Can you disembark ship immediately after docking in a Japan port on a Princess cruise?? Is there customs to go through?

[dogs49]

Am trying to book private tours and was wondering are you able to disembark as soon as we dock or do we have to go through customs in each port.  We are going to Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Osaka.  Not sure what time to plan our tour pick up.  Help please! Thank you 

[BruceMuzz]

You generally do not go through Customs in any country until you reach the final port.

In Japan, there is often an Immigration inspection in many ports.

Why not tell your private tour operator the time of your ship's arrival and have him work out the details?

[dogs49]

Thank you for your response.  Sounds like there will be a delay in us leaving the ship if we have to go through immigration.  I've been on a Japan cruise before and we only had a problem in Korea but wasn't sure if anything has changed since the pandemic and I can't remember if we were able to leave right away.  Because of limited time in port we need to leave the ship asap to start the tour and was hoping someone from a current cruise would have an answer for me.   I appreciate your suggestion.  

[Ottawa traveller]

I was on a Japan cruise in April. I arrived in Japan by plane.  We visited 19 ports in Japan and three outside Japan. The only times we had to go through an immigration procedure was when we were returning to Japan from Taiwan and then from Korea.  In the other ports we only had to show our passports. So if you are first arriving in Japan in one of the ports you will have to do immigration. If the next ports are still in Japan, you will only have to show your passports. The immigration procedure can take a long time. It is face to face and they stamp your passport and take your photo.  We had about 1400 passengers on the ship (HAL - Westerdam) and it took about half a day to clear all passengers and crew. We had a lottery system to get a disembarkation time and if you were on a shore excursion you went first.  I don't know how Princess would handle it