Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in partnership with the National Printing Bureau (NPB), received the Best New Passport award for the new 2025 Passport series.
Production of the 2025 Passport began in March 2025, marking Japan’s transition from a paper-based to a polycarbonate photo page. The new passport adopts a multi-layer polycarbonate data page on which the holder’s photograph and biographical data are laser engraved. Personalisation, previously carried out at prefectural passport offices, has been centralised to two NPB facilities, improving process control and security.
The 2025 Passport retains and extends the design approach introduced in 2020, with each visa page featuring a different print from Katsushika Hokusai’s ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji’. The sequence of images is carefully ordered, with motifs symbolising departure and return, and the variety of artwork also contributing to anti-counterfeiting by making page substitution or replication more difficult.
On the reverse of the datapage, an embossed cherry blossom motif produces a three-dimensional movement effect when tilted, integrated into a layout that presents the spread as a single framed illustration with Mount Fuji as a central design element.
These visible features, together with a range of other security elements and a tightly controlled manufacturing process at NPB, ensure compliance with ICAO specifications for ePassports and provide a robust defence against fraud.
At system level, MOFA has complemented the document redesign with a fully online application channel via the national MynaPortal platform, available nationwide for both first-time applications and renewals. By linking to family register data, the service removes the need for applicants to obtain paper extracts, streamlining the issuance process while maintaining a high level of assurance in identity proofing.
The award acknowledges MOFA as the issuing authority and the National Printing Bureau as design and production partner for a next-generation passport that combines enhanced security with improved convenience for Japanese travellers.