The Japan visa itinerary (Schedule of Stay): rules and a sample

What the form is, and why it carries the file

MOFA’s checklist for a single-entry tourist visa lists the "Itinerary in Japan" as one of the six required documents and supplies the form: a date line, the sentence "The schedule of stay in Japan of the visa applicant(s) is as follows", and a table of four columns. The Manila embassy calls it the Itinerary in Japan, the Vietnamese consulates the "lịch trình lưu trú", the VFS forms the Schedule of Stay; it is the same document. For a tourist application it is the only place where you show, rather than claim, that this is a holiday, which is why the missions describe it in such detail.

The rules, in the missions’ own words

The rules come from MOFA’s notes to the checklist, the Manila embassy’s "Important Note on the Document Submission", the Hanoi embassy’s tourism page and the Singapore embassy’s eVISA guide.

• The scheduled dates of arrival in and departure from Japan must be on it, with flight information "if known" (MOFA) or "if possible" (Manila). Put them on the first and last rows.
• Accommodation: for a hotel, its name, address and telephone number; if you stay with a friend or relative, their full address (MOFA). "Booking is not necessary" (MOFA, Manila), but the details must be real.
• Day by day. Hanoi: not just a city name like Tokyo or Kyoto, but the specific places and the actual activities. The Singapore embassy’s eVISA guide says the schedule should be specific, "not generic like sightseeing, shopping".
• Repeated days may be grouped: MOFA accepts "SAME AS ABOVE" for consecutive identical days; Manila and Ho Chi Minh City accept a date range in the Date column.
• It must agree with everything else: the intended length of stay on the form, the flight reservation, and the hotels named on the form. Travellers in a group should submit matching itineraries and prove their relationship.
• A stay of more than 30 days needs a letter of explanation (Manila).

A 7-day sample, row by row

Day 1: arrive at Narita (NRT) at 15:30 on the named flight from Manila; Narita Express to Tokyo; check in; evening walk in Shinjuku. Contact: the hotel’s telephone number. Accommodation: the hotel’s name and full address, written once.

Days 2 to 6, one row each: Meiji Jingu and Harajuku, then Shibuya; Senso-ji and Asakusa, then the Skytree; a day trip to Kamakura by the JR Yokosuka line; Tsukiji Outer Market, Hamarikyu Gardens and Ginza; Ueno Park and Akihabara with a free evening. Contact and accommodation on each row: "Same as above".

Day 7: check out; Narita Express to Narita; depart at 14:25 on the named flight to Manila. Contact: your own mobile number. Accommodation: a dash.

The shape is what matters: a named flight at each end, the hotel written in full once, two or three real places a day in the same part of the city, a day trip by a named train, a realistic pace, and nothing that needs a paid booking. The Japan Tourist Visa Kit contains this example and two longer ones (10 days across Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka; 14 days on the Golden Route and Hiroshima, using date ranges), plus the blank official layout, in the PDF and as editable Word templates.

Mistakes that get it rejected

The missions name them. Dates that do not match the form or the flight reservation. A city name per day and nothing else. Hotels without an address or telephone number. A plan that is really a visit to relatives or friends submitted as tourism, which the Hanoi embassy says it refuses. And bookings invented to look confirmed: every mission says a booking is not needed at application, and a cancelled or fictitious booking that a consulate checks is a false document. Reserve what you can cancel free, write the plan truthfully, and buy the ticket after the visa is issued.

For the full document list and fees, see Japan tourist visa requirements.