91 days in japan

i cant believe i was that stup..., when buying the airplane ticket i count nights instead of days, so acording to my plane ticket i have 90 nights and 91 days in japan.

i imagine that this is very serious problem , i am traveling next summer under a visa waiver that gives me 90 days so i imagine under this circumstances i my be rejected on entering the country?

a short trip to korea may be the answer ? i am not a fan of this, but is even a sure thing? i dont want another 90 days, just the extra one to take my original flight

the obvious, change the date of my plane ticket is not an option, is the cheapest kind, no changes, no returns, no nothing

i am very worried right now, i appreciate any ideas, thanks

Your arrival day doesn't count as part of the 90 days, if that helps.

are you sure about that?

i havent found an official information, but i read in some old foroum
that the day of arrival does count

My last stamp at Narita says 21 Mar to 19 Jun, so that's 91 days including the 21st of March. You should be alright.

Yes, the arrival day is never counted in the period of stay, and this is true regardless of your type of stay (so not only for 90 days visa-free stays).

are you sure about that?

Yes. My stamp from my last visit says 31 Jul 2015 to 29 Oct 2015 which is 91 days. I arrived in Japan on Friday July 31.

wow this is realy good news, it seems i should be ok.

thanks for your answers.

if anyone has similar stories or further information it will still be appreciated in order to be 100& sure

I've been to Japan 7 times, 6 of which I've used a passport. If you want further info, my stamps are :

15 MAR 2005-13 JUN 2005
05 OCT 2010-03 JAN 2011
06 MAR 2012-04 JUN 2012
08 OCT 2013-06 JAN 2014
06 MAY 2014-04 AUG 2014
21 MAR 2015-19 JUN 2015

Day of arrival - check this with your local Japanese embassy (don't rely on a forum for this one).

I encountered this when travelling a few years back (not in Japan) where any partial day counted as a whole day. So my departure days and arrival days were counted in both countries. In a typical week I would be officially counted as four days in New Zealand and five days in Australia.

I would advise you to not press the envelope like this. While odds are in your favor of nothing going wrong, if there is any problem - accident going to the airport, mixing up your schedule, flight cancellation etc - the Japanese government is not likely to care and you will be illegally overstaying. Which means being escorted by some nicely uniformed gentlemen to a detention cell.

Very undesirable.

john b, thanks that seems like very solid information

japancustomtours, i think you are right i will try calling the embassy tomorrow, is a realy serious situation

ken, what you said is valid but at this point there isnt much i can do

You should not contact the embassy about this, it is absolutely none of their business. The embassy issues visas, period, and everything else is up to the immigration bureau. And in any case, I am sorry but the arrival day is not counted and that's a well-documented fact.

with the personal experience that some users had gently shared i belive that the first day is not counted

but is interesting that you said well documented, becose i have not found a single piece of official information about whatever the first day count or not.

i have only found comments on forums, and even some comments saying that is a common misconception that the fist day is not counted.

about contacting the embassy, even if they are not responsable for any of this, i imagine answer this kind of questions is normal for them

Contacting the Embassy is a useful thing to do. They do a lot more than issue visas and providing immigration advice (and on the laws of Japan) is one of those things. I would certainly expect them to be able to direct someone to the applicable legislation and rules.

Alternatively, check the http://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html page and http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/index.html

Also, if this "1st day of arrival" is well documented, a link would be useful. Otherwise it might be like the non-existant 180-day rule.

Some additional hunting out of curiosity:

I checked some of the permits (not visas) in my passport and they say 90 days, but specify the start and end dates which actually span 91 days. As you are also travelling under visa waiver programme you should be granted the same permit.

I have spotted a reference to the 1st day not counted on a private visa company website based in Bangkok.

thanks for all the help, at this point i am pretty confident that i am ok.

i did send a couple of mail to my embassy and the inmigration bureau of japan, if/when i get an answer i will post it for future reference.

i got a reply from the japanese bureau of inmigration:


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As you mentioned in your email, the day of arrival is not counted.
You will be able to find out the last day you can stay on the Landing Permission seal stuck on your passport when you enter Japan