Drone rules in Japan: a guide for visitors

Can a visitor fly a drone in Japan? Legally, yes — Japan does not ban foreigners from flying — but the rules are detailed, the paperwork is in Japanese, and the places most people want to film from the air are exactly the places where flying is restricted or banned outright. Any drone of 100 g or more must be registered before it leaves the ground. Flying over a city, at night, close to people or over a crowd needs approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). And a separate law, with no weight threshold at all, closes the airspace around the Imperial Palace, the Diet, airports, nuclear plants, defence facilities and US bases.

This guide sets out the rules as they apply to a visitor, the places where drones are banned regardless of permits, what the penalties look like, and how we organise a legal drone shoot.

The laws that apply

Three layers of rules meet over every flight in Japan.

• The Civil Aeronautics Act (航空法), administered by MLIT, covers registration, the airspace that needs permission and the ways of flying that need approval.
• The Small Unmanned Aircraft Prohibition Act (小型無人機等飛行禁止法), enforced by the police, bans flights over and around designated important facilities, whatever the drone weighs.
• Landowner rights and local rules. Taking off from or flying over land needs the owner's consent; parks, temples, shrines and many municipalities set their own bans; taking off from a road can need police permission under the Road Traffic Act.

Two further laws catch visitors by surprise: the Radio Act, which governs the frequencies your drone transmits on, and privacy guidance on publishing footage in which people can be identified.

Registration: anything of 100 g or more

Since 20 June 2022, every unmanned aircraft weighing 100 g or more, including its battery, must be registered with MLIT before it flies. Registration is done online through DIPS 2.0, MLIT's drone portal, and is valid for three years. The registration number must be marked on the aircraft, and the drone must broadcast it through Remote ID — built into most recent models, or added with an external module. Foreign nationals can register, but the system, the identity checks and the fee payment are designed around Japanese residents, so leave plenty of time if you try it yourself.

Drones under 100 g are classed as model aircraft. They are exempt from registration and most of the approval system, but not from the rules around airports, the 150-metre ceiling, the Prohibition Act, park bans or privacy law.

Airspace that needs permission

Under the Civil Aeronautics Act, flying in any of these needs MLIT permission in advance:

• Densely inhabited districts (DID) — areas defined from census data with at least 4,000 people per square kilometre. Almost all of central Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kanazawa is DID, and so are many smaller towns. The boundaries are published on the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan's map service.
• Around airports — the approach surfaces and surrounding zones of every airport, which extend for kilometres.
• 150 metres or more above the ground directly beneath the drone.

Ways of flying that need approval

Wherever you are, the following also need MLIT approval:

• Flying at night (between sunset and sunrise).
• Flying beyond visual line of sight, including flying only by the screen or goggles.
• Flying within 30 metres of people, buildings or vehicles not involved in the flight. People who are part of the shoot do not count.
• Flying over events where people gather — festivals, matsuri, fireworks, sports.
• Carrying dangerous goods or dropping objects.

Some rules apply to every flight without exception: no flying under the influence of alcohol, a pre-flight check, and no flying in a way that endangers others. Applications go through DIPS 2.0, and MLIT asks for them at least ten business days before the flight. A flight plan must also be filed for flights that needed permission, and a flight log kept.

Places that are off-limits regardless of permits

Facilities under the Prohibition Act

The Small Unmanned Aircraft Prohibition Act designates facilities over which, and within roughly 300 metres of which, flying is banned without the consent of the facility's manager and notice to the police 48 hours ahead. In practice, that consent is not given for tourist filming. The list covers:

• the Imperial Palace and the imperial residences, the National Diet, the Prime Minister's office, the Supreme Court and some ministries;
• nuclear power plants;
• Self-Defence Force facilities and designated US military bases — relevant across Okinawa, where Kadena and Futenma sit in the middle of the main island;
• designated airports, including Haneda, Narita, Kansai and others.

Parks, temples and shrines

Tokyo's metropolitan parks ban drones, including Ueno, Yoyogi and Inokashira. Kyoto and many other cities restrict flights in their parks. Almost every major temple and shrine refuses flights, and their grounds are private land, so permission is theirs to give — and they do not give it to visitors. National-park regulations add their own restrictions around Fuji, Hakone and Nikko. That is why we never fly over Gion, Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari, Nara or Miyajima, or anywhere in Shibuya, Shinjuku, Asakusa or Ginza.

Bringing your own drone

Customs does not stop you bringing a drone in as personal luggage, but three things decide whether you can use it legally.

1. Registration and Remote ID, above.
2. Radio certification. Radio equipment used in Japan must carry the Japanese technical conformity mark (技適, giteki). Some drones sold outside Japan control the aircraft on the 5.8 GHz band, which is not open to ordinary unlicensed drone use in Japan. A Japanese-market model, or a firmware region setting that switches to permitted bands, avoids this — check before you travel.
3. Batteries. Airlines require lithium batteries to travel in the cabin, with terminals protected, and limit the number and capacity of spares.

Penalties

Flying an unregistered drone, flying in restricted airspace without permission, or flying in a prohibited way can bring fines of up to ¥500,000 under the Civil Aeronautics Act, and the most serious offences — flying under the influence, for example — carry possible imprisonment. Breaching the Prohibition Act allows the police to order the flight stopped, take measures against the drone, and prosecute. Visitors are treated as everyone else, and police in central Tokyo and Kyoto respond quickly to reports of drones.

Where we fly, and where we never do

We fly where the law, the landowner and the airspace all allow it:

• [Hokkaido](/destinations/hokkaido) — open countryside and coast far from towns and airports. Farmland is private, so we fly only where the owner agrees and never step into fields. See drone shoots in Hokkaido and aerial portraits in Hokkaido.
• [Okinawa](/destinations/okinawa) — beaches and headlands away from Naha's DID, the airports and the US bases. See drone shoots in Okinawa and aerial portraits in Okinawa.
• Fuji, Hakone and Nikko — only from private land, such as a hotel, ryokan or campsite whose owner consents, because lakeshores and national-park land restrict take-off. See aerial portraits at Fuji.

We never fly over temples, shrines, city centres, parks, crowds, festivals, or anywhere on the Prohibition Act list. Aerial frames of Kyoto's temples or the Shibuya crossing that you see online are either from a special, heavily negotiated permit, or taken from a rooftop, an observation deck or a helicopter.

How a legal drone shoot is organised

1. Site check. We check your location against the DID map, airport zones, the Prohibition Act list and park and national-park rules. If it cannot be flown, we say so before you pay.
2. Landowner consent. We obtain written consent for take-off, landing and the flight path.
3. MLIT application. Where the flight needs permission or approval, we apply through DIPS 2.0 — at least ten business days ahead, so please book at least three weeks before your date.
4. On the day. A registered drone with Remote ID, a pre-flight check, the flight plan filed, and a flight log kept. The 30-metre rule applies to bystanders, not to you.
5. Weather. We do not fly in rain or strong wind, common on the Hokkaido and Okinawa coasts in the afternoon. If we cannot fly, we move to another day of your stay or refund the drone service.

Our drone photo & video service is $470 for 30 minutes, 15 aerial photographs and a 30-second film; an aerial portrait in the landscape is $530 for 30 minutes, 15 aerial photographs and a 15-second vertical clip; property and resort drone work starts at $730. As an add-on to a photoshoot, aerial frames are $235, only where flying can be legal and with the paperwork included.