Bruce Balan & Alene D. Rice

s/v Migration

http://brucebalan.com/migrations/

Note that the following refers to traveling within Japan after you have entered the country. First-time entry into Japan is a different process requiring advance notice to the Japanese Coast Guard. This information was current as of June 2017.

For 220 years (1633 to 1853), Japan closed its borders and ports to the outside world. A legacy of the Sakoku era is that of the thousands and thousands of Japanese ports and harbours, only 120 are open ports which do not require advance permission for a foreign

yacht to enter.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MILT) is responsible for granting port permission to visiting yachts. Until 2016 one had to visit a MILT office to submit an application and you had to do it every time you sailed into a new prefecture (the Japanese equivalent of a province). However, things have recently become easier and the entire process can now be handled via email. Here are the steps.

1. DECIDE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO

This is by far the most difficult part of the process. Japan is an incredibly fascinating country with thousands of ports. How do you decide? Several boats who have previously visited Japan have provided information on many of these ports on their websites or blogs; these are good starting points. Once in Japan, you will meet many friendly Japanese sailors who will give you advice on other places to visit. You will not be able to escape the fact there are too many wonderful ports and not enough time.

Also, Japan has loads of interesting festivals throughout the year. Check online for schedules and perhaps use those dates to help plan your itinerary. Remember that you can always apply for additional ports later.

2. FILL OUT THE APPLICATION

This consists of two parts: the application and the ports list.

a. Application: This is the easy part.

b.  We used a free PDF editor (PDF-XChange) to make changes each time we submitted a new application. Important: scan your signature into your computer so it will be available to add to the bottom of the form.

c. Port List: Once upon a time you had to provide a lot of information for each port; this included the page number in the Japan S-Guide and the dates you were going to visit. Now, you can provide a list of the port names and prefectures. On our applications, we also included the island name (if applicable) to help avoid confusion. You may also want to include the lat/long.

Note: Do not refer to a port by only the island name, you must have the name of the port on the island.

We used an Excel spreadsheet for this part of the process but you can use any program.

 When finished, we export or print to a PDF (we used free PDF printer Bullzip) so we aren’t sending a spreadsheet to MILT.

3. EMAIL YOUR APPLICATION

Send an email to:

hqt-gaikouka- [email protected]

Here is a sample email:

=================================================

Subject: Closed Port Application for yacht <yacht name><yyyy/mm/dd>

Konnichiwa. Please find attached our closed port application.

I appreciate your assistance with this application.

どもありがとございます

Yours sincerely,

<your name>

==========================================================

Attach to the email the following documents:

1. Closed Port Application

2. Closed Port Application Ports List

3. Scan or photo of captain and crew passports

4. Scan or photo of ship’s papers.

You must send the passports and ship’s papers with every application — even if you have already sent them with a previous application.

TIPS

Apply for as many ports on your primary route as you can with your first application, then add ports along the way as you learn of other places you would like to visit. Be aware that a port permission application with only one or two ports is often granted in a couple of days.

Port permissions with dozens of ports may take a week or longer.

Related content

Cruising in Japan just got a whole lot easier!