Japan just tripled its tourist tax — does the weak-yen deal still hold?
July 9, 2026
Japan just made international headlines for the wrong reason, and the timing is awkward: on 1 July, the government tripled its international departure tax from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000, raised short-term visa fees fivefold, and it's layering on top of Kyoto's new tiered accommodation tax — up to ten times the old rate for the city's most expensive rooms. Overtourism is the official reason, and social feeds have been full of "Japan is done being cheap" takes ever since. For Hong Kong travellers weighing a trip, the real question isn't whether Japan raised fees — it did — it's whether that changes the actual maths. It doesn't, not by much.
What actually changed
The departure tax applies to everyone leaving Japan, folded straight into your ticket price — no line at the airport, no cash needed. It moved from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 per person, an extra roughly HK$104 each way. Visa fees for short-term single- and multiple-entry visas rose fivefold, but Hong Kong SAR passport holders travelling for tourism enter Japan visa-free, so that hike mostly doesn't touch you. Kyoto's accommodation tax, in force since March, is tiered by room rate: unchanged at the low end (¥200/night under ¥6,000), and only steep — ¥10,000/night — on rooms already costing ¥100,000 or more. A business hotel or mid-range ryokan barely notices; a suite at a five-star does.
Put it next to the yen
Run the numbers against what the currency is doing. A couple flying out pays an extra ¥4,000 total in departure tax — about HK$208. A week in a mid-range Kyoto guesthouse at ¥15,000/night adds roughly ¥400 per person per night in accommodation tax, a rounding error against a room that's already priced favourably in yen terms. Compare that to what a weak yen has been saving HKD travellers on everything priced in Japan — meals, rail, onsen, ryokan — and the new taxes are noise next to the signal. Even fully loaded with the higher fees, Japan's real-feel cost for Hong Kong travellers is still sitting near the cheap end of its own multi-decade range.
Where the tax actually bites
The one traveller who should recalculate is the one booking Kyoto's true luxury tier — ¥100,000-a-night ryokan, five-star suites — where the accommodation tax has genuinely gone up tenfold. If that's your trip, budget for it; it's a real cost, not a rounding error. Everyone else — the traveller in a solid three-star, a well-reviewed guesthouse, a family ryokan with a shared bath — is paying pocket change more for the privilege of visiting during a currency window that won't last forever.
The bottom line
New taxes are a real story, and Japan's overtourism problem is real too — that's exactly why the money is being collected. But "Japan got more expensive" and "Japan is still a bargain for HKD travellers" are both true at once, and the second one matters more to your booking decision. See exactly where Japan sits against its own decades of history on its destination page, and for how we weigh currency against inflation to get there, our methodology lays it out. The yen won't stay this weak forever; a few thousand yen in new taxes won't be what makes you wait.