Residents in financial hardship have been able to apply for a reduced residence permission fee since 1 October 2026, paying ¥10,000 for an extension or a change of status and ¥20,000 for permanent residence instead of figures that otherwise reach ¥75,000 and ¥200,000. The Immigration Services Agency's guidelines on those reductions carry one condition that reverses the usual advice to file online: the online residence application system does not handle them, so a reduced fee can only be claimed at a counter.
The reduced figures are flat, not proportional
The standard fees introduced on 1 October 2026 are keyed to the period of stay actually granted. At a counter they run from ¥10,000 for a grant of three months or less, through ¥33,000 for one year, to ¥75,000 for five years or more. Permanent residence costs ¥200,000.
The reduction ignores that scale entirely. A resident who qualifies pays ¥10,000 for a change of status and ¥10,000 for an extension whatever period is granted, and ¥20,000 for permanent residence.
That makes it worth most to the applicants granted the longest periods. A five-year extension falls from ¥75,000 to ¥10,000. A permanent residence application falls by ¥180,000. For a grant of three months or less, where the standard counter fee is already ¥10,000, the reduction changes nothing.
Who the agency counts as eligible
There are two routes, and they are narrower than the phrase "financial hardship" suggests.
The first covers people in economic hardship comparable to those requiring protection under the Public Assistance Act: residents currently receiving public assistance or who have received it within the past two months, people receiving support as refugee or complementary protection applicants, recipients of support payments under the Chinese returnee legislation, and residents in hardship the agency judges equivalent.
The second covers humanitarian cases, and is a specific list rather than a general test. It includes recognised and resettled refugees holding Long-Term Resident status, people granted residence on humanitarian grounds after a refugee application was refused, refugee applicants and identified victims of human trafficking on Designated Activities, foreign children in institutional care, and residents raising a Japanese or special permanent resident child on their own.
A resident in ordinary financial difficulty who falls outside both lists pays the standard scale.
The online system does not process a reduction
The guidelines state that applications made through the residence application online system are not covered by the reduction, and describe no later refund route.
For an applicant paying the standard fee, filing online is cheaper: ¥65,000 against ¥75,000 at the five-year band, ¥27,000 against ¥33,000 at one year. For an applicant eligible for a reduction, that logic inverts. Filing online forfeits the reduction and costs several times more than walking into a regional immigration bureau.
This matters practically because the two channels are not interchangeable in a day. The online system accepts a filing in the evening; immigration counters keep office hours and stop accepting applications in the late afternoon. Anyone claiming a reduction has to plan a visit during the working day, with the supporting documents in hand, rather than file from home.
Applications already in the queue are a separate case
An application accepted on or before 30 September 2026 is charged the old flat fee of ¥6,000, which is below the ¥10,000 reduced figure. Residents already waiting on a decision from a filing made before 1 October have nothing to gain here and no reason to act. The reduction is relevant only to applications filed from 1 October 2026 onward.
What the reduction does not reach
It applies to domestic residence applications only, so it reaches people already living in Japan on a residence card. It does not touch the consular visa fees that rose on 1 July 2026, charged by Japanese missions abroad under a separate ministry, and short-stay visitors pay nothing toward these permissions at all. The standard scale is set out in full on the page covering the 2026 fee changes.
A separate full exemption covers a small set of cases, including changes into Diplomat or Official status and extensions for Official status holders.
If you think you qualify
The agency's guideline text sets out which evidence corresponds to which category, and a counter will not accept a reduction claim on assertion alone. Identify your category in that document, assemble the certificate or payment record it names, and confirm the list with the regional immigration bureau handling your case before you travel in to file. Nothing else about an extension or renewal changes.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency — reductions and exemptions for residence permission fees, Immigration Services Agency — reduction guidelines (PDF), Immigration Services Agency — 1 October 2026 fee revision