Japan's Immigration Services Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries revised the sector annex to the Specified Skilled Worker operating guidance for the food service field on 26 October 2026, adding a compliance regime for workers placed in licensed entertainment venues inside hotels and inns. The same revision renames both of the field's skills tests, states the Japanese-language levels in the annex itself, and commits the agriculture ministry to a training and career programme that has not yet been published.
What did not change in the work scope
No new work category was created. The field still covers food preparation, customer service and store management, with store management reserved for Specified Skilled Worker (ii).
New duties where the workplace is a licensed hotel venue
The provisions bite where the workplace is an establishment licensed under Article 3(1) of the Entertainment Business Act, in the category defined in Article 2(1)(i), operating inside premises licensed under the Hotel Business Act. The annex calls these 対象旅館等.
Where an employer that is not yet a member of the sector council intends to place a worker at one, it must prepare a manual on preventing 接待 — hosting work, which falls outside the permitted scope of food service duties — set up a consultation route for the worker, and submit a pledge that it will not have the worker perform 接待 and will explain those measures using the manual. The pledge is sector reference form 14-1, and council membership has to be in place before the residence application is filed.
The sanction is stated plainly: a member found to have had a worker perform 接待 is expelled from the council and the expulsion is made public. Before that point the agriculture ministry works with the Japan Tourism Agency to issue guidance, and expulsion follows where no improvement is shown.
The skills tests are renamed, and old passes still count
The 外食業特定技能１号技能測定試験 becomes the 外食業特定技能１号評価試験, and the second-tier test is renamed on the same pattern. A transitional provision deems anyone who passed under the former name to have passed the renamed test, so no one needs to sit it again.
A2.2 for the first tier, B1 for the second from 1 April 2027
For Specified Skilled Worker (i), the annex sets the requirement at A2.2 or above on the reference framework for Japanese-language education, evidenced by JFT-Basic at A2.2 or above or JLPT N4 or above. For Specified Skilled Worker (ii) it is B1 or above, shown by JLPT N3 or above where B1 has been confirmed.
From 1 April 2027, B1 or above is required for Specified Skilled Worker (ii), and the annex says the handling of that requirement will be announced separately. Anyone moving up to the second tier after that date faces a fixed level and unsettled mechanics. The cross-status picture is on our Japanese language requirements page.
If you already hold Specified Skilled Worker (i) in food service
Extensions of your period of stay are processed as normal, and the field's acceptance ceiling does not touch them. A move to another employer within the food service field is also processed in full.
If your employer places you at a restaurant or bar inside a hotel holding an entertainment licence, the new duties fall on the employer rather than on you. The consultation route and the pledge exist for your benefit, and you can ask to see the prevention manual.
If you are applying from outside Japan
The field has been closed to new certificates of eligibility since 13 April 2026, after the ceiling of 50,000 came into view; there were 49,060 first-tier food service residents at the end of June 2026 on preliminary figures. Certificates are still being issued against applications received up to 6 February 2026. As of 16 October 2026 the agency listed 732 applications pending from 7 to 28 February, 1,825 from March and 4,804 from 1 to 12 April. Applications received on or after 13 April 2026 are generally refused, and the agency does not answer individual queries about where a case sits.
Moves from inside Japan run on their own cut-offs: transfers from technical intern training in medical and welfare facility catering, and from the food service preparation designated-activities status, were accepted up to 30 September 2026, while transfers from other statuses were accepted up to 12 April 2026.
What has been promised but not published
Section 6 commits the agriculture ministry, with industry bodies, to draw up a training and career development programme covering Employment for Skill Development and both tiers of Specified Skilled Worker in food service. Our Specified Skilled Worker visa page covers the status itself. No draft, content or date has been issued for the programme, and the ministry publishes these on its own pages rather than through the Immigration Services Agency, so that is where the first version will appear.
Sources: ISA — 特定技能運用要領・分野別の要領別冊, ISA — 外食業分野 要領別冊, ISA — 外食業分野 新旧対照表, ISA — 特定技能１号（外食業分野）の在留諸申請の審査状況, ISA — 外食業分野における在留資格認定証明書交付の一時停止措置, ISA — 特定技能在留外国人数（令和８年６月末）