Starting July, Japan will lower application fees for 10-year passports to around ?9,000.
At a plenary session Friday, the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, passed into law a bill to cut the fees by ?7,000 to ?8,900 for online applicants and to ?9,300 for over-the-counter applicants.
Under the revised passport law, which takes effect on July 1, adult Japanese nationals aged at least 18 can apply for passports valid for 10 years only, with the 5-year validity abolished for them.
Meanwhile, 5-year passports will continue to be available to children, at costs of around ?4,500, down from around ?11,000 for 12- to 17-year-olds and from around ?6,000 for others.
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