Tax-free shopping in Japan has eligibility rules, purchase minimums and a 2025 change that closed a workaround some travellers relied on.
Who qualifies
Eligibility depends on how recently you entered: “Entering Japan within the past six months (excluding diplomats, government officials, and U.S. military personnel).” At the shop, the requirement is: “Present your passport or other documentation at the tax-free shop.”
Two purchase floors, and a ceiling for one
Japan’s Tourism Agency sets the minimum by item type.
For general items (electronics, clothing, most everyday goods) there is a floor and no published ceiling: “Purchases at the same store on the same day must total at least 5,000 yen (excluding tax).”
For consumables (food, drinks, cosmetics and similar items meant to be used up) there is a floor and a ceiling: “Purchases at the same store on the same day must total at least 5,000 yen and no more than 500,000 yen (excluding tax).”
The source publishes no upper limit for general items to match the 500,000 yen ceiling on consumables. For an expensive non-consumable, the page does not say whether there is a cap.
Both floors are counted in yen, at one store, on one day, so the figure to track is the shop’s, not your card’s. Holding yen and spending it directly keeps the two identical, which matters most when a purchase lands near 5,000 and a conversion rate would decide whether you cleared it.
Consumables stay sealed
The agency’s instruction is one sentence: “Do not open the packages within Japan.” The exemption assumes the items leave the country unopened, and it can be reversed at the border: “If the items are consumed or the packages are opened in Japan, you may be required to pay the consumption tax at the time of departure.”
The items must leave Japan
This applies to everything, not just consumables: “The tax-free purchased items must be taken out of the country.” Buying tax-free and leaving the item with a friend, in a hotel room or anywhere else in Japan is outside the exemption.
Since April 2025, posting items home does not qualify
Some travellers used to ship bulky tax-free purchases home separately. That is closed: “From April 1st, 2025, you will not be eligible for tax-free shopping if you send your tax-free items back home on your own via international parcels. You will have to present the tax-free items at customs during customs examination if requested.” Keep your tax-free purchases with you and be ready to show them at customs on departure.
A QR code can speed things up
For some visitors the paperwork is faster: “Individuals with ‘Short-Term Stay’ or ‘Diplomatic/Official’ residence status can make tax-free purchases quickly by registering with VJW. The procedure can be completed by simply presenting a QR code, so please take advantage of this service.” If you hold one of those two statuses, register with VJW before you shop.
What you save: 10 percent on most goods, 8 percent on food and drink
The Tourism Agency page sets the thresholds but not the rate, which belongs to the National Tax Agency. It publishes the rates: standard consumption tax is 7.8% national plus 2.2% local, so 10%, and the reduced rate is 6.24% national plus 1.76% local, so 8%. Its note adds that “the reduced tax rate of Consumption Tax (8%) is same as the rate that was effective until September 30, 2019.”
The reduced rate applies to food and drink, the category most likely to reach the 500,000 yen ceiling. So the goods nearest the cap save the smaller percentage.
An exemption at the register, not a refund you wait for
The Tourism Agency describes the mechanism in its opening line: the system “allows eligible foreign tourists and Japanese temporary returnees to purchase items such as home appliances, watches, food, cosmetics, etc., without paying consumption tax.”
In the standard case the tax is never charged, so there is no refund to process, no card to credit and no wait. Some stores instead take the tax at the till and return it at a counter elsewhere in the shop, usually in cash yen.
The currency spread still applies
You are spending yen on a foreign card, so your issuer’s rate applies to every purchase. Tax-free shopping saves 10% on general goods. A card spread of two or three percent takes back a quarter to a third of that before you leave the shop. A multi-currency account such as Wise lets you hold yen and spend it directly. We have not measured any issuer’s spread, so check yours.
Corrections
18 September 2026. This page carried a section headed “The refund amount and method aren’t stated”, saying the agency “does not publish the actual tax rate you get back, or describe how the refund itself is calculated or paid, whether it is deducted at the register or refunded separately.”
Both halves have answers. The rate belongs to the National Tax Agency, which publishes 10% standard and 8% reduced. The mechanism is in the first line of the page cited here: the system lets you “purchase items… without paying consumption tax.” It is an exemption at the point of sale, so in the standard case there is no refund.
The affiliate link in that section was argued on the old wording, which described “a refund credited back to a foreign card” being converted by your issuer. The source does not describe that. The link now rests on the conversion that does occur, on the purchase itself, where a card spread takes a share of the 10% saved. We record the change here because the previous version invented a mechanism to have something to link against.
Wise, for the exchange rate the refund is converted at (affiliate link)