Japan Visa Photo Requirements
Japan is the country with no national visa photo size: its foreign ministry delegates it to the mission handling your case. The sizes in play, and why 45x45mm is not the standard.
Japan has no single national visa photo size. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes no dimensions on its own visa page and directs you instead to the embassy or consulate with jurisdiction over where you live, and those missions genuinely ask for different sizes: 45 x 35mm, 2 x 1.4in, 2 x 2in at some US posts, and 45 x 45mm at the two missions in India. Every site that hands you one number is answering a question Japan has not asked.
This guide covers the photo for a Japanese visa applied for through a mission - tourist, business, or family - and why the honest answer is a question back to you: which mission is handling your case? For how requirements shift across borders in general, see passport photo size by country, and for why a visa photo and a passport photo are rarely the same job, visa photos are not passport photos.
Why there is no single Japan visa photo size
The absence of a national size is deliberate, not an oversight. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan states no photo dimensions on its visa page and sends applicants to the embassy, consulate-general, or consular office that has jurisdiction over the country or region where they reside. The size is devolved to that mission, so the question has no answer until you know where you are applying.
The disagreement starts inside MOFA's own paperwork. The English application form you glue the photo onto offers two sizes at once: 45mm x 35mm or 2in x 1.4in. From there the individual missions diverge further, each publishing its own checklist. This is not a case of one right number that everyone else got wrong; it is a country that has chosen not to set one.
The sizes different missions ask for
Because the requirement is set per mission, the useful reference is a map of which size which post publishes. The four below are the sizes that appear across official Japanese missions and MOFA's own form. Confirm yours on its own page before you print anything.
- 45 x 35mm. The portrait shape most of the world uses. It is one of the two options on MOFA's application form, and it is what Denver, the Manila embassy (as 4.5 x 3.5cm), and the UK embassy (hedged as "approx. 35mm x 45mm") describe.
- 2 x 1.4in. The other option on MOFA's form. New York specifies it, and Chicago's checklist lists it alongside 2 x 2in.
- 2 x 2in. The US passport square. New York says a 2 x 2in US passport photo is acceptable, and Chicago and Denver both list it as an option - a US-facing accommodation, not a rule that travels.
- 45 x 45mm. Published by exactly two missions, both in India, and by no other official Japanese page we could find.
The 45 x 45mm "standard" is an India-only figure
Third-party sites overwhelmingly present 45 x 45mm as Japan's national visa photo size. It is not. That square is published by the Embassy of Japan in India and the Consulate-General in Mumbai, and by no other official Japanese source. Both pages look abandoned - one carries a 2012 copyright notice and recommends Internet Explorer 7 - and the New Delhi page glosses 45mm as "2 inches", which is arithmetically wrong: 45mm is 1.77in. That single miscalculation is the likely origin of the widespread "Japan wants a 2 x 2in photo" belief. Japan is not alone in having its official position drowned out by a republished number - some countries turn out to ask for no visa photo at all.
The point is not that 45 x 45mm is wrong everywhere - if you are applying in India, it is right. The point is that it is a mission's rule wearing a country's name, and applying it to a case handled by Tokyo's consulate in your city is how a valid photo gets refused.
The eVISA and the paper application are different
Japan's eVISA, applied for online, is a separate track from the paper application you take to a mission. MOFA's eVISA FAQ states no photo dimensions at all, and the eVISA covers tourism only - other purposes still apply on paper through a mission. So any specific pixel or file-size figure circulating for the eVISA is not something MOFA publishes. If you are on the paper route, the mission's own checklist is what governs your photo.
The rules that also vary by mission
Size is not the only thing that shifts between posts. Background wording ranges from "white" to "white or off-white" to "white or single colour" depending on the mission. On colour, the India missions say colour only, while the Manila embassy explicitly permits monochrome. Head height is quantified by almost nobody - Denver is the exception, naming 32 to 36mm from chin to crown. Because each of these is set locally, the safest move is to read the checklist of the exact mission handling your case rather than assume a general Japanese rule exists. Many of the reasons a photo gets bounced are shared across countries, gathered in why passport photos get rejected.
How to size your photo once you know which size to use
Once your mission has told you which size it wants, the Japan visa photo maker crops and resizes to it in your browser, with nothing uploaded. It offers all four sizes - 45 x 35mm, 2 x 1.4in, 2 x 2in, and 45 x 45mm - because Japan's own missions do; you pick the one yours publishes and it outputs a photo at exactly that size.
Be clear about what it does and does not do. It sets the shape and the pixel dimensions - the two things a checklist measures mechanically. It does not remove or replace your background, judge whether your head sits at the right height, or promise a consular officer will accept the result. Get the size right with the tool, then check the framing, background, and expression against your mission's own list. If you need to compare more than one country, the visa photo maker hub lists only those verified against their own issuing authority.
FAQ
What size is a Japan visa photo?
There is no single answer, and that is Japan's own position. MOFA states no size on its visa page and directs you to the mission with jurisdiction over where you live. Its application form offers 45mm x 35mm or 2in x 1.4in; individual missions publish 45 x 35mm, 2 x 1.4in, 2 x 2in, or 45 x 45mm. Check yours before you print.
Isn't a Japan visa photo 45 x 45mm?
Only if you are applying in India. That square is published by the Embassy of Japan in India and the Consulate-General in Mumbai, and no other official Japanese page states it. Third-party sites present it as the national standard; the official evidence does not support that.
Can I use a 2 x 2 inch US passport photo?
At some US missions, yes. New York specifies 2 x 1.4in but says a 2 x 2in US passport photo is acceptable, and Chicago and Denver both list 2 x 2in as an option. That is a US-facing accommodation - it says nothing about what a mission elsewhere will take.
Does the Japan eVISA need a photo?
MOFA's eVISA FAQ states no photo dimensions at all, and the eVISA covers tourism only - other purposes still apply on paper. Any specific pixel or file-size figure circulating for the eVISA is not something MOFA publishes.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The crop and resize run in your browser using the Canvas API, so the photo never leaves your device.