What comes with the pilot

Item	What we hold
Pilot	Jiro Kumakura. Japan's national Second-Class Unmanned Aircraft Pilot licence (MLIT), held since 2024. Filming in Japan for overseas broadcasters and brands since 2018. English and Japanese.
Flight permit	MLIT blanket permission and approval No. 東空運航第28298号, issued by the Tokyo Regional Civil Aviation Bureau. Valid 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027, nationwide.
Aircraft	DJI Mavic 3 Pro, registered with MLIT, Remote ID fitted. 4K and 5.1K video in H.265 10-bit D-Log M; stills in JPEG and RAW. Not the Cine version, so no in-camera ProRes.
Insurance	Third-party liability, ¥100M per occurrence, bodily injury and property damage combined, zero deductible. Underwritten by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance. Japanese certificate with our own English translation for reference.
Paperwork	Flight record in English, location-owner consent form in English and Japanese, police notification filed by us, licence and registration translations. Vendor pack for your procurement team.

What the permit covers

These are the terms of our own permit and flight manual. We tell you which line your location falls under within 24 hours of receiving it.

Flight	Status	Notice we need
Over a Densely Inhabited District (all of central Tokyo and most city centres), daytime, within visual line of sight	Covered by the blanket permit, with the consent of the owner or manager of the take-off site	7 days in Tokyo; 2 weeks for Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka; other locations on request
Within 30 m of people and structures	Covered by the blanket permit	As above
Indoors: a ballroom, an atrium, a factory floor	No MLIT permit is needed. Venue consent, propeller guards and insurance	By arrangement with the venue
Near an airport (for example Haneda), above 150 m, over an event ground	Individual permit: +US$1,000	4 weeks
Over or beside expressways, heavily used roads and railways	Outside the blanket permit. Individual application, case by case	4 weeks
Night flights; flights beyond visual line of sight	Not offered	—
Wind above 5 m/s, rain	We stop. Moving to the reserve day is free when we postpone the day before; called off on site, the observer and travel are charged at cost	—

Parks, shrines, temples, castles and other managed sites have their own rules in addition to the permit. We ask the site before we quote.

How a booking runs

You send the location, the date and what the shot is for.
Within 24 hours we reply with whether it can be flown, which permit applies, the notice needed and a quote.
We check the site, agree the take-off point with its owner or manager, and file the police notification.
We fly with an observer.
You receive the files in the format and by the date agreed in the quote.

Work so far

Aerial unit for BBC Two's Monty Don's Japanese Gardens, Nijo Castle, Kyoto (filmed 2018)

Aerial filming inside a managed heritage site for a UK broadcast documentary.

Office towers, Osaka and Tokyo, for a Hong Kong-based real-estate investor (2021)

Roof-launched aerials of two assets in Densely Inhabited Districts, with police notifications and building-manager coordination.

Gala dinner inside a Roppongi hotel ballroom for a US investment bank (2024)

Indoor flight with propeller guards for a 300-guest meeting; we supplied the registration, licence and insurance documents the hotel required.

Prices

Work for productions and companies is quoted per project. As a guide, our published prices for building shoots in Tokyo start at US$1,600 for a half-day stills flight; video clips on the same day add US$800, with permits under the blanket permit, the police notification, an observer and insurance included. Travel outside Tokyo is at cost. Full list: Pricing.

Terms: 50% deposit to confirm dates, balance net 30, US-dollar bank transfer. NDA on request. Nothing is published without your written consent.

Go to the enquiry form

All facts on one page: Facts and credentials. Real-estate work: Aerial imagery for Tokyo real-estate transactions.

Licensed drone operator in Tokyo, for overseas productions and companies