Japan Travel Guide for Indian Travellers — Visa, Budget & Route Planner, with Two Free Tools

What this book is

This is a visa and trip-planning workbook for an Indian passport. It has about 138 pages, in B5 size, with a glued spine. It is in English.

Japan's foreign ministry publishes one short checklist for a tourist visa. But you do not file at the ministry. You file at one of five counters in India, and each counter publishes its own list. The lists do not agree. This book sets the five side by side, then reads each one line by line, as published on 8 and 9 October 2026.

The rest of the book follows the order of the work: the passport, the visa, the money, the bookings, then the trip itself. Two free tools come with it, one for the covering letter and one for the Schedule of Stay.

What's inside

• The timeline. Work backwards from the day you fly, so you can see which step waits on which office.
• Passport. How a first adult passport is applied for, the documents it asks for, the published fees, and how long it takes.
• The visa. The lists of all five counters (New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru) side by side, with the states each one covers. Then every line each counter prints, one by one. Also: e-visa or paper visa, the covering letter, the Schedule of Stay, what happens at the counter, and what Japan's foreign ministry says after a refusal.
• Money out of India. What the RBI and the Union Budget say about sending money abroad, and about cards and cash in Japan. Stated as published, with the source and the date.
• What a trip costs. The costs that an authority sets, each with its source and date: the visa fee, the VFS charges, the passport fee and the departure tax. For the rest, the Japan Tourism Agency's own survey of how visitors from India spend, shown as a bar. And a page to build your own cost plan.
• Booking. Flights and places to stay, and an order of work that keeps your bookings cancellable until the visa is in your hand.
• Getting around. Trains between cities, the operators' own rules on large suitcases, IC cards, SIM and eSIM, and tax-free shopping from 1 November 2026. Plus a worksheet for the rail-pass sum, which shows whether a pass pays back on your route. The worked example for the Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka triangle is behind the QR code, with every fare dated.
• Food. Eating vegetarian in Japan: what the national tourism board warns about, and the Japanese words to recognise on a label, including the allergen words.
• Itineraries. A ten-day route through Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka, with seven-day and fourteen-day versions shown as changes to it. Each day matches one row of the Schedule of Stay that a visa file asks for.
• Etiquette. The small courtesies that keep shared places quiet, taken from the tourism boards' own pages.
• Emergencies. The numbers to keep on paper, the Indian Embassy in Tokyo and the Consulate General in Osaka-Kobe, what to do if your passport is lost, and a log to write your spending in.
• The Template Vault. One specimen letter and one specimen Schedule of Stay, made by the free tools for an invented applicant.

Every official fact in the book has a small marker. The index at the back names the source and the date it was read. Where the book gives its own opinion, it is labelled "Our view", so you can tell a published rule from a judgment. Figures that change fast, such as rail fares, pass prices and SIM prices, are not printed. They are behind the QR code, each with the date it was read.

Look inside

These are pages from the book itself. Tap a page to enlarge it.

Two free tools, included

The tools do not score your file or predict a result. The last part of the book shows what they produce.

Who it is for, and what it is not

It is for the first-time traveller from India who has never filed a visa and is planning without an agent. It is also for anyone who wants to know which checklist applies to their state.

It is not:

• A visa guarantee. No book and no service can promise an outcome on a visa file.
• A restaurant or hotel directory. Those change faster than print can follow.
• A package. Nothing in it sells you a tour.
• A sightseeing encyclopaedia. It is a workbook for the visa and the plan.

The book is also plain about what is not known. Japan's foreign ministry does not give the reason for a refusal, and the book says plainly that it found no published account of how a visa file is assessed. So it does not guess. It quotes no approval rate. It names no bank balance or income that counts as "enough". Where it gives its own view, it says "Our view".

Print or digital

The book comes in two editions. The printed edition is B5, glued, about 138 pages. The digital edition is the same book as a PDF, 128 pages: the ten blank pages that printing needs are left out, every part is bookmarked, and the address behind the QR code is a link you can tap. It opens in the Vyaktigat Vikas app as soon as payment is confirmed, and the first 15 pages can be read free as a sample. To buy it, choose eBook above the buy button.

Questions

When will I get my copy?

The digital edition is available as soon as payment is confirmed. For the printed edition, printing starts on 11 October 2026. Orders are dispatched in the order they are received, and every order will be dispatched by 10 November 2026.

Can I pay on delivery?

Yes. Cash on delivery is available across India. Online payment carries a discount.

What if the rules change after the book is printed?

They can. That is why the book gives the date it read every official fact, and why the figures that move fastest are not printed. Rail fares, pass prices and SIM prices are behind the QR code, each with the date it was read. Your own counter's checklist is the list that governs you. Read it on the day you apply. Where it differs from the book, the counter is right.

Is the cover letter tool a lawyer?

No. It is a writing aid. It gives no legal or immigration advice, it reads none of your documents, and it cannot tell you whether a visa will be granted. It helps you write a letter in which every sentence can be matched to a document.

Is the book in Hindi?

No. It is in English only.

Delivery

Delivered across India. Cash on delivery is available, and online payment carries a discount.

Please note, for the printed edition: printing starts on 11 October 2026. Orders are dispatched in the order they are received, and every order will be dispatched by 10 November 2026. The two free tools are included.

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