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Japan's draft arrival-card ordinance, open for comment until 27 November 2026, replaces three forms: the arrival card, the re-entry arrival record used by residents, and the cruise-ship landing application.
Act No. 74 of 2025 will bar a departing resident from claiming the pension lump-sum withdrawal while a re-entry permit is still valid, and lift the payment cap from five years to eight, once a Cabinet Order sets the start date.
Panama's working holiday scheme took effect on 1 November 2026, and MOFA has now put the annual quota at 100 places, the figure that was missing when the amendment was announced.
The Immigration Services Agency wants to ask arriving foreign nationals whether they intend to obey Japanese law, and the draft quietly replaces the form used by re-entry permit holders too.
Two amendments to the Designated Activities notice add Panama to Japan's working holiday system from 1 November 2026 and Brazil from 1 December 2026, though neither country's age range, quota or paperwork has been published yet.
The Immigration Services Agency is consulting on deleting a designated-activities category that has had no users since 2018, with comments closing on 29 October 2026.
From 1 April 2027 one support staffer may cover fewer than 50 Specified Skilled Worker (i) workers and, at a registered support organisation, fewer than 10 client employers, while organisations whose registration expires by 31 July 2027 must file renewals before that date to be judged under the current rules.
The Immigration Services Agency has consulted on adding a five-year period of stay to Specified Skilled Worker (ii), with the government planning a January 2027 start, while the five-year cumulative cap on Specified Skilled Worker (i) stays where it is.
The enacted 2026 immigration law sets no start date for Japan's electronic travel authorisation, only an outer limit of 31 March 2029, and the same provisions stop the Trusted Traveler Program card being issued.
The Immigration Services Agency is consulting on adding dental technicians and speech-language-hearing therapists to the Medical status of residence, with comments due by 15 October 2026 and the change planned for November 2026.
The Immigration Services Agency issued the revised permanent residence guidelines and new revocation guidelines on 1 October 2026; most of the text applies from 1 April 2027, but the income and public-burden provisions reach applications already filed.
The Immigration Services Agency opened consultation in August on two documents: revised permanent residence approval guidelines, and the first guidelines on when permanent residence can be revoked.
The Justice Ministry published a new Basic Plan for Immigration Control in July — the document that frames immigration policy for the years ahead, including JESTA by 2028.
The Diet passed the immigration bill on 29 May. It creates Japan's electronic travel authorisation system and lifts the statutory ceiling on residence procedure fees to ¥300,000.
The cabinet endorsed a bill in early March establishing a Japanese electronic travel authorisation for visa-exempt travellers, alongside a sharp rise in the statutory fee ceiling.
A late-January policy package points at zero illegal overstays, land purchase rules, expanded language education and a possible cap on the foreign share of the population.