New Japan eVisa live for US/CA citizens
 

https://www.evisa.mofa.go.jp/index

Tourism still requires the tour package; but simpler for everything else at least. Considering they've invested in this, I doubt they'll ever go back to visa-exemptions.

It's not live. You still can not register. What you see there has been up for a week.

If you click on your link, scroll to the bottom, and click on private policy, you can see this:

So, I think you are wrong to doubt that. Visa exemptions are seemingly going to be built into this system (maybe like K-ETA or ESTA)

You're right - can't register! I did call to inquire what defines "relative" (as I was curious if I could visit my cousin during a layover), but alas it's only to the third degree. Persona-non-grata for the time being.

Visa-exempt is different than a waiver of a visa. Exempt means you do not need anything (e.g. as was previously the case for most nationalities going to JP). I assume moving forward, once Japan elects to open to the non-guided tourism, that they will effectively require an ETA.

This system has been planned even before the pandemic https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...ts-april-2020/ and the Visa exemption part was aimed at Indonesians, who needed to register their passport with the Japanese embassy to gain Visa free access to Japan.

"in an effort to achieve its goal of 60 million foreign visitors a year by 2030"

I wonder how that plan working out for them.

No, it is not. Visa exempt means you do not need a visa. And the visa requirement waived means you are exempt from requiring a visa.

They are two different ways of saying the same thing.

I was able to register this morning - at least my email and password are set and I received a confirmation from them immediately. Here is the note I received:

“Japan eVISA [Notice of completion of account registration]

Thank you for using Japan eVISA website.

　The account registration for (xxxxxx@Yahoo.com) is now complete.

Please log in to the following URL.
　https://www.evisa.mofa.go.jp/personal/login

□□□　Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan　□□□
　　□□□　Japan eVISA　□□□
　　　　□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□”

I was able to complete registration as well and poked around a bit with the visa application form.
It was interesting to see that the required fields for Destination and/or Accommodation only give the choice of:

When registering, it asks you to choose your Nationality but then the application destination has to match the selected Nationality.

I guess they have not considered the use case of Canadians traveling from the US or vice versa?

Question 6 on the FAQ seems to address this:

"At this time, the JAPAN eVISA system is only available to foreign nationals of CANADA or the USA who reside in their own countries. The visa to be applied for is a Temporary Visitor Visa."

I was able to register as well. I'll try the visa application process later today.

Thanks
I will try anyway and report back on how it goes.

Good luck but be careful. If they do reject it and depending on how the rejection is filed that might cause you issues with attempting to obtain another visa within the next few months. I believe the rules are if you have applied for a visa and been rejected it's an automatic rejection for like the next 3 or 6 months after that.

Looks like my wife will need to return to Japan for more surgery so will be using this soon -- will report on how it goes -- it did warn me that I needed to have a phone that worked in Japan when I arrived as there was no way to print out a confirmation of Visa -- quite odd but perhaps they are still working out the bugs.... Can't wait to try and check in at United or ANA with my phone as a Visa lol....