ISA's 10 November 2026 update leaves food service Specified Skilled Worker certificates being issued only on applications received up to 16 February 2026, with 6,983 waiting behind the cut-off.
The 9 November 2026 Japan–Viet Nam Joint Vision Statement opened talks on mandatory consular notification and a social security agreement, but Vietnam is still absent from the Employment for Skill Development memorandum list.
The Cabinet Secretariat's working group on accepting foreign nationals was given a seven-jurisdiction comparison of intake limits on 6 November 2026, with the basic policy due by 31 March 2027.
Act No. 74 of 2025 will bar a departing resident from claiming the pension lump-sum withdrawal while a re-entry permit is still valid, and lift the payment cap from five years to eight, once a Cabinet Order sets the start date.
The Immigration Services Agency reissued both university lists on 4 November 2026, resetting which graduates earn the 10-point Highly Skilled Professional bonus and which qualify for J-Find.
Two resident-side submissions to the Cabinet Secretariat's working group on 20 October 2026 accept a link between the planned Japanese course and residence screening only if the screening is made transparent and the learning is genuinely available.