Starting January 7, 2019, you will need to pay a Y1,000 (roughly P489.28) departure tax when you travel from Japan.
According to the Japan Times, the tax is required for those leaving by aircraft or ship, regardless of nationality. The tax is on top of air and sea fares.
Those exempt are children under two years old, those with connecting flights less than 24 hours, and airline crew members. Those who have purchased tickets prior to January 7 are also exempt.
The law was enacted last April under the Diet, Japan’s bicameral legislature.
The tax aims to raise funds to accommodate more foreign visitors to the country, build tourism bases, and further improve immigration procedures. These include facial recognition gates at immigration, multilingual information boards, and more cashless payment terminals for public transport.
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