Visa information for Chinese nationals

　If the purpose of the visit is "group tourism," please apply for a group-tourism visa through an approved Chinese travel agency, who would be able to tell you what documents are necessary for the visa application. To see which travel agencies handle tourism to Japan, please refer to the web-site of the Japanese Embassy / Consulate-General in China. 　PLEASE NOTE that if the purpose of the visit is short-term business affairs, visiting relatives or acquaintances (including those cases where you are visiting Japan for sightseeing but staying at a house of relatives / acquaintances), you need a visa for "short-term business affairs" or "visit to relatives / acquaintances" rather than tourist visas (except Multiple-entry visas for visitors with a substantially high income). Applications should be lodged with documents provided by an "inviting person" or "guarantor" in Japan. 　In case the applicant is a Chinese national residing outside China, please refer to the Japanese Embassy or Consulates-General closest to the applicant’s place of residence.

　As a general rule, tourist visits to Japan by Chinese nationals take the form of "group tours" based on the related laws and regulations of China (period of stay is up to 15 days).

　If you are coming to Japan as part of a tour group operated by a tour escort through the approved Chinese travel agency, the Chinese travel agency will apply for a group tourist visa on your behalf. To find out what documents are necessary for a group-tourists visa application, please contact any approved Chinese travel agency. 　As a matter of information, participants in "Group Tours" are not allowed to travel on his/her own for the duration of the tour and must be accompanied by a tour escort when travelling.

　When certain requirements are met, visas may be issued for "individual tourists". 　In a "Chinese individual tour" the tourist need not be accompanied by an escort. Under this category of "Individual Tourists" visas, there are two types of visas: single-entry and multiple-entry. If you are interested in an individual tour, please apply for this type of visa through an approved Chinese travel agency. For multiple-entry visa, a Chinese travel agency must arrange the travel itinerary and reserve the accommodations for your first visit. To find out what documents are necessary for multiple-entry visas, please contact any approved Chinese travel agency for further details.

　Single-entry individual tourist visas (non-group tour visas) may be issued to those who have certain level of financial capability and their family members. The visas may also be issued to students (those studying in bachelor, master and doctoral degrees) or graduates (those who graduated within three years) of ordinary universities in China which are listed on the website of Ministry of Education of People's Republic of China. The period of stay allowed under this visa category is either 15 days or 30 days. The applicant seeking individual tourist visas must prepare his/her own travel itinerary in advance, approach an approved Chinese travel agency to make further arrangements for the travel, and to lodge the visa application through the travel agency.

　Multiple-entry individual tourist visas may be issued to those travelers who (1) stay at least one night in either Okinawa Prefecture or any prefecture in Tohoku Region (Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima) and (2) meet the requirements described below. These visas are valid for 3 years and the period of stay allowed for each visit is up to 30 days. If the applicant meets the requirements, his/her family members may also travel with the applicant or on their own. 　In order to apply for these visas, the applicant must prepare his/her own travel itinerary in advance, approach an approved Chinese travel agency to make further arrangements for travel, and then lodge the visa application through the travel agency for the first visit. The applicant need not make travel arrangements through the travel agency for his/her second visit onwards.

　Multiple-entry individual tourist visas may be issued to those travelers who have a sufficient level of financial capability and their family members. The same type of visas may also be issued to those who have travel records of enter to Japan twice or more in the last three years with certain categories of individual tourist visa (group tour visa and temporary visa (Tokudai) are excluded). These visas are valid for 3years and the period of stay allowed for each visit is up to 30 days. Unlike the "Multiple-entry visas for individual tourists visiting Okinawa / Tohoku Region", the visas issued under this category imposes no requirement to visit any specific destination in Japan. 　The applicant seeking this type of visa must prepare his/her own travel itinerary in advance, approach an approved Chinese travel agency to make further arrangements for the travel, and to lodge the visa application through the travel agency. The applicant need not make travel arrangements through the travel agency for his/her second visit onwards.

　Multiple-entry visas which are valid for 5 years and of which period of stay for each visit is allowed up to 90 days may be issued to applicants with a substantially high income and their family members who are visiting Japan for the purpose of tourism, short-term business affairs, visiting relatives or acquaintances. Those who obtained such visas are not permitted to perform business activities to generate revenue or receive any remuneration. To find out what kind of documents is necessary for this type of visa, please contact with any of approved Chinese travel agency.