Most visitors headed home from Japan fly out through Narita or Haneda. From November 1, 2026, getting your consumption-tax refund at either airport depends on a customs confirmation step that happens landside, before you check any bags — not at a store counter after you’ve paid.

This guide covers both airports together, because the underlying process is the same at each: a kiosk (or Visit Japan Web on your own phone, if you set it up in advance) confirms your eligible goods are actually leaving Japan with you, and that confirmation is what releases your refund. One thing to know upfront: as of August 2026, neither Customs nor the airports have published exactly which entrance, floor, or lane the kiosks sit in at each terminal. This page tells you what’s confirmed and what to watch for once you’re inside.

Narita and Haneda, step by step

Before you leave for the airport

  1. Know your terminal. At Narita, international flights leave from Terminals 1, 2, and 3, and which one you use depends on your airline — check your flight on the airport’s own site before you travel. At Haneda, international departures split between Terminal 3 (international-only, used by most airlines) and Terminal 2 (ANA’s international flights); the international departure floor at Haneda is 3F.
  2. Register with Visit Japan Web if you want the online route. Narita and Haneda are both on the list of airports where you can complete the customs confirmation on your own phone instead of at a kiosk — see Visit Japan Web online confirmation for how to set it up before you fly.
  3. Pack every refund-eligible purchase, with its box and tags, into your carry-on. Keep your receipts and passport within easy reach too. See the pre-departure checklist for the full countdown.

At the airport

  1. Find the customs kiosk in the international departure lobby, before you check any bags. Official guidance places these terminals in the international departure lobby, ahead of bag drop — but exactly where within each building hasn’t been published yet. Follow signage as you enter, or ask airport staff to point you to the tax-free or customs confirmation terminal. Worth knowing honestly: both airports’ own English departure guides currently still describe the pre-November process of presenting your passport at a customs counter — expect the signage and guides to catch up once the new system starts.
  2. Or use the online route. If you registered with Visit Japan Web, look for the dedicated Wi-Fi area set aside for it in the international departure lobby, before the security checkpoint.
  3. Scan your passport and wait for the result — it takes seconds. Green means you’re done: go check in. Red means you take everything you registered, plus your receipts, to the customs inspection area — see red judgment for exactly what happens next.
  4. Only after that, check your bags, then go through security and passport control. Once a bag is checked, you can’t pull it back to add anything you forgot.
  5. Give yourself more time than the standard advice. Narita’s own guidance is to arrive at least two hours before departure — treat that as a floor, not a target, and add time on top for the customs step. The whole thing, including any inspection that follows a red result, has to be finished before boarding procedures close.

Connecting from a domestic flight

  1. If you fly domestically into Narita or Haneda before an international leg, the customs confirmation happens at the airport you actually leave Japan from — at that airport’s international departure lobby, before you check bags for the international flight. At Haneda specifically, domestic flights use Terminals 1 and 2 (per the airport’s own FAQ), so a domestic arrival connecting to an international departure means getting your eligible goods over to Terminal 3 (or Terminal 2 for ANA) yourself — keep them with you rather than checking them through on the domestic leg.

Why we can’t draw you a map yet

Here’s what’s actually confirmed: the kiosk sits somewhere in the international departure lobby, before bag drop; scanning your passport takes only seconds; a red result sends you to a physical inspection area; and the whole step — kiosk plus any inspection — has to wrap up before boarding procedures close. What isn’t confirmed: the exact position of the kiosks inside each terminal, what any lane or counter will be called, or how many separate kiosk locations each airport ends up with. Customs’ own departure-procedures page, and both airports’ English guides, still describe the pre-November process of presenting a passport at a staffed customs counter — none of them have been updated yet for the kiosk-based system.

We’ll update this page as soon as Customs or the airports publish terminal-level detail.

The reason the kiosk sits landside, before bag drop, isn’t arbitrary: customs needs to actually see your goods while they’re still in your hands, not already sealed inside checked luggage. That’s the same reason your refund-eligible purchases need to stay in your carry-on right up until you’ve cleared this step.

One practical note: you’ll want mobile data working the moment you land at the terminal, whether you’re checking flight information or completing the confirmation through Visit Japan Web.

The official pages below have whatever detail each airport and Customs have actually published — worth a check closer to your travel date, since anything they publish there will be more current than a fixed description here.