diverg

My trip s fast approaching. About 2 months from now. I came across this article about trying to reduce the time to 1 minute to clear immigration and customs. While I find that hard to believe, has the time been drastically reduced this year? My flight arrives around 4:30pm on a Friday. The quicker I can get out the better, but still assume I'll be hitting rush hour even if boarding transportation at 5pm.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tra...-to-one-minute

SFO777

Last month I arrived at 5pm on a Thursday - JL1 from SFO. Immigration was an absolute zoo, and it took 70 minutes to snake my way to an officer.

diverg

Would you say immigration is always like this at this time? More of a zoo due to Cherry Blossom time? How is tourism to Japan in July?

CPH-Flyer

That picture is quite extreme, but the afternoon arrival bank is usually rather busy at immigration.

jib71

For the last couple of years, visitor numbers have been increasing month on month just about every month. If the trend continues, there will be more visitors in peach blossom season than we had in cherry blossom season, which in turn saw more visitors than plum blossom season. It's almost as though visitor numbers aren't materially affected by the blossom calendar.

Historically (pre-pandemic), there were as many visitors in July as in March or April.
https://statistics.jnto.go.jp/en/graph/

bmwe92fan

We arrived last Friday at 5pm and there were no significant lines at all - IME it is very dependent on when you arrive in relation to other planes - if you are third or fourth behind massive planes full of tourists then yes the waits can be significant….

CPH-Flyer

Indeed, it is very random. While the afternoon bank can be very chaotic, everything does really boil down to the pattern of arrivals of the day. Decent, chaos, or super quick. The latter is probably the more rare in hej afternoon bank.

jpdx

In the last couple months, my extremes were a 70 minute immigration wait at HND around 6pm (NH212 from LHR) and a 0 minute immigration wait at KIX around 11am (AF292 from CDG).

IME, unless you arrive at off-peak hours or fly into secondary airports like Sendai, the wait is completely up to chance, just dependent on how many planes arrived before you. I've waited >an hour at NRT, HND, and KIX several times, and I've been through in <5 minutes several times.

Interestingly, filling out the immigration and customs forms online and obtaining a QR code prior to arrival has taken extra time on both trips referenced in the first paragraph. At HND, customs was a complete zoo and the line (several hundred Japanese people ahead of us Westerners who waited forever at immigration) took 15 minutes to slowly snake to the customs exit. At KIX, there was nobody in the regular customs line, but exiting through the QR code path involved a 10 minute wait (not helped by the fact that at KIX, the setup for QR code verification kiosks is stupid -- complete after collecting luggage, on the way to the exit). I didn't have a customs card filled out and am not sure if you're allowed to go to regular customs counters when using the QR code at immigration, but I think it makes sense to fill out the customs form on the plane anyway to be prepared (at KIX, we were ultimately directed to a regular customs counter from the QR code queue, and waved through without customs form).

Perhaps worth noting that if you arrive at HND at a peak time, everything will have insane lines -- currency exchange, rail ticket counters. Best to have a Suica ready and head to Shinagawa to buy tickets for onward travel.

diverg

My scheduled arrival is at 4:35 on JAL. Flying F with an o ernight collection. Am I correct to assume my luggage from JFK to HND will be checked through to BKK. Have about an 18 hour connection. Planning on exploring Tokyo a little bit that evening and have a hotel. Will just have my carry on to worry about assuming my checked luggage is checked through.

CPH-Flyer

Yes your luggage will be checked through. You will still need immigration and customs processing, and the afternoon can really be bad.

I have to say, I have not had any significant wait for the e gates for customs. The Haneda setup where you can process your QR code at the kiosk while waiting for your luggage is much better than the Narita setup where you have to get your luggage before you can go to the customs kiosk. The lines for the paper forms always seem a mess.

Pickles

Arrived into HND at 2 PM on Monday. Line was not too bad (looked like 10-15 minute wait) but was quickly building up. Customs line was quick. What looked horrible, however, was the line to buy monorail and Keikyu line tickets. APEC card and Pasmo to the rescue!

5khours

Stepped off the plane at 6:53 this morning. Arrived Hiroo by Uber at 7:19. APEC is your friend.

Pickles

Was that the Ubercopter? That's some seriously good time from HND to Hiroo, even if you were out by the pickup area at 6:56 AM.

5khours

7am on Saturday morning during Golden week.

Condition One

Definitely get your QR code via the Visit Japan website. Landed around 2:30pm yesterday (Saturday) and took about 10 minutes to get through the immigration line. There was a massive line at the "QR/Paper" customs line, but no wait at all if you go to the "electronic declaration" section at the far end.