Lost passport in Korea — Japan

Key facts

Search first, or reissue?

Reissue. Say you are flying home in a few days: go to the embassy, get the 帰国のための渡航書, fly. Two hours and ₩34,000 is not worth agonising over, and a full passport costs about ¥8,900 back home with no penalty for having lost one.

There is one thing to be clear about first. Reporting the loss invalidates the passport immediately, and it cannot be reinstated. If your passport is handed in at a police station the following morning, it is already useless.

So searching first is still worth it in three situations.

You are not going straight home. The 帰国のための渡航書 is good for returning to Japan and nothing else — no third-country transit. If Korea was the middle of a longer trip, replacing the passport ends the trip.

The passport carries visas you need. Those do not transfer. Losing them can cost far more than the passport did.

It went missing with a bag or a wallet. Items lost together tend to be handed in together, which makes a search more likely to turn up something than a passport lost on its own.

Outside those cases, the honest answer is that Japanese travellers should usually just replace it.

If you do decide to look first, give it a few days rather than a few hours. The document takes two hours to obtain, so a short search costs you very little — you can still walk into the embassy on the morning of your flight and be done before lunch.

That combination, a fast document and a cheap one, is what makes Japan the easiest case on this site. The decision is low-stakes in a way it is not for an American or a Singaporean.

Where to apply in Korea

Three offices issue the document: the embassy in Seoul, the consulate in Busan, and the consulate on Jeju. You do not need an appointment in Seoul.

Bring the Korean police report receipt — it is on the required list, not optional. Bring cash in Korean won; the fee is not payable by card.

Photo counts differ. Seoul and Busan take two photos at 45×35mm. Jeju asks for three. Getting this wrong means a second trip.

The 戸籍謄本 does not have to be in your hand. It can be sent after you return, with a signed statement, so not having it is not a reason to delay.

Before you go to the embassy

File the Korean police report first. It is free, you can do it online through 경찰민원24 or at any police station, and the receipt is issued immediately. It does not cancel your passport — it records that you lost it.

Several embassies will not issue an emergency document without that receipt, so doing it first saves a second trip.

Found property is held for six months. Worth knowing: an item handed in at a hotel, a restaurant or a taxi company does not appear in the system that day. It can take several days to get there. A search a week after the loss is not a wasted search.

If you live in Korea rather than visiting: once you have a new passport, the new number has to be reported to immigration within fifteen days. That is 출입국관리법 제35조, and the fine for missing it runs to ₩1,000,000. It does not apply to short-stay visitors.

After you get home

A full ten-year passport is ¥8,900 applied for online, or ¥9,300 at a counter, from 1 July 2026. It takes about two weeks.

There is no penalty for having lost one. No surcharge, no shortened validity, no review. Japan is unusual in this, and it is part of why replacing rather than searching is usually right.

Questions