India

The Japanese government fee is ₹500 for an Indian national, whether the visa is single or multiple entry, under the rates in force from 1 July 2026. That figure is correct and it surprises everyone who reads it, so it is worth saying why. Nationals of other countries pay ₹8,650 for a single entry and ₹17,350 for a multiple, which means the low Indian rate is a bilateral concession rather than a general price, and it is not an error on this page. VFS charges its own service fee on top of the government fee. Through us the cost is ₹5,500 all-inclusive, with courier of the passport charged separately at cost. Japan is the cheapest visa on this site by a wide margin, and the work in a Japanese application is in the documents rather than the money.

Indian passport holders can get a Japan eVISA for tourism. India has been on the JAPAN eVISA system since 1 April 2024, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists India among the countries that apply through an accredited agency rather than directly on the eVISA website, so the route exists but it is not one you use alone. The eVISA covers a single-entry short-term stay for tourism of up to 90 days, and only for ordinary passport holders. Everything outside that description still goes the old way: business trips, multiple-entry visas and longer stays are issued as a sticker in your passport by the embassy or consulate. Work out which of the two you need before you start, because the document sets differ and the eVISA route cannot be converted into the other halfway through. Most family holidays fall on the eVISA side.

You can print it, but the printout will not be accepted, and this is the single most common way a Japanese eVISA goes wrong at the airport. Japan requires the visa issuance notice to be displayed in an internet environment at check-in, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states specifically that PDF data, screenshots and printed copies are not accepted. What that means in practice is that you have to be able to log in and load the live notice on a phone at the counter. So carry the account details, keep the password somewhere you can reach it, and make sure you will have a working connection at the airport you are departing from. A charged phone and a roaming plan are part of the document set on this route, which is not a sentence anyone expects to read.

About five working days at the embassy once the application reaches it, though the Embassy of Japan in India warns that processing times vary significantly with volume and that applications cannot be expedited or prioritised for anyone's travel schedule. There is no premium service and no way to ask, however close the trip is. Add the time for VFS to send the file across and return the passport afterwards, which is not part of the five days and is the piece people forget when they count backwards from a departure date. There is a limit at the other end too, and it is tighter than most routes: applications are only accepted from three months before your travel date. So the usable window is narrower than it looks, and the sensible time to lodge is around six to eight weeks out.

It is a required form giving a day-by-day account of what you will do in Japan and where you will be, and it is read against your flight and hotel bookings rather than on its own. It is the document Japanese applications most often fall down on. Entries like sightseeing tell the officer nothing, and a schedule that contradicts your bookings raises a question the officer has no way to ask you about, because there is no interview and no request for clarification. The file simply gets decided on what is in front of them. So the schedule has to be specific, plausible for the distances involved, and consistent with every date and city in the rest of the application. We draft it from the trip you are actually taking rather than from a template, which is the only way it survives being cross-checked.

You are not told why. Japan does not disclose the grounds for a visa refusal, and immigration dispositions are exempt from the usual duty to give reasons under Article 3 of the Administrative Procedure Act, so there is no letter to read and nothing to answer. You also cannot reapply for the same purpose within six months of the refusal. There is no appeal. Put those together and the practical position is that a Japanese application is a single attempt, and the cost of a weak one is half a year rather than another fee. That is why the preparation matters more here than on routes where a refusal can be corrected and refiled within weeks. Get the schedule, the bookings and the financial evidence consistent before the file goes in, because there is no second look and no explanation to work from.