juicius t1_j5bz2o9 wrote on January 21, 2023 at 10:10 PM

Reply to comment by stiveooo in TIL Japan is considered the world's most powerful passport, with visa-free access to 193 countries. Singapore and South Korea are close behind with 192 countries. Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are the least powerful, all with visa-free access to 30 or less countries. by grandlewis

I misread it. It was talking about Tokyo. There are only 4 passport centers in Tokyo: Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Yurakucho, and Tachikawa. Sounds like plenty but Tokyo is a city of 14 million people. There are fairly onerous documentation requirements like family register (koseki 戸籍) that I think you have to visit another government office to print and the minimum wait time is 6 days, not counting weekends and holidays. So it takes a minimum of 2 separate trips on weekdays (closed on weekends) because there's no expedited processing option. That inconvenience is one of the reasons why only 21% of the Japanese people have a passport.