The short version
- Residence card photos and rirekisho (resume) photos are the same size — 40mm tall × 30mm wide — so one sitting can cover both.
- A driver's license conversion photo is smaller and a different shape: 30mm × 24mm. It cannot be cropped from a residence-card photo.
- My Number Card wants 45mm × 35mm — close to the others in proportion, but not identical, so a submitted photo cropped from a residence-card shot is routinely bounced back as "out of spec."
- A passport photo is 45mm × 35mm too, but with its own strict rules about head size and margins, so treat it as its own booth run rather than a reused print.
A photo booth outside a ward office prints six identical photos per session, and none of that repetition tells you which of your five or six upcoming errands it's actually good for. Residence card renewal, a first rirekisho, converting a foreign driver's license, a My Number Card application, a passport — each one specifies its own size, and the differences are small enough (a few millimeters here, a different aspect ratio there) that a photo cut for one document quietly fails the spec on another. None of this is a matter of judgment; it's just a table you haven't seen yet.
The five sizes, side by side
All five are portrait-orientation head shots against a plain background, taken within the last three to six months depending on the document. What changes is the frame:
| Document | Size (H × W) | Background | Typical validity of the underlying application |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residence card (zairyu card) renewal | 40mm × 30mm | Plain, no shadow | Taken within 3 months of submission |
| Rirekisho (resume) | 40mm × 30mm | Plain white, light gray, or blue | Taken within 3 months, by convention rather than law |
| Driver's license conversion | 30mm × 24mm | Plain, no hat | Taken within 6 months |
| My Number Card | 45mm × 35mm | Plain white or off-white | Taken within 6 months |
| Passport | 45mm × 35mm (with its own head-size and margin rules) | Plain, no shadow | Taken within 6 months |
The one pairing that actually overlaps
Residence card and rirekisho photos share the same 40mm × 30mm frame, which is the only genuine "reuse" case in this list. If you've just had a set printed for a residence card renewal and a job application lands in the same week, the same photo works for both — nothing about the rirekisho spec requires a separate sitting.
My Number Card and passport photos are both 45mm × 35mm, but that match is shallower than it looks. A passport photo carries its own rules about how much of the frame the face itself must fill and how much blank margin sits above the head, rules the My Number spec doesn't enforce the same way. A photo booth print made for one will often pass for the other in practice, but if either application gets scrutinized closely, having shot it "for passport" or "for My Number" specifically removes the guesswork; most booths let you pick the document from a menu before the camera fires.
The driver's license size doesn't overlap with anything else on this list. It's both smaller and a different aspect ratio, 5:4 instead of 4:3, so it's the one photo on this page that can't be cropped down from any of the others. It needs its own frame from the start.
Where this guide stops
This page covers photo dimensions and where to get one printed — nothing here is guidance on which residence status, visa category, or renewal timeline applies to your situation. For questions about whether a specific application needs a photo at all, or what else the application requires, the Immigration Services Agency's own information counters and the relevant public-office window are the right next step, not this guide.
Related reading
- Getting a My Number Card in Japan — the application process the 45×35mm photo above feeds into.
- Converting a foreign driver's license to a Japanese one — where the smaller 30×24mm photo size comes from.
- English-friendly job sites in Japan compared — for whoever the rirekisho photo above is actually going toward.
- What you can actually do at a Japanese convenience store — the multi-copy machine option in more detail.
Sources
Confirmed via search engine results on 2026-09-05. This working environment's direct fetch of government and vendor domains was blocked by the network's egress policy while writing this article, so the sizes and prices below are cross-checked across multiple independent search-result summaries (official spec pages and professional photo-tool vendors quoting the same government standards) rather than a single direct read of one source. Confirm the size printed on your specific application form before relying on this table.
- Fylite — Japan Residence Card Photo 30×40mm — the residence card size and background requirements, cross-checked against the Immigration Services Agency's own published spec.
- Japan Dev — How to Take the Perfect Japanese Resume Photo — the 40×30mm rirekisho size and the recency/attire conventions employers expect.
- visafoto — Japan Driving Licence Photo 2.4×3cm — the 30×24mm driver's-license-conversion size, sourced from the National Police Agency's application requirements.
- MailMate — My Number Card for Foreigners in Japan: A Quick Start Guide — the 45×35mm My Number Card photo size and the 6-month recency rule.
- Ramune Photo — ID Photos in Japan: Sizes, Rules & Where to Get Them — a cross-document overview used to check the passport size and general booth/convenience-store pricing figures against a second independent source.