Applicants for Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services status — the status most foreign professionals in Japan hold — must now demonstrate Japanese-language proficiency. The requirement took effect on 15 April.
What the status is
Usually shortened to gijinkoku, this is the general-purpose work status. It covers engineering and IT, accounting and finance, marketing, translation and interpreting, design, and most office roles requiring a degree or equivalent experience.
At the end of 2025 it accounted for 475,790 residents, making it the largest work status in Japan and second only to Permanent Resident overall. Anything that changes its criteria changes conditions for a very large group.
What changed
Two things moved together in the revised guidelines.
The first is language. Applicants are now expected to evidence Japanese-language ability, with the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test the usual instrument. The requirement bears most heavily on roles classed as "international services" and on client-facing work, where the argument for language ability is most direct.
The second is the relationship between the applicant's degree and the job. The connection between what you studied and what you will do has always been part of the test; the revision tightens how closely examiners are expected to look at it. A graduate in an unrelated field applying for a role that requires specialist knowledge faces a harder case than before.
Who is affected
New applications from outside Japan, through a Certificate of Eligibility, and changes of status from within Japan — most often students converting after graduation.
Extensions of an existing gijinkoku period are a different case, and holders should confirm their own position with the immigration office rather than assume the requirement reaches them.
Practical notes
The JLPT runs twice a year, in July and December, with registration closing months in advance. Someone who needs a certificate and does not have one is looking at a wait measured in months, not weeks. Plan the test around the application rather than the other way round.
Employers recruiting graduates from overseas should treat this as a hiring criterion now, not a paperwork step at the end. A candidate who cannot evidence the language may not obtain the status regardless of how good a fit they are technically.
Our Japanese language requirements page sets out where language counts across the system, and the Engineer/Specialist visa page covers the status in full.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency, The Japan Times