Japan Passport Photo: A Size Chart Built Out of Tolerances
Most countries give you a fixed head height. Japan gives you a range with a stated error band on every line — 17 ± 2 mm wide, 34 ± 2 mm from crown to chin, 7 ± 2 mm from chin to the bottom edge — and the whole sheet has no pixel figure at all. That changes the job: you are not hitting a target, you are landing somewhere inside four overlapping bands at once. The upload side then depends on which portal you use. My Number Portal takes JPG only and caps at 600 KB; ORR Net, used from overseas, takes a closed 20 KB – 2 MB band and re-compresses everything on the way in. Check the table before you touch the file.
Japan passport photo requirements (official)
| Upload limit — My Number Portal (マイナポータル) | 600 KB or less, JPG only. Anything larger is compressed automatically by the portal before it reaches the system |
|---|---|
| Upload limit — ORR Net (overseas residents) | 20 KB to 2 MB inclusive, in JPG, JPEG, BMP or PNG. This is a closed band: a file under 20 KB is rejected just as surely as one over 2 MB |
| The compression trap | ORR Net re-compresses every upload. If the file lands above 2 MB after that pass, the upload errors even though the file you picked was inside the stated range |
| Printed size | 35 mm wide × 45 mm tall. This is the only physical size on the sheet — no digital pixel figure appears anywhere in the document |
| Head width (print) | 17 mm ± 2 mm ear to ear — on a 35 mm wide print that is 43%–54% of the width |
| Crown to chin (print) | 34 mm ± 2 mm — 71%–80% of the 45 mm height |
| Empty space above the crown (print) | 2 mm or more. A minimum, not a target: the document does not set an upper bound |
| Crown to the top of the visible hairline (print) | 4 mm ± 2 mm — the band that lets voluminous hair still fit under the 2 mm rule |
| Chin to the bottom edge (print) | 7 mm ± 2 mm — the sheet and neck have to fill this band, not the background |
| Background | White is recommended; a light blue-ish or pale background taken as a souvenir photo is also accepted. Gradients are not |
| Age of the photo | Taken within 6 months of the application date |
| Head covering | None permitted — including religious headwear, and including anything that would hide the outline of the head or the sides of the face |
| Glasses | Coloured lenses and sunglasses are not allowed, and neither is flash reflecting on the lens. Clear-lens spectacles may stay on, but a picture that produces glare is a listed rejection reason |
| Quantity and marking | One photo, unlined and cut to size. Write your name on the back so that it does not press through to the front |
| Specification basis | Japan states explicitly that these rules come from the ICAO recommendations for travel documents |
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (外務省領事局旅券課) — 旅券（パスポート）用写真についてのお知らせ, March 2025 (Reiwa 7)
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Target size: 600 KB
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How to use
- Decide which portal you are applying through. Domestic online applications run through My Number Portal (600 KB, JPG); overseas applications run through ORR Net (20 KB – 2 MB, JPG/JPEG/BMP/PNG).
- Check the digital side first, because it is the only thing this tool can change: under 600 KB for My Number Portal, or inside 20 KB – 2 MB for ORR Net.
- If the state portal you picked is ORR Net and your original is a large camera file, compress it well below 2 MB — the portal compresses again, and an error is raised if the result still exceeds 2 MB.
- Check the printed geometry against the tolerance table: 17 ± 2 mm head width, 34 ± 2 mm crown to chin, at least 2 mm of empty space above the crown, 7 ± 2 mm below the chin.
- Download the result and confirm the pixel dimensions are still large enough to survive the portal’s own re-compression.
Frequently asked questions
Is 600 KB the actual limit for a Japan passport photo?
It depends on the portal, and the two are not the same number. For an application through My Number Portal, MOFA states JPG only and 600 KB or less, and notes that a larger file is compressed by the portal itself. For ORR Net — the route used by Japanese residents overseas — the stated band is 20 KB to 2 MB, with JPG, JPEG, BMP and PNG all accepted. If you are applying at a counter in person there is no file at all, only a printed 35 × 45 mm photo.
ORR Net says a file inside the range can still fail. Why?
Because ORR Net compresses on upload and then checks the result. MOFA’s wording is that even a file inside the specified range is compressed during upload, and an error occurs if the compressed file exceeds the stated capacity. In practice that means the 2 MB ceiling is a ceiling on the post-compression file, so landing right at 2 MB is asking for trouble. Compress well below it — the tolerance in the rule is a one-way margin, not a window you are meant to use.
Why does every measurement have a ± value?
Because this is a photo of a person, not a printed rectangle. Head width is stated as 17 ± 2 mm (15–19 mm), crown to chin as 34 ± 2 mm (32–36 mm), the space above the crown as 4 ± 2 mm to the visible hairline, and the space below the chin as 7 ± 2 mm. Adding the bands up tells you the sheet is designed to absorb variation: 2 + 4 ± 2 + 34 ± 2 + 7 ± 2 does not have to total exactly 45 mm for the photo to be acceptable. What you must not do is violate the single fixed number on the sheet, which is 2 mm minimum of empty space above the crown.
My hair is tall. Does that break the sizing rules?
It can, which is why the sheet splits the measurement. The 34 ± 2 mm is crown to chin, and the 4 ± 2 mm band runs from the crown to where the hairline is visible, so voluminous hair has somewhere to go. The hard floor is still 2 mm or more of empty background above the crown — if your hair fills that, the photo is outside the spec. Take it again with flatter hair rather than cropping, because cropping moves the chin-to-edge band you also have to satisfy.
Can I wear glasses or a head covering?
Head covering: no, and Japan is unusually blunt about it — nothing that hides the outline of the head or the sides of the face, with no religious exception written in. Glasses: clear lenses are tolerated, but coloured lenses and sunglasses are a listed rejection, and so is flash reflecting on the lens. Since a flash reflection is a common failure with clear glasses too, the safe move is to take them off for the shot.
Does compressing the file count as altering the photo?
No. Japan bans retouching that changes your appearance — enlarging the eyes, skin smoothing, reshaping the face or jaw, erasing moles, and flipping the image left-to-right. Re-encoding to hit a byte limit changes none of those. What it does not do is fix a photo that was rejected for a bad background, glare or an incorrect head width; those need a new shot, not a smaller file.
Does this page upload my photo anywhere?
No. The compression runs inside your browser and the file never leaves your device — you can confirm it in the Network panel. That matters more than usual here: a Japanese passport photo is a front-facing image that gets matched against a chip at every border crossing for the next ten years.