The new tax will be levied on persons leaving by aircraft or ship regardless of nationality, according to a Japan Times report.
Japan’s previously announced tourism departure tax is set to kick in next Monday (January 7) with a 1,000-yen (US$9.33) fee for visitors leaving the country.
The new tax will be levied on persons leaving by aircraft or ship regardless of nationality, according to a Japan Times report.
Those exempted from the tax include transit passengers departing Japan within 24 hours of entry and children under two years old. Passengers with tickets purchased and issued before January 7 will also be exempted from the tax.
The Japanese government plans to utilise the revenue from the tax to fund increasing tourism arrivals to the country, and improve immigration procedures, officials said.
Several projects that have been earmarked for development include the setting up of facial recognition gates at airports for speedier immigration procedures, use of multilingual information boards and the introduction of more cashless payment terminals for public transportation.
Revenue from the tax is estimated to hit six billion yen in fiscal year 2018 through March 2019 and 50 billion yen in fiscal year 2019, Japan Times said.
In recent years, visitors to Japan have surged, with visitors topping 30 million for the first time in 2018.
The government hopes to increase the annual number of visitors to 40 million by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and Paralympics.