Lost passport in Japan: replacement steps and visa consequences

If you lose your home-country passport in Japan, report it to the police, then to your embassy. Most embassies want the police report and treat a lost passport as a more expensive replacement. As of October 2026 the examples we checked charge ¥12,700 (Indonesia), ¥30,000 (Philippines) and ¥35,000 (Nepal), and Pakistan doubles its normal fee. Your residence card (在留カード) is a separate document. Without a valid passport you can’t use no-permit re-entry, so plan trips around the replacement.

What are the steps?

If your passport was stolen, tell the police that it was stolen. We didn’t find an official Japanese page on the theft report, so ask your embassy which police paper it accepts.

What do embassies ask for and charge?

Examples from each embassy’s own page, read on 29 October 2026. Check yours before you go.

Extra points:

• Philippines: you must appear in person on your confirmed appointment date. The page says a translation of the police report can be applied for at the Embassy.
• Pakistan: a third loss needs approval from the immigration and passports directorate in Islamabad. Normal delivery takes at least 20 working days, and you must attend for photo and fingerprints.
• India: Machine Readable Passports are issued centrally in New Delhi and take 4 to 6 weeks. The embassy suggests keeping a photocopy of the data and stamp pages separately from your passport, which helps if you lose it.

We found no official Tokyo page we could verify for Bangladesh, Vietnam or Sri Lanka, so they aren’t covered.

What does it do to your residence card and visa?

The immigration pages we read don’t say that a lost passport changes or cancels your status of residence, and your residence card is issued separately. What they do cover:

• No-permit re-entry needs a valid passport. The Immigration Services Agency (ISA) says the system (みなし再入国許可) requires a valid passport and, for mid- to long-term residents, a residence card. Until the new passport arrives, don’t plan to leave and return without checking. See the re-entry permit guide.
• Showing a passport at the bureau. For a change to your residence card, you must show your passport. If you can’t, you submit a written statement explaining why. Forgetting it at home doesn’t count as a reason.
• Old stamps. With a new passport you can ask the bureau to copy valid landing, re-entry or activity-permission stamps over, using a 証印転記願出書.
• Extension while you wait. The ISA says that if you can’t obtain a valid passport because of your home country’s circumstances, you can still apply for an extension with a reasonable explanation. Waiting for an embassy queue is a different case, so ask the bureau how it would treat yours. See visa renewal.

How do you prepare before it happens?

• Keep a photocopy of the passport’s data page and stamp pages somewhere separate. India’s embassy suggests this, and several embassies ask for a copy of the lost passport.
• Know your passport number. Pakistan marks it compulsory for a lost-passport replacement.
• Know which embassy covers your prefecture, since some cover only part of Japan.

For a normal renewal, see renewing your passport in Japan. This page is general information, not legal advice. For your own visa questions, ask the immigration bureau or an immigration specialist (行政書士).