GOODNEWS!! Japan will exempt visas for Indonesian citizen next year 2015. But meanwhile you still need to apply for Japan Visa if you are going to Japan this year (2014). Based on my experience, I want to share with you about HOW TO APPLY JAPAN VISA specially for Indonesian.

Browsing for reviews and guide on how to apply Japan Visa is the first thing that I do before booking hotels/tickets and I can say that most of the review kinda gave me an impression on how intimidating the process of Japan Visa application but actually it’s quite simple.

The process is quite simple:
Make Plan -> Prepare Required Documents -> Apply at Japanese Embassy/Consulate with the jurisdiction -> Application is examined in the Embassy -> After completion of examination, go to get your passport back -> Visa issued -> enter Japan within 3 months.

1. VISA TYPE
You have to know what type of Visa that you need for your trip. Visa types:
Temporary Visit Visa for Family Visits Purpose
Temporary Visit Visa for Family Visits Purpose (if the inviter is Japanese Citizen living in Indonesia)
Temporary Visit Visa for Friend Visit
Temporary Visit Visa for Travel Purpose
Frequent and Temporary Visit Visa for Travel
Temporary Visit Visa for Business Purpose
Frequent and Temporary Visit Visa for Business
Special Visa (Student / Work / Training / Residential within a certain time period)
Transit Visa

2. Requirement Documents for Visa Application
Since the main reason for visa application is to make sure that you will arrive and leaving Japan on the time noted (IMHO) so I recommend you to provide supporting documents as much as you can.
For example, I’m applying “Temporary Visit Visa for Travel Purpose” for my honeymoon, I even attach a some copies of marriage related documents to show that I really really visit Japan for holiday/honeymoon purpose for a certain period of time and by providing documents as complete as possible I’m sure it also will help the examiner to decide whether to approve your Visa or not IMHO, better safe than sorry 🙂
You can download the list of mandatory documents you need to prepare here -> http://www.id.emb-japan.go.jp/visa_listI.pdf
IMPORTANT TIPS:
A. Flight Ticket
One of the mandatory document is flight ticket, and not knowing my Visa will be approved or not is really driving me crazy because if I bought ticket to Japan and I don’t have approved visa then my ticket will be forfeited and you all know ticket to Japan is NOT CHEAP AT ALL.
But we have some tips for you, you need to ask for help from the travel agent to book you a flight booking (for example G*aruda just like us, because you all might know already you cannot book the budget airline for a long period of time) and print the booking document (no payment needed) for the visa applications. Later then when your visa is approved you can safely purchase flight ticket.
B. Bank Account
Well, I have read some sources telling me that you need to have at least IDR 1mil-1.5mil/day in your bank account, for example if you are going to visit Japan for 10 days, you might need to have at least IDR 10-15mil in your bank account, the main purpose of this is to make sure you have the money to survive living in Japan.
C. Sponsor Letter
If you are working, you need to ask for Sponsor Letter from your office to state that you are an employee from X company, visiting Japan for Travel/Business purpose for x days and will arrive & leaving Japan on the time noted.
But if you are an entrepeneur, you can write your own letter consist of your name, passport number, address, phone, job, the reason why you visit Japan and periode of visit, stating that you will come back on time noted.
And also for students, you will need to ask for “Verification of Student Status letter” from your school/campus.
D. Photo
Please prepare 4.5×4.5cm photo with WHITE BACKGROUND, you can easily go to photo studio and ask for it

3. Visa Application Form
Download the form at the Japanese Embassy’s website http://www.id.emb-japan.go.jp/application2.pdf
The form actually is really simple and easy to fill.
Since I don’t have guarantor or inviter, so I leave the Guarantor & Inviter fields empty.

You also need to prepare a simple itinerary list for the visa application, you can download mine below for example.
Visa Itinerary Example

You need to pay IDR 320k for single entry visa application or IDR 640k for multiple entry visa/ IDR 70k for transit visa.

4. Bring your application form to the Embassy.
After you complete your application form and the required documents, now it’s time for you to apply it to the Japanese Embassy.
The process is really simple and fast actually, you only need to visit the embassy twice, no need to make any appointment, you just need to visit the embassy according to the working hours:
Monday – Friday (except national holidays or Embassy holidays)
Submission of Visa Application : 08:30 – 12:00
Paspor (result) pickup : 13:30 – 15:00
Visa processing: a minimum of four (4) working days

Basically you need to submit the visa application yourself at the counter unless you use travel agency that has been approved by the office of the Consulate General of Japan (well mostly famous or any big travel agency provide this service).
Since I’m lazy and cannot leave the office twice, I use the tour agent I mention earlier to help me bring my visa application to the embassy, it took me around 1 week to get the result and it was approved, YAYY!! I paid around IDR 425k for each visa by using travel agent’s service.
FYI, Visa applications will be processed in accordance with the Consulate of the respective jurisdictions, you can see the details below:

Bagian Konsuler Kedutaan Besar Jepang di Jakarta
Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 24, Jakarta 10350, INDONESIA
Telephone: (021) 3192-4308
FAX : (021) 315-7156
Wilayah Yurisdiksi (wilayah kerja) :
Jakarta, Banten, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, Yogyakarta, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Barat, Sumatera Selatan, Bangka Belitung, Bengkulu, Lampung

Kantor Konsuler Jepang di Makassar
Jl. Jenderal Sudirman No.31, Makassar, INDONESIA
Telephone : (0411) 871-030, 872-323
FAX : (0411) 853-946
Website : http://www.surabaya.id.emb-japan.go.jp/makassar/
Wilayah Yurisdiksi (wilayah kerja) :
Sulawesi Utara, Gorontalo, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Tenggara, Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Barat, Maluku Utara, Maluku, Papua (Irian Jaya), Papua Barat

Konsulat Jenderal Jepang di Surabaya
Jl. Sumatera No. 93, Surabaya, INDONESIA
Telephone : (031) 503-0008
FAX : (031) 503-0037, 502-3007 (Visa)
Website : http://www.surabaya.id.emb-japan.go.jp/
Wilayah Yurisdiksi (wilayah kerja) :
Jawa Timur, Kalimantan Timur, Kalimantan Utara, Kalimantan Selatan

Konsulat Jenderal Jepang di Denpasar
Jl. Raya Puputan No.170, Renon, Denpasar, Bali, INDONESIA
Telephone : (0361) 227-628
FAX : (0361) 265-066
Website : http://www.denpasar.id.emb-japan.go.jp/
Wilayah Yurisdiksi (wilayah kerja) :
Bali, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur

Konsulat Jenderal Jepang di Medan
Wisma BII, 5th floor
Jl. Pangeran Diponegoro No. 18, Medan, Sumatera Utara, INDONESIA
Telephone : (061) 457-5193
FAX : (061) 457-4560
Website : http://www.medan.id.emb-japan.go.jp/
Wilayah Yurisdiksi (wilayah kerja) :
Aceh Nangroe Darusalam, Sumatera Utara, Sumatera Barat, Jambi, Riau, Kepulauan Riau

Sooo this is it the information about how to apply Japanese Visa for Indonesian. If you have any question, do not hesitate to leave question on the comment form below. Stay tuned on our blog, the next post of AnakJajan Japan Series will be the Ultimate Guide about Traveling to Japan, there’re sooo many things that I think you might need to know and useful for your trip to Japan, cannot wait to write about it. Let’s Travel!!

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