GlobeQuest

Japan visas and residency

Who can visit Japan without a visa, and the 6 long-stay routes that let you actually live there.

Short stay

Visiting Japan, by passport

How the 198 passports we track get in. A visitor entry is never permission to work, study or settle — that is what the routes further down are for.

United StatesVisa-free · 90 daysUnited KingdomVisa-free · 90 daysIndiae-VisaCanadaVisa-free · 90 daysAustraliaVisa-free · 90 daysGermanyVisa-free · 90 daysFranceVisa-free · 90 daysNetherlandsVisa-free · 90 daysIrelandVisa-free · 90 daysSpainVisa-free · 90 daysItalyVisa-free · 90 daysPortugalVisa-free · 90 daysPolandVisa-free · 90 daysSwedenVisa-free · 90 daysSwitzerlandVisa-free · 90 daysSouth Africae-Visa
Long stay

How you actually move to Japan

Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified July 2026

Highly Skilled Professional visa (points-based)

Qualified professionals who score 70+ on Japan's points table. The single most valuable status Japan offers a working foreigner.

What you need
  • 70 points or more across academic background, professional experience, annual salary, age, Japanese language ability, and bonus categories
  • A Japanese employer or a qualifying business activity in one of three streams: advanced academic research, advanced specialised/technical, or advanced business management
  • Salary is a heavily weighted component, and points scale with youth — a young, well-paid, Japanese-speaking graduate scores easily
How long it lasts
A 5-year status of residence from the outset, renewable.
Path to permanent residence
Permanent residence after 3 years of residence at 70 points, or after just 1 year at 80 points — against the standard 10-year requirement. This is the fastest PR track in East Asia.
Cost
Modest application fees; the 4,000-yen-scale revenue stamps for status changes are nominal.
Processing time
Certificate of Eligibility usually 1–3 months, then the visa itself in about a week.
Worth knowing
  • Points are assessed at application and again at PR. Slipping below the threshold — a pay cut, or simply ageing out of a bracket — can undermine the accelerated timeline you were counting on.
  • The status carries real privileges beyond speed: your spouse can work full-time, you can bring a parent to help with childcare under conditions, and you may hold multiple activities.
  • Japanese language ability at JLPT N2 or N1 is worth substantial points and is often the difference between 65 and 80.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of Japan
Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified July 2026

J-Skip — Special Highly Skilled Professional

Very high earners and senior business managers. Introduced in April 2023 to bypass the points table entirely.

What you need
  • A master's degree or 10 years' experience plus annual income of at least ¥20 million, for the researcher and specialist streams
  • Or annual income of at least ¥40 million plus 5 years' experience, for business managers
  • No points calculation at all
How long it lasts
A 5-year status of residence.
Path to permanent residence
Treated as equivalent to 80 points, so permanent residence is available after 1 year of residence.
Cost
Nominal government fees.
Processing time
Comparable to the HSP route.
Worth knowing
  • For anyone above the income bar this is simply better than the points route — same destination, none of the scoring risk.
  • It also carries preferential treatment on things like airport fast-track and hiring domestic help, which the ordinary HSP status does not.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of Japan
StudentMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

J-Find — future creation individual

Recent graduates of universities ranked in the top 100 of at least two of the three major global rankings (QS, THE, ARWU), who want to job-hunt or start a business in Japan.

What you need
  • Degree from a qualifying top-100 university, completed within the last 5 years
  • At least ¥200,000 in savings to support the stay
How long it lasts
2 years, to look for work or prepare a business.
Path to permanent residence
Not a PR route in itself. It is a runway: you convert to a work visa or, if you qualify, straight into HSP — which then carries the accelerated clock.
Cost
Nominal.
Processing time
Certificate of Eligibility timelines apply, typically 1–3 months.
Worth knowing
  • Two years is generous for a job-search visa by any international standard, and part-time work is permitted during it.
  • Eligibility hinges on a specific ranking test — two of three lists, not one. Check your university against all three before assuming.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of Japan
Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified July 2026

Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services

The workhorse Japanese work visa — most foreign professionals in Japan hold this rather than HSP.

What you need
  • Job offer from a Japanese employer who obtains a Certificate of Eligibility on your behalf
  • A degree in a field relevant to the work, or 10 years of relevant experience (3 years for some international-services roles)
  • Salary comparable to a Japanese national doing the same job
How long it lasts
Granted for 1, 3 or 5 years, renewable.
Path to permanent residence
The standard route: permanent residence after 10 years of residence, of which at least 5 must be on a work status. Slow — which is exactly why the HSP points route matters.
Cost
Nominal fees; the employer bears the Certificate of Eligibility work.
Processing time
1–3 months for the Certificate of Eligibility, then about a week for the visa.
Worth knowing
  • The degree must genuinely relate to the job. An unrelated degree is a common refusal ground, and 'international services' roles have their own narrower tests.
  • If you might score 70 points, apply for HSP instead — the paperwork is similar and the payoff is seven fewer years to PR.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of JapanMOFA — Visa information
InvestmentHigh confidenceVerified July 2026

Business Manager visa

Founders establishing and running a company in Japan. The bar was raised sharply on 16 October 2025 and this is no longer a cheap route in.

