Pecohub The Japanese Embassy in Russia opened one visa application center each in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Feb. 12, amid a sharp increase in Russians traveling to Japan for sightseeing and other purposes.
The combined number of visa applications for travel to Japan filed in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, in 2019 totaled 53,327, and the figure climbed to 64,358 in 2024 after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This number doubled to some 133,000 in 2025, with applicants forming long lines in front of the Japanese Embassy in Moscow. It is expected that the opening of the new visa centers, improving convenience for the procedures, will further drive up the figure.
Despite the ongoing “special military operations” in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, Russians can acquire Japanese visas relatively easily, and coupled with the weak yen, Japan is increasingly proving a popular travel destination for them.
The new visa application center in Moscow has been set up on the first floor of a building over 1 kilometer away from the Japanese Embassy. A local company founded by an Indian national is operating the center, handling over-the-counter services for visa applications on behalf of the embassy. This has boosted the number of visa service counters to 29, from just six within the embassy.
During an opening ceremony at the Moscow center, Japanese envoy Daiji Yamaguchi stated in Russian, “In recent years, the number of tourists visiting Japan from Russia has sharply spiked, reaching some 195,000 last year.
While Japan-Russia relations are experiencing a difficult time, the increase in Russian visitors to Japan will support people-to-people exchanges and become the foundation for bilateral relations in the future.”
