What to Do Before Going to Japan

Packing lists get most of the attention, but the logistics tasks you handle before you fly matter more for how your trip actually runs. Here's what to do before going to Japan, focused on the actions rather than the items, since actions with lead times are what actually determine how smooth your arrival feels.

Handle your entry paperwork early

Check your passport's expiry date and your visa requirement as soon as you book flights — both are easy to fix months out and stressful to fix days out. Register on Visit Japan Web once your travel dates are confirmed; it lets you pre-submit immigration and customs details and generates QR codes that speed up the arrival process noticeably. If you take regular medication, check whether it needs special import paperwork (Yakkan Shoumei) — some common medications, including certain allergy and ADHD medications, are restricted or banned in Japan even with a prescription.

Set up your money access

Related: Master Before Go To Japan Best Practices for a Seamless Trip.

Call or message your bank and card provider to flag your travel dates so a legitimate purchase in Osaka doesn't get flagged as fraud. Confirm at least one card works for fee-free international withdrawals, since not all cards do. Decide how much cash to bring or exchange — Japan is more cash-friendly than many visitors expect, and plenty of smaller restaurants, shrines, and rural businesses still don't take cards. Set up an IC card (Suica, Pasmo, or similar) in your phone's wallet app if your phone supports it, so you're not queuing at a ticket machine on your first day.

Sort out how you'll stay connected

Order an eSIM or reserve a pocket wifi device before you fly — both are far cheaper and faster to set up in advance than at the airport on arrival. Download a transit app and a translation app before you land, and download offline language packs so they work without signal. If you're using a messaging app to stay in touch with people at home, confirm it works reliably in Japan (most mainstream apps do, but it's worth a quick check).

Lock in your transport plan

See also: Japan Travel Planning Guide: Tips for Success.

Work out your intercity routes and decide whether a rail pass makes financial sense — it depends on distance and number of long trips, not simply how many days you're travelling. If you're arriving late in the evening, arrange your route from the airport to your first night's accommodation ahead of time rather than figuring it out jet-lagged at midnight. During peak seasons, reserve seats on long-distance trains in advance where possible, since popular routes sell out.

Book what needs booking

Some experiences and restaurants require reservations well ahead of time, particularly during cherry blossom season, autumn foliage, and national holidays like Golden Week. If there's a specific restaurant, ryokan, or experience you don't want to miss, check its booking policy early rather than assuming you can walk in. Popular accommodation in smaller towns can also sell out faster than you'd expect, especially around festivals. Some sought-after restaurants only take reservations through a specific platform or via a hotel concierge, so it's worth checking the actual booking process rather than assuming a phone call or walk-in will work.

Tell someone your rough plan

Share your itinerary, or at least your first few nights' accommodation, with someone back home before you leave. It's a small step that costs nothing and matters little on an uneventful trip, but genuinely helps if you ever need to be reached or located, particularly if part of your route heads into rural or mountainous areas with patchy signal.

Spend twenty minutes learning a handful of Japanese phrases and reviewing the etiquette basics that come up daily: quiet voices on public transport, no tipping, shoes off in certain spaces, and carrying your rubbish since public bins are uncommon. None of this is complicated, but doing it before you land means you're not learning it through a slightly awkward first encounter.

Working through tasks like these, in roughly this order, is the practical backbone of what Before You Go To Japan is meant to help with — not another packing list, but the actual to-dos that determine whether your first 48 hours run smoothly or not.

Before you fly, take a few minutes to think through how a typical day will actually run: withdrawing cash if needed, tapping through train gates with your IC card, ordering food where menus might be entirely in Japanese, and finding your way from a station exit to your accommodation. None of this needs a detailed plan, but picturing it in advance means you're not solving every one of these small problems for the first time simultaneously, jet-lagged, on your first morning.

Before finalising anything, look at your day-by-day plan and check it's realistic rather than aspirational. A common mistake is scheduling back-to-back full days in multiple cities with no slack for delays, tiredness, or simply wanting to linger somewhere longer than planned. Building in at least one lighter day, or one day with no fixed plan, tends to make the whole trip feel less like a checklist and more like an actual holiday.

If you only remember one rule: handle anything involving other organisations (visas, insurance, bank notifications, bookings) at least a month out, since those have processing times outside your control, and leave anything self-contained (packing, downloading apps, learning phrases) for the final week. Layering the tasks this way, rather than tackling them in a random order, is what actually keeps pre-trip admin from becoming stressful.