Indian Visa for Japanese Citizens: Visa on Arrival or e-Visa

Japan is one of only three countries whose nationals India offers a visa on arrival, with South Korea and, for those who have held an Indian visa before, the UAE. Japan is also on the e-Visa list, and the official table charges Japanese passports less for most e-Visas than it charges most nationalities. So a Japanese traveller chooses between:

• The visa on arrival: granted at the airport by the immigration officer, at six airports only, for at most 60 days.
• The e-Visa: applied for online at least four days before you arrive, valid at every airport and seaport designated for e-Visa holders, with 1-year and 5-year options.
• A regular visa: from the Embassy of India in Tokyo, for purposes neither covers, such as employment or journalism.

The visa on arrival is not open to anyone who lives or works in India, to people of Pakistani origin, or to holders of diplomatic or official passports.

The rules, as the Government of India's visa portal sets them out:

• Purposes: business, tourism, a conference or medical treatment.
• Airports: the six designated international airports at Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.
• Length and entries: the immigration officer may grant a double-entry visa on arrival valid for up to 60 days.
• Fee: 2,000 Indian rupees, or the equivalent in foreign currency, per passenger, children included, paid before the visa is granted.
• What to show: a passport with at least six months' validity, a return or onward ticket, enough money for the stay, and a completed visa-on-arrival application form.
• Limits: it cannot be extended or converted into another visa once you are in India.

Every foreign national must also submit the free e-Arrival Card online in the 72 hours before landing, whichever visa they hold. If you are coming for treatment, our page on medical visa logistics explains the e-Medical alternative. South Korean passports have the same visa on arrival: see India visa for South Korean citizens.

The e-Tourist fee table on the official portal, dated 8 September 2026, lists Japan as follows (US dollars, with a 3% bank charge added to each payment):

The portal's other fee table lists the e-Business, e-Medical and e-Medical Attendant Visas at US$25 each for Japanese passports, where most nationalities pay US$120 and US$80. A refused application keeps its fee: nothing is paid back. An e-Visa holder may land at any of the 37 airports the portal designates, which include Goa, Kochi, Jaipur, Varanasi and Amritsar as well as the six visa-on-arrival airports, or at a designated seaport, and may leave through any immigration check post.

Apply only at indianvisaonline.gov.in, at least four days before you arrive and up to 120 days before your travel date. Your passport needs six months' validity on the day you apply and two blank pages. Upload a scan of the photo page (PDF, 10 KB to 300 KB) and a photo (JPEG, 10 KB to 1 MB, plain light or white background), pay the fee plus 3%, and wait for the email that tells you the visa has been granted. Take a printed copy of your Electronic Travel Authorisation with you, together with a return or onward ticket and funds for your stay. Immigration records your biometric details on arrival. The full walk-through is in our India e-Visa guide.

The Embassy of India in Tokyo takes regular visa applications directly, at its Consular Wing at 2-2-11 Kudan Minami, Chiyoda-ku; it names no outsourced visa centre. Fill in the online form first, then hand it in with your passport and supporting documents. The Embassy's indicative processing time for Japanese nationals is three working days, against five to seven for other nationals, and it accepts visa fees in cash only. It also says it cannot process or resolve e-Visa problems, which go to the portal. If you would like your application checked first, our visa assistance page explains what we look at.