Japan’s fee for a permanent residency permit rises from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen on Oct. 1. Applications received by Sept. 30 are expected to keep the current fee, though the agency hasn't published transitional guidance.
A separate proposal, still in consultation, would add income, pension, Japanese-language and civics tests to how permanent residency is assessed.
The Cabinet approved the fee ordinance Aug. 25. Status-change and period-renewal fees also move from a flat 6,000 yen to between 10,000 and 75,000 yen, depending on the period granted.
The permanent residency fee is payable on being granted the permit, not on filing, and the ordinance provides a reduction to a maximum of 20,000 yen for applicants in documented hardship.
The Immigration Services Agency published its draft guideline revision Aug. 4. Under it, household income would have to continuously exceed the average for a Japanese household of the same size. A new pension test would ask whether an applicant’s projected benefits reach what 30 years of employees’ pension (kosei nenkin) contributions at that above-average income would produce. A shortfall can be covered by financial assets, and the required asset amount rises with the applicant’s age.
The draft also introduces CEFR B1 Japanese, a check on understanding Japan’s systems and rules drawn from the government’s Life and Work Guidebook, and a requirement that school-age children attend Japanese elementary or junior high school.
The spouse fast track lengthens to five years of marriage plus three years of residence, from three plus one. A single absence of six months, or two and a half years cumulative over 10 years, would count against an applicant.
The fee is settled; the guideline is not. Public comment closes Sept. 3, by mail and through the e-Gov portal, which stops accepting submissions at the stroke of midnight ending that day.
The draft applies to applications filed on or after April 1, 2027, with two exceptions: the income test and the public-burden test would reach applications filed in the six months before the revision date that are still pending on that date. The agency’s own summary points to October for that revision.
The agency has not explained the income change in the draft itself. Asahi Shimbun reported that a sample survey conducted ahead of the revision found a public assistance recipiency rate of 1.96% among foreign permanent residents against 1.62% for the general population, and that officials consider that high for a group already screened at the application stage. The agency has not published the survey's sample size or method. An agency executive told Asahi that new permits "will likely decrease significantly" under the revision.
The pension test is the part that lands hardest on anyone arriving in Japan in midlife. Someone who starts contributing at 45 cannot reach 30 years before retirement age, which closes the work-history route entirely and leaves financial assets as the only path, at the steepest point on an age-scaled schedule.
If you already qualify under current rules and have been putting off the paperwork, the arithmetic for filing before Sept. 30 is 190,000 yen. The absence rule is the one to watch if you live in Japan but work abroad for months at a stretch.
The agency has published no yen figures for the income level or the asset thresholds, and has not said how the language or civics checks will be administered.
Sources:
Public Comment on the Appropriateness of “Permanent Resident” Status — Immigration Services Agency, Aug. 4, 2026
Permanent Residency Guideline, draft revision (full text; Section 6 covers application dates) — Immigration Services Agency, Aug. 4, 2026 (PDF, Japanese)
Permanent Residency Guideline draft revision, summary — Immigration Services Agency, Aug. 4, 2026 (PDF, Japanese)
Public comment case 315000140, permanent residency guideline — e-Gov, opened Aug. 4, 2026, closes Sept. 4, 2026
Draft guideline on revocation of permanent resident status, summary — Immigration Services Agency, Aug. 4, 2026 (PDF, Japanese)
Justice minister’s post-Cabinet press conference — Ministry of Justice, Aug. 4, 2026
Foreign residents in Japan, end-2025 — Immigration Services Agency, published March 2026
Q&A on the permanent residency revocation regime — Immigration Services Agency
ANALYSIS/ ‘No handouts’ logic steers new permanent residency rules — The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 5, 2026
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