Hello everyone,
I am travelling to Japan next week and I am taking my Mavic Mini with me. Previously I have researched some rules and watched videos on youtube about drones in Japan. I am not sure how up to do this all is. People generally said while you do need to do XYZ you technically can fly drone in permitted areas. I also saw people in their videos showing DJI maps of Tokyo being all in red as not permitted to fly with a few good pockets. However after openning the same map today on my phone, most of tokyo is no longer marked red. Same as Osaka only airport and osaka castle are restricted. I just wonder even if I decide NOT to fly my drone at all will it be taken  away by airport staff? I was thinking of putting into my hand luggage or int he suitcase.

The cut off weight in Japan is 200gm, so you would need to use the smaller battery for the Japanese market, which brings the Mavic Mini under 200 gm MTOW. There is some good information here, I had a look and read the MLIT application  to go flying, but it is only in Japanese I'm afraid, and any application to fly must be written in Japanese. https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0003529/  


Cheers and regards

Hi, thank you for bringing this query to us. If you are planning to fly in Japan you must have the Japanese version of the batteries since users in Japan follow the local regulations and use the Japanese version of the battery. If you use a non-Japanese battery with the aircraft in Japan, the aircraft will exceed the weight limit (199g), and because the battery does not have the necessary Japanese authentication, then I afraid you will face legal risks. I will highly recommend as well to coordinate with the local authorities with regards to this matter to gather more information and also to avoid any problem when you are in Japan. Hope this helps. Thank you for your valued support!

I would like to follow up on this topic since I am totally lost. I'm going to travel through Japan in March-April and of course searched online if I needed a permit. A lot of sites state differently and that is what raises confusion for me. I've checked the DJI Geo Map and Japanese map ( http://maps.gsi.go.jp/#10/35.633861/139.783173/&lcd=english&vs=c1j0h0k0l0u0t0z0r0s0m0f0&d=v ) and it is clear that I can't fly in city's. high populated areas and of course near airports. But I'm also planning to go to recreational areas like Hakone / Fuji Five Lakes, Yoshinoyama, Koyasan, Okunoshima, Yakushime, Nakasendo trail (Magome to Nojiri), (Yabuhara to Narai) and (Karuizawa – Usui Pass to Yokokawa). Do I understand correctly that you can fly there without any issues? (I'm using the DJI Mavic 2 Pro)