Japan Passport & Visa Photos

Japanese visa photos use the current 35×45mm standard published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japanese passports follow their own 35×45mm framing, so one photo serves both applications.

Both Japanese document pages appear below with their exact specs. The studio cuts your photo to the standard the embassy expects.

Head height and top margin

Japan's passport spec sets head height at 34 mm with a ±2 mm tolerance, giving 32-36 mm, and a top margin of 4 mm ±2, meaning 2-6 mm of clear space above the head, all on a 35×45 mm frame. Few countries publish a margin at all.

Visa photo size update

Older guides still describe the Japan visa photo as a 45×45 mm square. That format no longer applies: under the 2025 standards the visa moved to the 35×45 mm rectangle the passport already used, with the same 32-36 mm head band, so one careful session covers both applications.

Background, expression, and retouching

Plain white background, frontal light, neutral expression with the mouth closed, and on the passport route retouched files are refused outright. Keep glasses off unless you need them, because glare on a lens is a named fault.

Margin and band faults

Too little space above the head is the failure unique to the Japanese spec: the 2-6 mm margin rule means a tight crop that passes elsewhere fails here. A head outside 32-36 mm fails the same check.

Background and glare

A wall that is off-white, shadowed, or unevenly lit appears as a pattern to the checker. Red-eye and glare on glasses come from the flash; daylight removes them.

Tilt and touch-up

Tilted faces, turned shoulders, and files run through a smoothing app are rejected.