so i just got back from two weeks in japan and brought my mini 3 pro along thinking id get some amazing shots. and yeah i did but holy hell the rules over there are no joke. you basically cannot fly anywhere near a city without permits and even then its a whole process. tokyo is essentially a no fly zone for the whole metro area, like not just the center, pretty much all of it.

i ended up doing most of my flying out in the countryside near nagano and a couple spots in hokkaido which were absolutely stunning and worth the trip alone. but if youre planning to bring a drone to japan just do your homework first because i almost got in serious trouble near nara when i didnt realize the park had restrictions. a ranger came over and was very polite about it but it was still embarrassing and i packed up immediately.

the DIPS system they have is what you need to register through and honestly its not that bad once you figure it out, just takes a few days so dont leave it until youre already there like i almost did

yeah japan is incredible for scenery but the airspace stuff is intense. i looked into it before my trip last year and just left the drone at home tbh, didnt want the stress. did you find the countryside spots easy to access or did you need a car to get out there?

the DIPS registration thing caught me off guard too when i was researching it. also worth noting they changed some of the rules in i think so a lot of the older blog posts about flying in japan are just wrong now. always check the MLIT site directly before you go, saved me from making some bad assumptions