Indian Passport, US Green Card: Do You Still Need a Japan Visa?

The short answer is yes, you still need a visa. Japan's visa exemption list is a list of nationalities - 74 countries and regions whose passport holders enter without a visa. The United States is on it; India is not. A green card makes you a US permanent resident, not a US national, so at the Japanese border you are still travelling on an Indian passport, and that passport needs a visa. What the green card does change is how and where you apply. If you live in the United States, Japan's foreign ministry lets foreign nationals residing in the US apply directly through the JAPAN eVISA website - the same single-entry tourism eVisa for up to 90 days that applicants in India get through VFS, except you file online in the US without the VFS step. If you live in India and are visiting family in the US, nothing changes: you apply through VFS in India as usual. One caution worth repeating, because it trips people up at check-in: never assume a residence card from any country substitutes for a visa. Airline staff check the passport and the visa for that passport. And whichever route you take, keep the name and passport number on your application exactly as printed in the passport. On the trips we host, we have travellers ask this before almost every international batch, and the answer our team gives is always the same plain one: check the rule for the passport you will actually carry - then we help them get the paperwork right the first time.