What you need
  • A real office in Japan — a virtual address is not accepted
  • ¥30 million in capital — raised from ¥5 million on 16 October 2025
  • At least one full-time employee, who must be a Japanese national, a permanent resident or hold another qualifying status. Capital and the employee are now cumulative conditions, not alternatives — the old 'either ¥5m or two employees' test is gone.
  • Three years of relevant business-management experience, or a master's degree or above (a foreign degree is accepted)
  • Japanese-language capability at roughly B2 / JLPT N2 within the business, for the applicant or a designated person
  • A business plan reviewed by an outside expert — a newly introduced step
How long it lasts
Often 1 year for a first grant, extending to 3 or 5 once the business is trading.
Path to permanent residence
Counts toward the standard 10-year clock, or fewer via HSP business-management points.
Cost
The ¥30 million capital plus incorporation, office lease, payroll for the required employee, and accountancy.
Processing time
Several months, and heavily dependent on the quality of the plan and the office evidence.
Worth knowing
  • Any guidance quoting ¥5 million, or offering the two-employees alternative, predates 16 October 2025 and is wrong. The capital requirement rose sixfold and the employee condition is now additional to it, not instead of it.
  • The physical-office requirement is strictly applied and is the most common reason first applications fail.
  • First renewals are where thin businesses get caught — the authority looks for actual trading, not just a company that exists.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of Japan
Digital nomadMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

Digital nomad status (designated activities)

Remote workers employed or contracted outside Japan, from countries with which Japan has both a visa waiver and a tax treaty.

What you need
  • Annual income of at least ¥10 million
  • Nationality of an eligible country — the list is tied to visa-waiver and tax-treaty status, not open to all
  • Private health insurance covering the stay in Japan
  • Work for a non-Japanese employer or clients
How long it lasts
6 months, and it is not renewable — you must spend time outside Japan before applying again.
Path to permanent residence
None. It does not create residence, so you get no residence card and no time toward permanent residence.
Cost
Nominal application fee.
Processing time
A few weeks.
Worth knowing
  • This is a visitor arrangement dressed as a nomad visa: six months, non-renewable, no residence card, and therefore no resident registration, no national health insurance and no easy lease or bank account.
  • The ¥10 million income bar is high relative to comparable Asian programmes, and the eligible-nationality list is the first thing to check.
  • If you want to actually live in Japan, the work or HSP routes are the real answer.
Sources:Immigration Services Agency of JapanMOFA — Visa information
On the ground

Where you'd land in Japan

Tokyo

The world's largest metropolis — hyper-efficient, deeply traditional, and endlessly rewarding.

Full Tokyo guide
Osaka

Japan's merchant city — cheaper than Tokyo, blunter about everything, and it stands on the other side of the escalator.

Full Osaka guide
Kyoto

Eleven wards, a thousand years of capital, and a basin winter nobody warns you about.

Full Kyoto guide
Fukuoka

The only Japanese city with a startup visa of its own, and an airport two subway stops from the centre.

Full Fukuoka guide
Yokohama

Japan's second-largest city, eighteen wards of it, and none of the administration is Tokyo's.

Full Yokohama guide
Sapporo

Nearly five metres of snow a year, insulated homes Japan otherwise lacks, and addresses that make sense.

Full Sapporo guide
Nagoya

Japan's manufacturing capital — cheapest of the big three, and the only city that cuts its own residence tax.

Full Nagoya guide
Kobe

A three-kilometre strip between mountain and sea, and the earthquake that rewrote Japan's building rules.

Full Kobe guide
Hiroshima

Six rivers, Japan's largest tram network, and a hazard map you check before the rent.

Full Hiroshima guide
Saitama

Three cities merged in 2001 and never picked a centre — twenty-five minutes north of Tokyo and a third cheaper.

Full Saitama guide
Sendai

A million people under zelkova avenues, two subway lines, and a coastal strip where new houses are no longer lawful.

Full Sendai guide
Nagasaki

No wards, no ward offices, and a harbour amphitheatre where a great deal of the housing is reached only by stairs.

Full Nagasaki guide

Japan at a glance

Capital
Tokyo
Population
123.4M
Languages
Japanese
Currency
JPY