Naha Airport is Okinawa’s gateway, with its domestic and international areas joined into one connected terminal. Since November 1, 2026, your consumption-tax refund depends on a customs confirmation you complete at the customs kiosk (often called the tax refund counter) in the international area, before you check any bags. Naha is also one of three airports where cash refund machines called Self Tax Refund started on day one.

This guide covers where the kiosk is, the online alternative, domestic connections, and how the cash machines fit in — after the kiosk, never instead of it.

Naha Airport, step by step

Before you leave for the airport

  1. Head for the international check-in counters. International check-in is on 3F of the International Terminal; after check-in, the departure entrance (security and passport control) is one floor down. The domestic and international buildings have been linked by a connecting terminal since 2019.
  2. Register with Visit Japan Web if you want the online route. Naha is one of the seven airports where you can complete the customs confirmation on your own phone — see Visit Japan Web online confirmation for the setup.
  3. Pack every refund-eligible purchase in your carry-on, with your passport and any purchase documents your store gave you. Those are the three things Naha’s own page asks you to have ready. See the pre-departure checklist for the full countdown.

At the airport

  1. Go to the customs kiosk before you check any bags. Per Japan Customs’ kiosk location map, with the airport’s description of the spot:

    • International Terminal: 3F, check-in lobby

    Naha’s page is clear about why the order matters: once a bag is checked in, the tax-free items inside may not be available for inspection, and you may not get the refund.

  2. Or confirm online. If you set up Visit Japan Web, connect to Customs_WiFi_For_TaxRefund (password: jcustoms) in the dedicated Wi-Fi area of the international departure lobby, before security — the network Japan Customs publishes for this procedure.

  3. Read the result. Green means you’re done: go check in. Red means customs officers want to see your purchases at the inspection area — see red judgment for what happens there.

  4. Then check in, drop your bags, and go through security and immigration. Once you’re past immigration, you can’t come back to the departure lobby to do the procedure.

  5. Leave plenty of time — Naha doesn’t publish a fixed number. The airport expects to be busy and asks travelers to allow sufficient time before their flight. Check your airline’s check-in deadline and add time for the customs step and any inspection.

Connecting from a domestic flight

  1. Do the customs step at Naha if that’s where you leave Japan. Japan Customs asks you to complete it at the airport or seaport of your final departure. Arriving on a domestic flight, you come into the domestic area’s arrivals lobby; from there, go to the international check-in counters (3F) and do the kiosk step before checking in for your international flight. Keep your purchases out of any bag checked through to your final destination. If you instead fly domestically from Naha to another airport and leave Japan from there, do it there.

Self Tax Refund cash machines

  1. Know that Naha has Self Tax Refund machines — and that they’re not the customs kiosk. Since November 1, 2026, Self Tax Refund, developed by Japan Airport Terminal and Glory, pays the refund out in cash (Japanese yen) at its own machines. At Naha, the customs step happens before passport control and the money is paid out after it. Location and hours, per the operators and the airport:

    • International Terminal: 2F departure concourse, after passport control, 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

    Hours may change with flight operations.

  2. Don’t plan around it until your store confirms. Not every tax-free store’s purchases can be refunded through this service, and the operators say to check the refund method with your store in advance. Ask at the register; for the usual card and bank options, see how much comes back, and when.

  3. It may spread. For now, Self Tax Refund runs at Naha, Haneda and Narita; the operators say they aim to bring it to other Japanese airports by the end of fiscal year 2027, which runs to March 2028.

How the kiosk and the cash machine fit together

The two machines do different jobs at different points in your departure. The customs kiosk sits on the check-in floor because customs needs to see your purchases while they’re still in your hands, before any of them disappear into checked luggage. At Naha, the Self Tax Refund machine is past passport control, so the order is fixed: kiosk, check-in, passport control, then the cash machine. And refunds are paid only once the customs confirmation is complete — skip the kiosk and the machine has nothing to pay.

We point you to Japan Customs’ kiosk map for the exact layout rather than describing it here — the reason is in the Narita & Haneda guide.

The official pages below have the detail Naha Airport, the Self Tax Refund operators and Customs have published — worth a check closer to your travel date, since anything updated there will be more current than a fixed description here.