In March 2026, Japan's Cabinet approved legislation raising the statutory caps on fees for several immigration procedures — the most significant fee restructuring in years for foreign residents.
Why it's happening. The stated rationale is funding modernized screening infrastructure, including the new JESTA pre-travel authorization system (Japan's answer to the US ESTA) and broader digitization of immigration processing. The government has framed it as shifting more of the cost of running the system onto the applicants who use it, rather than general tax revenue.
What's changing. The caps are moving toward roughly ¥100,000 for change-of-status and extension applications, and roughly ¥300,000 for permanent residency applications — both a substantial jump from the largely nominal fees these procedures carried previously. Short-stay consular visa fees, by contrast, have stayed comparatively modest, with the July 2026 update setting single-entry visas at ¥15,000 and multiple-entry at ¥30,000.
What this means practically. These are approved statutory ceilings being phased in, not necessarily what every applicant pays from day one — implementation details and exact current amounts are best confirmed directly with the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) before you file. If you're weighing the timing of a renewal or a PR application, it's worth checking current fee levels rather than assuming either the old low fees or the new maximum caps are in effect at the moment you apply.
See Japan Visa Fees by Category for the current breakdown across every visa type, or go back to Fees & Costs.