Drop your photo, get a JPEG under 2 MB — the evisa.mofa.go.jp upload format for Japan’s tourist eVisa. The compression runs in your browser; the photo never leaves your device.
Japan's official eVisa portal (evisa.mofa.go.jp, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) publishes the facial-photo upload conditions in its own FAQ: file format JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP or HEIC, and — the FAQ's exact wording — “file size: up to 2MB is recommended”. There is no published pixel dimension: the upload step has its own crop frame, and the FAQ's advice is simply to “make sure the imported photo fits in the red rectangle outer frame”. This page presets a 1900 KB target — safely under 2 MB whichever way the portal counts bytes — and no forced dimensions. If your photo is already under 2 MB, upload the original untouched and close this tab; note the portal accepts HEIC natively, so even an iPhone photo may need no conversion at all. If it's a 3–10 MB camera file, drop it here and PixFit returns the best-quality JPEG that fits, at full resolution when possible.
The portal's photo rules are about content, not bytes: taken within the last six months, against a plain, untextured background, with the entire face clearly centered horizontally. And its one explicit prohibition: “Don't use photo retaken from passport, driver license, group photograph etc.” — a photo of your passport photo is exactly what they reject. The stakes are stated too: if the photo doesn't meet the requirements, the Japanese overseas establishment may request you to apply again, which might delay your whole visa application. PixFit fixes format and file size; it can't fix a textured wall or an off-centre face — retake the photo instead.
Search results for this spec are a mess: several guides and photo tools sell “less than 120 KB” as mandatory, others say 240 KB recommended at 600 dpi (or 300 dpi, or a 1062-pixel minimum), and many quote 45×45 mm or 35×45 mm — those millimetre sizes are the paper photo specs used at consulate counters, and none of the kilobyte caps appear anywhere on the official portal. The official FAQ's only size line is “up to 2MB is recommended”; there is no minimum file size (nothing needs padding) and no mandatory resolution. As always: if the upload screen in front of you says something different, the portal wins — the current conditions are in the portal's own FAQ.
The FAQ devotes more space to the passport data page upload: PDF, TIF, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP or HEIC, up to 2 MB recommended, resolution 640×480 or higher recommended, one page per field. Its listed error causes are worth reading before you photograph anything: the MRZ (the two machine-readable lines at the bottom) not included in the frame; MRZ smudged, hazy, wrinkled or bulging; image not correctly oriented — sideways or upside-down uploads may simply error; or the page not showing a front-facing portrait. Photograph the page flat, in even light, all four corners in frame, no glare across the MRZ. Two more FAQ rules: if a document is several files, combine them into a single PDF, and supporting documents follow the same 2 MB guidance with a 50-page maximum.
The JAPAN eVISA covers one case: a single-entry, short-term tourism visa (up to 90 days), applied for from a country or region whose Japanese overseas establishment runs the online system. Other purposes — visiting relatives or friends, business, study, work, transit — still mean a paper application at the embassy or consulate. And check exemption first: the portal itself notes that nationals of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States are exempt from the short-term stay visa entirely. One practical rule for after issuance: at airport check-in you must display the “Visa issuance notice” live on your device — the portal states that other forms, such as PDFs or screenshots, will not be accepted.
Two cautions. First: the only official application site is www.evisa.mofa.go.jp — the space around every eVisa system is crowded with agency and lookalike sites charging a markup on the same application. Type the address rather than clicking an ad. Second: a visa photo travels with your passport details, so it shouldn't detour through a resizer's server — PixFit re-encodes entirely in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and the re-encode strips EXIF metadata (including GPS) as a side effect. Applying elsewhere in the region? See the South Korea K-ETA, China visa (COVA) and Vietnam e-Visa pages, or the full verified table.