Visit Japan Web and Multi-Factor Authentication
 

For those planning to visit Japan soon and taking advantage of Visit Japan Web (VJW), please note that VJW put out an announcement (https://www.digital.go.jp/en/service...t_japan_web-en) regarding fake app pretending to be VJW and VJW decided to implement multi-factor authentication so if you have problems with VJW, you might want to clear the browser cookies related to the VJW domain.

You can also see the same annoucement on the main VJW website (https://www.vjw.digital.go.jp/main/#/vjwplo001).

I find the site's passport photo scanner complete rubbish. I've tried multiple times and it keeps giving me an error that the info could not be read and that I should try again in bright light. For now I've given up on the QR code feature.

I didn't even know there was a place to scan passport photo but then I logged in again to check it out and looks like it's related to Tax Free QR Code. I first tried it on my desktop browser but of course my desktop doesn't have a camera so I switched to mobile browser (Safari) on my iPhone and I was able to get the scanner functionality to work on my first try. The scanner page was a little slow to load/start but otherwise I didn't have any trouble. I made sure my passport page wasn't directly shined under some light though to remove any possible light reflections. Also I think the tip is to make sure your passport photo lines up nicely with the white outline and the rest of the photo page.