Two items at the turn of the month show the year's policy from both ends — enforcement being stepped up, and people leaving.
The Zero Overstayers package
The Immigration Services Agency published an explanatory version of its reinforced Zero Overstayers plan on 31 August. The original plan targets the roughly 68,000 people in Japan without valid status; the strengthened package adds enforcement to the existing mix of detection and departure facilitation.
The policy sits inside the Basic Plan published in July, which sets a target of halving confirmed deportation cases by the end of 2030, alongside greater use of monitoring measures instead of detention where a person qualifies.
For residents with valid status, the relevance is indirect but real. Enforcement campaigns raise attention to workplace compliance, status-conforming activity and notification duties. Working outside what your status permits is a revocation ground, and revocations run in the thousands annually.
Business Manager departures
Separately, figures reported in early September put the number of Business Manager visa holders who left Japan in the first half of 2026 at close to 1,000.
The context is October 2025, when the capital requirement for the Business Manager status went from ¥5 million to ¥30 million alongside tighter staffing and business-substance tests. Holders who built businesses under the old criteria meet the new ones at renewal or not at all, and a survey in April had already found many unable to.
These are not applicants turned away at the border. They are people who were living here, running businesses, employing staff and paying tax, and who did not requalify.
The year in one line
Set the two items side by side and the year's direction is legible. Higher thresholds across permanent residence, naturalisation and the Business Manager status; a language requirement on the largest work status; fees up across consular visas, the departure tax and — from 1 October — residence procedures; and enforcement reinforced.
Against that, the foreign resident population passed four million for the first time, and a survey in late August found Japanese firms still hiring foreign staff despite the tighter rules. The labour demand has not moved. The conditions attached to meeting it have.
Sources: Immigration Services Agency, The Japan Times