Me and my friend are planning to go on a 3 weeks trip during summer 2023. The problem we are facing is that my friend will only turn 18 in the middle of our trip (July 17th). My birthday is in May, so I personnaly have no problem, but I wondered if the trip was even possible in those conditions.
It is a multi-city trip, so we would travel by train very often. All of the hotel booking (or Aibnb and anything else) will be made in advance with the help of our parents, but again I wonder what kind of problems we might encounter once there.
These are my questions:
-Is the trip possible?
-If the answer is yes, what should we do or prepare to make sure we don’t face any problem?
Thanks in advance for any answer I will get!
PS: Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, english is not my main language.
19 comments
The trip is possible but I suggest that you do your research about accommodation, train passes, budget (how much you’ll be spending each day) and make your itinerary (people can check your itinerary here on Reddit and able to help).
The legal age is 20 in Japan so you won’t be able to drink alcohol.
I believe some hotels don’t allow minors to stay unaccompanied by an adult/guardian.
You being over 18 may be enough for both of you, but you may want to check this carefully when booking hotels.
To book a hotel/hostel in Japan you need to be 18 so I’m going to say no.
can it be done? maybe
should it be done?
well… there are a few arguments to be made for travel, exchanges, making friends, having experiences for minors
but, I am not sure, that holds true for solo trips with friends in a entirely foreign country without legal guardians.
I realise that we could argue now about the difference between 17.9 years and 18.1 year olds, and yeah, theres probably none
except for the legal differences, which may be huge.
My suggestion is, maybe postpone the trip until you both are 18, which seems to be like days, not even weeks or months…
than ALL the problems go away. like magic.. is it really worth the effort and energy and legal hassle for a week ?
Purely anecdotal, but when my friends and I went (all under 18) we had 0 issues. Not once when checking in or booking a hotel did they ask if we had parents/guardians with us. Even after checking our passports.
I’d still suggest carefully checking with each place you plan on staying.
We stayed at a mix of hostels, hotels and Airbnbs.
Why would you not wait to leave until July 18?
Having been in Japan during the summer for my birthday, unfortunately not my 18 th! Lol remember it is gonna be hot!
Just to clarify, in Japan 18 year olds are still considered minors since the legal age of adulthood is 20, so you will both be considered minors anyway.
In regards to checking into hotels, it may be best to email or call them beforehand to be sure. Although it is legal for minors to stay in hotels by themselves (this is not uncommon, since Japanese HS and college students travel by themselves as well), they may require some written consent from a parent or a guardian.
Additionally, some hotels do not allow minors staying by themselves at all, and some even don’t allow foreigners. Just pick out the ones that you are interested in, email them about your situation, and sort it out beforehand and it should be ok.
I’m not sure about acquiring a visa as minors but if money is tight you may want to look into hostels instead of Airbnb and hotels. If you and your friend are both women then there are hostels that offer women only rooms. Considering it’s a multi city trip you could book overnight busses to save some money or get a rail pass and exclusively travel with JR (which requires some research as not all tracks are owned by JR). If you get an IC card (pasmo, suica, etc) for public transport you can return them at a booth and get the remaining money back
If you both share a room, there shouldn’t be any problems. However, places like capsule hotels and Internet cafes are a bit more strict and will ask for every person’s ID.
If you’re going traveling long distances, I suggest taking a look at overnight buses. They’re much cheaper than the train and kids can also ride them, as long as you reserve seating with your parents.
> Is the trip possible.
I traveled alone to Japan (specifically to Osaka, Kyoto, Hakone, and Tokyo) at the age of 16 and again to Tokyo at 17. So without a doubt, yes it’s possible (and I highly recommend it)!
> What should we do to prepare.
I never ran into any issues with my age, so in my opinion you’re safe to prepare for this trip like you would for any other trip. Diligently plan and you will be fine!
However, if you’re concerned with your age being an issue for specific events/hotels/etc, don’t be afraid to email them in advance.
> I wonder what kind of problems we might encounter
As mentioned, I never ran into an issues, so you’re unlikely to as well. But if you’ve still got any worries about specific places or activities then you should mention them! We’re able to give better advice when your post is more specific.
Unless the COVID 19 pandemic is over by next summer you won’t be able to travel to Japan. Travel for pleasure into Japan has not been allowed since early 2020. Japan is very serious about controlling the spread of COVID.
I was in the exact same situation as your friends – went to Japan when I was 17 and had my 18th birthday while I was there. All the hostels I booked were fine with it (I made sure to check with them ahead of time). I only had issues with a few Airbnbs, so I just left those to the end of the trip once I had already turned 18. Feel free to message me for any accommodation recommendations!
Japanese here, (studied law in uni)
in conclusion: I recommend you get written parental consent or document proving it before traveling!
The legal age of Japan is 20 but will turn 18 this spring so your friend will became an adult during the trip.
Most Japanese prefectures prohibits legal minors from spending late nights (usually 23pm to 4am the next morning) other then its legal guardians residence without proper consent and contrary to popular belief, it is somewhat enforced. We recently had several high profile abduction cases involving teenagers and cases of missing minors are on the rise. As a result police are aggressively informing suspicious activity involving minors. Funny enough since I look young I get stopped by police for ID quite occasionally when I’m late at night. **The problem becomes very severe if the party the minor included has someone who is a legal adult as this sometimes get interpretated by law enforcement party as child abduction**. This has happened close to me personally. One of my senpai (a senior year) in university was caught by the police staying at the hotel with his girlfriend who was 19 at the time. He was arrested at sight but the case was dropped when the parent of the minor give postdate consent. He almost lost his career due to this incident and is traumatized by this event.
The problem here was that he was unable to prove parental consent for the legal minor. It is important to have documents which proves consent. Passports and visas maybe sufficient, however, they are not guaranteed. I hear there are occasions which law inforcement personall harass foreign Nationals over flaws in document. English document should be enough. It doesn’t have to be Japanese. Using travel agency might be a good option. By this, you should be completely immune from legal cases against you in theory.
Sorry for my imperfect English.
As an adult who has taken friends’ kids traveling, you will absolutely need a notarized form from parents saying that you are the temporary guardian and may take their child out of the country. I know, silly since he is only 2 months younger, but better safe than sorry/
None of you can travel if one of you is not 18 he time of travel
I think you are a little early in planning given the covid restrictions. 3 weeks is a long time so ensure you both are prepared with $3k min to spend, not counting flight. Japan is not cheap so get ready to pay up. Transportation on the other hand is efficient and cheap enough. Be sure to get a suika car for the subways, basically a prepaid card.
Your plans sound a little ambitious, but who knows. If you can swing it and have the appetite for world travel, don’t let that stop you and make it happen.
Hey, it should be possible! I believe my friends and I were about 18 when we went to Japan. Just keep in mind that you have to plan a lot ahead. My friends and I stayed in an Airbnb in a friendly neighbourhood in Tokyo but we got a Japan Rail Pass (JRpass) for travelling by train so we could travel to Kyoto and Osaka and pocket WiFi. Now we didn’t drink or go out so I don’t know how Japan is about that stuff. Anyways, If you have a budget and planning and stick to it you should be fine. Enjoy enjoy enjoy ♥️ It was my most fun experience traveling so far!
I don’t know the answer to your question but I really hope you both get to experience Japan in the prime of your lives. It will be an amazing experience.