Requirements to fly a drone in Japan (2024 update)

The laws and regulations regarding flying a drone in Japan changed from the 20th of June 2022. In this post I will cover the changes, and the current requirements, as they relate to flying drones to film photos and video. Last updated January 2024.

Drones flown in Japan are now required to be registered since 2022.

All drones over 100 grams must now be registered, no matter where the drone will be flown in Japan. Registered drones are assigned a Remote ID and this must be either registered digitally into the drone by the controller app, or physically written on the side of the drone. If the drone doesn’t accept a digital registration, and the drone was registered after the 20th of June 2022, then it is not enough to just have the Remote ID written on the side of the drone, a small electronic tagging device that will broadcast the Remote ID must also be attached to the drone.

For reference, DJI drones that either accept the digital Remote ID or are planned to, are the following:
DJI Mini 3 Pro, DJI Mavic 3 Series, DJI Air 2S, DJI Mavic Air 2, DJI Mini 2, DJI FPV, DJI Matrice 30 series, DJI Matrice 300 RTK. We have the DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine and the DJI Mini Pro so are drones are fully compliant.

So, if you are bringing a drone to Japan to fly, it will have to be registered first. Registration is relatively straight forward and costs 900 yen for each aircraft. If it is not on the list above then, as it is now past the 20th of June 2022 registration date, you will need to attach a Remote ID broadcasting device, which is probably not practical.

General rules on flying drones in Japan

1. The drone itself must be registered.
2. The flight must be under 150m, within daylight, with the drone is in sight at all times,
3. The flight must be over land you have permission to fly over from the owner. Note that, unlike some countries, the permission of each and every land owner you fly over must be obtained. You can’t just fly over a town and claim flight passage.
4. The flight must be notified on the DIPs site. Note that there is no license as such to fly a drone is required in Japan.
5. In addition, if the flight is within a restricted area, such as within a built up area like Tokyo or near an airport, then a permit is required. Link to a map showing restricted drone flight areas in Tokyo. Flights over the red areas require a permit (covered by the flight permit we have).

These permits can be day and location specific, or all-country with no dates specified for the year long period they are valid for. There doesnt seem to be any advantage to applying for a date and location specific permit so we have the all-country permit valid for one year for our drones.

Drone registration, notification of flight path and permit applications are all made at the Japan government Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) DIPS site site.

Common drone flight requests we get

Request for flights within Tokyo city

As we have an all-country flight permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) these are possible without any additional permits required, but only if we also have the permission of the land owner. For example, we have filmed a hotel within the hotel grounds and a shrine from within the shrine grounds, both in Shinjuku, and an event space in Omotesando, staying within the boundaries of the property. The country-wide flight permission we have meant that no extra applications for permission were needed, although as courtesy we informed the local police of our intended flights.  

However, this requirement that we have the permission of the land owner means that sweeping flights over the city aren’t possible. What we have often done is to rent a studio with a roof top and then fly from there, although we have to stay within the grounds of the studio so we can, effectively, only go up and down.

Flight permissions over areas outside of this in Tokyo are very difficult to get. Flight permission over Tokyo parks are not given, flights over Tokyo Bay are nearly impossible to get permission for, flights over rivers are possible in some situations.

Request for drone flights at a factory facility in the country

As long as we we stay within the airspace over the land we have permission to fly over from the land owner then no extra permits are generally required.

Flights near airports

Depending on whether the land falls under a restricted flight path area, we need to get permission from the relevant airport authority. This map is a good reference for restrictions on flying drones near airports in Japan.

Flights at night

Permission to fly drones after sunset and before sunrise requires an additional permission. The application requires 10 working days to process and can be difficult to obtain, although we have successfully applied for and been granted a night time drone flight permit.

‍