Flying into Tokyo next week.

Just looked up the IATA travel restrictions map for Japan and apparently VJW registration ain't specified any more.

Anyone knows if it's fine to pop up at airport check-in counter with just vaccination certificate?

VJW from a vaccine/PCR perspective is not strictly needed. You can just bring the certificate to the check in counter. Now they don't check the blue screen on arrival for that anymore, so the timing benefits are zero. It is also used for immigration purposes for non residents, I don't know if that is required or again just a good to have.

VJW is not required for immigration or customs.

Will be arriving May 18 was going to fill the VJW site next week but I guess there is no rush as from what you are saying you will not need to upload vaccine certificate.
is it recommended to do it for immigration we are Canadian

Yes, it saves you from using the paper for immigration, and opens up the option of using the egates for customs. Also I've just heard that they added a new section that lets you get your temporary visitor visa in a QR code for tax free, rather than having to pull out your passport every time.

How far ahead can you do the Japan Web thing? I'm arrive May 12, so I have a month, and it's after they stop the vaccine requirements, but even if it asks for them today, I don't mind/care.

I just want to take care of the customers/immigration formalities so I don't have to worry about it on the place or when arriving...

One step ahead of the shoe shine... Two steps away from the county line?
You can complete the form now if you wish. I did one for May 6th as long ago as January.

I could not find anything about tax free. Do you have info? Thanks.

LOL, autocorrect at work.. I meant customs, not customers :)

When you're on the home page that lists your trips, there's an option+

Use after entering Japan

Register details required for functions that can be used during your stay in Japan

Click the button that says "Procedure During Stay in Japan"

There's an option that says "Create a Tax-Free QR Code" .. it's grayed out for me for some reason, but from what i understand you have to resubmit your passport and then it will process it and generate the QR code for you.

EDIT: it be able to generate it:

To use the Tax-free QR Code, you must register the photo of your face in your passport

Go back to Home and add the photo of your face in “Register user”

EDIT 2: I selected that I want to use a TAX free QR code in the register user page from my phone, it rescanned my passport keeping all the info the same, but also grabbing my passport picture. The option is now available for me to use. Basically once you are in country, you can scan your landing permit QR code and it will generate the tax free QR code for you for that trip.

EDIT 3: This will reset your blue screen back to red and require you to upload your vaccine info for review again, so buyer beware and don't do it right before you board your flight. The old method using passport/landing permit at the tax free desk still works.

That is great

ThNks for all the info and caveats. Will wait till we are in hotel room to hassle with this.

Arrived at HND this morning and it was pretty seamless. Immigration line took about 10 minutes but most of that was spent walking through the empty line setup. About 40-50 people ahead of me but it moved very fast. Immigration probably took less than 30 seconds. Customs kiosk was easy to use and I was out of the airport a few minutes later.

what time did you enter?

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OP mentioned in another post, 5:20am. So it would have been among the first arrivals of the morning.