All travellers leaving Japan from Jan. 7, 2019 will need to pay a "sayonara levy" of ¥1,000 (S$12.20).

It applies to both Japanese and foreign travellers leaving the country by plane or ship. The departure tax will be added to airfares and ship fares.

Toddlers under two years old and transit passengers leaving Japan within 24 hours of arrival will be exempted.

Why?

Japan's Parliament enacted a Bill on April 11, 2018 to introduce the departure tax.

The government aims to use the extra tax revenue to boost tourism infrastructure and promote travel destinations in rural Japan.

Money collected would also be used to fund global tourism campaigns to attract more tourists to Japan for the next decade or more to boost the economy.

How much collected?

Revenue from the tax is estimated to amount to around ¥43 billion (S$526.6 million) per fiscal year.

There were about 40 million departures from Japan in 2016, of which 17 million were by Japanese nationals.

Improving tourism in Japan

Revenue would also be used by the government to get public transportation operators to expand free wireless Internet services as well as roll out electronic payment systems.

The nation attracted a record 28.69 million tourists in 2017, up 19.3 percent from the previous year.

This was the sixth consecutive yearly increase.

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Singaporeans are avid travellers to Japan

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), travellers from Singapore made around 400,000 trips to Japan in 2017.

This accounts for 1.4 percent of the total number of in-bound trips made by foreigners.

China and South Korea are the top two tourist sources for Japan, each accounting for around 25 percent of the total number of visits last year.

Meanwhile in Singapore: