Japan to Côte d'Ivoire visa requirements

Japanese ordinary passport holders need a visa for Côte d'Ivoire. The standard route for a short tourist stay is the online e-visa (pre-enrollment via SNEDAI for about EUR 73), which must be collected biometrically on arrival at Abidjan Port-Bouët Airport. A yellow fever vaccination certificate is mandatory. Japan is not on Côte d'Ivoire's list of visa-exempt nationalities (which is dominated by ECOWAS members plus a few others such as Singapore and the Philippines). A Japanese citizen traveling for tourism must therefore obtain a visa in advance. The most practical option is the e-visa, operated through the government-mandated platform SNEDAI (snedai.com). Strictly speaking it is a "pre-enrollment": the applicant registers personal and travel details online, uploads the passport bio page, a round-trip ticket and proof of accommodation (or an invitation letter), and pays roughly EUR 73 (inclusive of charges). Approval is normally issued within about 48 hours, and applicants should apply at least 48 hours before departure. The e-visa is only valid for arrival by air at Abidjan's Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Port-Bouët) International Airport; travelers entering by land from neighbours such as Ghana, Mali or Liberia must instead obtain a paper visa from an embassy beforehand. On arrival at Abidjan, the traveler goes to the dedicated e-visa counter, where fingerprints are taken and the physical visa is affixed to the passport, allowing a stay of up to 90 days. A passport valid at least six months beyond arrival with a blank page is required, and proof of yellow fever vaccination is checked at the border. Because Japan is not visa-exempt and no genuine visa-on-arrival exists without prior online enrollment, the verdict is e-visa.