The Immigration Services Agency and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare have set out the timetable that closes the Technical Intern Training programme. Employment for Skill Development (育成就労) starts at 00:00 on 1 April 2027, no application to certify a technical intern training plan may be filed on or after that date, and anyone relying on the transitional measures to enter Japan as a trainee must be granted landing permission on or before 30 June 2027.
Technical Intern Training was held by 457,509 people at the end of June 2026, the agency's most recent count and more than held Specified Skilled Worker status on the same date. The transitional rules below govern all of them.
Three dates, and what each one closes
31 March 2027 is the last day on which an application to certify a technical intern training plan can be filed. The agency's transitional Q&A states that no such application may be made on or after the commencement date.
1 April 2027, 00:00 is the moment used to decide who is covered. A person carrying out technical intern training under a certified plan at that instant continues under it.
30 June 2027 is the entry deadline. Technical intern training that begins after commencement must have a start date on or before 30 June 2027, and the trainee must receive landing permission by that date. Where a plan was applied for before commencement and certified afterwards, entry is still required by 30 June 2027. If the training start date slips to 1 July 2027 or later, the deadline does not move with it, and a certificate of eligibility holder who cannot enter in time will not be landed as a trainee.
If you are on Technical Intern Training in Japan
Your certified plan continues after 1 April 2027, and so do the reporting obligations under the technical intern legislation. Progression from Type 1 to Type 2 remains available.
One group loses out. A trainee whose training is interrupted at 00:00 on 1 April 2027, and still interrupted at that point, cannot resume it. Interruption and resumption stay possible for anyone whose training is running at that moment, so the state of your plan on that one date settles it.
You cannot switch out of technical intern training into Employment for Skill Development part-way through a plan. The agency is explicit on that.
The Type 3 route closed on 1 April 2026
Moving from Type 2 to Type 3 after commencement requires at least one year of Type 2 activity as at 1 April 2027. Working backwards, Type 2 training must have begun on or before 1 April 2026, a date already in the past.
Check it against your residence card. Count from the date of permission for the change to Type 2 printed on the card through to 1 April 2027. Two kinds of gap are generally excluded from that year: time spent on a Designated Activities status, and time interrupted under a notification of difficulty in continuing training. The second exclusion does not apply where a written reason was submitted within one month of the interruption arising and the training was then resumed.
If you hold Designated Activities while changing employer
A trainee holding Designated Activities in order to transfer to another employer may stay to the end of the period granted, but cannot be given permission to change back to Technical Intern Training on or after 1 April 2027. Leaving Japan and losing the status closes the route as well, since re-entry as a technical intern is not available after commencement.
What stays open, and what is untouched
The onward route is Specified Skilled Worker (i), open to someone who completes Type 2 satisfactorily where the intended work relates to the occupation and tasks recorded in the training. Our Specified Skilled Worker visa page and the guide to changing status of residence cover that filing.
Nothing in these measures reaches other residence statuses or short-stay entry. Residents holding Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, Specified Skilled Worker, Business Manager or any other status sit outside the transitional rules, and short-stay visitors are unaffected.
If your plan runs past 1 April 2027, two documents decide which of the dates above applies to you: the certified plan held by your supervising organisation, and the Type 2 permission date printed on your residence card. Ask for a copy of the first and read the second.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency — 技能実習経過措置Q&A, Immigration Services Agency — 外国人技能実習制度, Immigration Services Agency — 育成就労制度Ｑ＆Ａ, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare — 育成就労制度の施行に伴う技能実習の経過措置について, Immigration Services Agency — 令和８年６月末における在留外国人数について