Japan Tourist Visa
Sightseeing, family visits and business trips of up to 90 days — the documents, the cost and the process as the embassy actually asks for them.
Japan Tourist Visa
A tourist visa is a short-stay status: it lets you enter Japan to travel, see family or attend a meeting, and it does not let you work or study. Applications from Bangladesh are not handed in at the embassy — they go through the Japan Visa Application Centre run by VFS Global in Dhaka, and the embassy decides. For Bangladeshi nationals Japan charges no visa fee at all; the only money that changes hands is the centre's service charge. What decides these files is not the fee, it is whether the paperwork shows a clear, funded, believable trip and a reason to come home. That is the part we do with you.
Before you rely on any figure on this page
Fees, the document list and the processing time are the embassy's to change, at any time and without notice, and the final decision on every application is theirs alone — nobody can promise you a visa. The figures here were taken from the Embassy of Japan's own application centre and its official short-stay checklist on 22 September 2026. Ask us for the current position before you book anything.
Who this visa is for
Travellers and sightseers
A holiday in Japan, on your own or with family. You pay your own way and you show you can.
Visiting family or friends in Japan
Someone already in Japan invites you. They can also cover your costs, which changes the paperwork — see the documents below.
Short business trips
A meeting, a conference, a trade fair, after-sales service. Still a short-stay visa, but your employer's letter replaces the tourist itinerary.
Parents of our students
Families who want to see their son or daughter in Japan, or attend a graduation. We handle these regularly.
What you need to qualify
- A passport valid for the whole trip, plus every old passport you hold.
- A real, dated plan: when you fly, where you sleep, what you intend to do in Japan.
- Enough money for the trip, and paperwork that proves it — your own, or a guarantor's in Japan.
- A reason to return to Bangladesh: a job, a business, study, family, property.
- A clean immigration history. An overstay or a refusal anywhere is not fatal, but it must be declared and explained.
- You must not intend to work or study. Those are different visas, and applying for the wrong one costs you the trip.
How your file moves
- 1Free counsellingWe look at your purpose, your funds and your travel history, and tell you honestly whether the file is worth filing yet.
- 2Plan and bookingsDates, a day-by-day itinerary, flight reservation and hotel bookings that match each other. Most refusals start here.
- 3Documents assembledFinancials, employment or business papers, the invitation and guarantee if there is one. Arranged in the embassy's own checklist order, A4 throughout.
- 4Submission at the application centreThe file goes in at the Japan Visa Application Centre in Dhaka. The embassy does not take walk-in applicants.
- 5Embassy assessmentFive working days is the indicative time. It can be longer, and the embassy may ask for more documents or call you in.
- 6Passport collectedWe hand it back to you and go through the visa's validity, the entry rules and what to carry at immigration in Japan.
Do not buy a non-refundable ticket before the visa is in your passport. A reservation is what the embassy asks for; a purchased ticket is a risk you are taking on yourself.
Documents you will be asked for
- Valid passport.
- One completed visa application form.
- One photograph, 2 inch × 1.4 inch, taken within the last six months.
- Flight itinerary showing the flight or ship number and the dates you arrive in and leave Japan.
- Proof you can pay for the trip, if you are paying yourself — an income certificate or tax return issued by a public agency, or a bank statement or balance certificate.
- Your itinerary inside Japan: where you will stay, with the hotel's name, address and telephone number, or the full address of the relative or friend you are staying with, and what you plan to do each day.
- If someone in Japan is inviting you: their invitation letter, and a document explaining the reason for the invitation.
- If someone in Japan is paying for you: their letter of guarantee, their proof of funds (an income or taxation certificate, or a balance certificate — a withholding tax slip is not accepted), and their certificate of residence (Juminhyo). If that guarantor is a foreign national, copies of both sides of their residence card and of their passport as well.
- If you are visiting relatives, proof of the relationship — birth certificate, marriage certificate or family register; copies are accepted. For friends, photographs, emails, call history or letters.
- Every photocopy on A4 paper only.
Discovery arranges the attestation, notarisation and certified translation of every document on this list.
What it costs
- Japan visa fee, Bangladeshi nationals
- Free
- Application-centre service charge
- BDT 2,090 incl. taxes
- How it is paid
- Cash, in BDT, at the centre
These are the official charges only. Your own passport, photographs, bank certificate, flights and hotel are separate and are yours to pay whatever happens to the application. Our service charge is quoted to you in writing before we start, and no government fee is ever paid to us.
Important notices
- A short-stay visa does not permit any work in Japan, paid or unpaid, and it cannot be converted into a work or student status from inside the country.
- An application filed more than three months before you travel may not be accepted.
- Processing time is indicative. The embassy can raise or lower it at its own discretion, and busy seasons are slower.
- The visa is a permission to travel to the port of entry, not a guarantee of entry. Immigration at the airport in Japan makes the final call.
- There is no appeal against a refusal, and a re-application on the same facts is usually refused again. This is why a file should only be filed when it is genuinely ready.
- Anyone promising you a guaranteed Japanese visa is lying to you. Nobody, including us, can guarantee one.
Practical tips
- Make the itinerary specific and plausible. 'Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka in four days' reads as a story written for the embassy; a realistic route reads as a trip.
- Your bank balance should have a history, not a deposit that landed last week. Six months of ordinary movement is worth more than one large number.
- Hotel bookings must cover every night of the stay and match the itinerary dates exactly. Mismatched dates are one of the commonest reasons a file comes back.
- If a relative in Japan is paying, get their Juminhyo and income certificate early — those take time to obtain in Japan and are the usual cause of a missed intake.
- Declare every previous refusal, from any country. The embassy can see them, and an undeclared one is far more damaging than the refusal itself.
- Travelling as a family is generally read more favourably than a young single applicant travelling alone with no strong ties at home.
Tourist visa questions
Japan charges Bangladeshi nationals no visa fee at all. The only official charge is the application centre's service charge, BDT 2,090 including taxes, paid in cash in BDT at the centre. Anything else you spend — passport, photographs, bank certificate, flights, hotels, and our service charge — is separate.
Five working days from submission is the indicative processing time. It is indicative only: the embassy may take longer, especially in the busy season or if it asks for extra documents. Never book a non-refundable ticket against that five days.
Up to 90 days. The exact period is written on the sticker and decided by the embassy, and immigration at the airport sets the stay you are actually given on entry.
No. A short-stay visa carries no work permission of any kind, and working on one is a deportation and a long re-entry ban. If work is your goal, the SSW, TITP or engineering routes on this site are the legal ways in.
No. Applications from Bangladesh go to the Japan Visa Application Centre operated by VFS Global in Dhaka. The embassy does not accept walk-in applicants; it receives the file from the centre and makes the decision.
It can, and it changes the paperwork: he becomes your guarantor and must supply a letter of guarantee, proof of his funds and his certificate of residence (Juminhyo). If he is not a Japanese national he also sends copies of both sides of his residence card and his passport. Get those started early — they are obtained in Japan and they are what usually holds a file up.
No, and it would not work. Declare it and explain it. An undeclared refusal that comes to light destroys your credibility on this application and every future one; a declared and explained one is something a file can survive.
The other routes
Planning a trip to Japan?
Send us your travel dates and who is going. We will tell you what your file needs, what it will cost, and whether it is ready to file — before you spend anything.
- Free first counseling session at our Dhanmondi center
- Document processing, attestation and certified translation
- Embassy interview preparation and post-arrival support