Passport expiry

Hi,
My Canadian passport will expire on August 2008. Can I still use it to go to Japan on April to May of this year?

In case the immigration granted me a visitor's visa, can I leave Japan for few days to visit another Asian country and come back to Japan to stay few more days?

Thank you.

Yes, according to my understanding, Japan asks for a passport to be valid until at least the day when your period of stay expires. For example, if you enter Japan on April 20 and get a permission to stay through July 19, and your passport does not expire until August, then you should have no problem entering Japan.

In case the immigration granted me a visitor's visa, can I leave Japan for few days to visit another Asian country and come back to Japan to stay few more days?

You are granted a temporary visitors permit in your Canadian Passport, if you leave Japan, that one becomes invalid, when you return to Japan they stamp you with a new one. Of course it would probably be a bit expensive to visit japan for a few days, leave then return to visit more, how about rounded up japan into one trip and the other country into a trip after?

If however, you have a flight to Asia that gives you stopovers in Japan and you plan to use the stopovers in both directions, then you will be fine to come back in to Japan and get another visitor's permit. If you stay the full 90 days the first time and then come back in very soon, Immigration can get a bit suspicious, but if it's a shorter time they will likely just give the second stamp no questions asked.

I assume you are unlikely to be hassled by the check-in agent of your airline when you are flying out of Canada and by the Japanese immigration officer upon entry into Japan.

But if you travel onto say, Thailand, the check-in rep might hassle you because thailand impose a policy that foreign tourists passport must be valid six-month plus the length of stay, on top of producing onward air ticket in case you enter the country on a visa exemption. though Thai immigration won't mind the procedures in reality.

You might want to avoid a possible refusal of flying with your airline. You might as well contact them to see their policies.

The following link may be of some help.
http://www.nwa.com/services/timatic.html

Reentry to Japan from a third country is unlikely to cause trouble to you.

Some airline staff in Canada insist that the return trip to Canada be done at least 3 months before the passport expiry date. You should inquire with the airline you are planning to use just in case as they may really insist on you being back at least 90 days, not 84...that type of picky thing. This is another of many weird rules because it means that we pay for months we never use.

Japan asks for a passport to be valid until at least the day when your period of stay expires
I was in a similar situation last year and I phoned the Japanese embassy here in in London only last summer. This is what they said: Japan requires your passport to be valid on entry only of Japan. However, since you have to go back, I would certainly make sure that it is valid throughout your stay and fulfills the requirements of your home country for its citizens.
I would certainly phone the embassy about it to back this up and to be able to answer possible questions from the airline.

To give the details: My Dutch passport expired 6 weeks after my entry to Japan and I got the normal landing permission sticker in my passport valid for 3 months. I only stayed for 3 weeks and a bit and had no problems getting back into the UK.

To be honest, I didn't feel too comfortable about using an almost expired passport but Holland had just changed its passport to a biometric one and the passport production took forever and I had to travel every couple of weeks for work all year and had no possibility to renew it ^_^;;

Sue,

Why don't you renew your passport before you travel. They have special service with a little surcharge to have your passport renewed in just a few days! Leave your burden behind and travel freely.

TW,
In Canada if you renew your passport early, you lose the remaining months on your current passport. The new passport is valid 5 years from the date you renew, not the date your old passport expires.

I know many people around here (west coast) don't want to renew their passport until the last possible day to get the maximum time they can out of it.

Thanks everyone and I do appreciate all advices.

Sue