Permanent residency (永住者) removes the two constraints that define life on a work visa: the renewal cycle and the tie to a particular kind of work. You can take any job, start any business, be unemployed, and never file another extension. You are not a Japanese citizen and you can still lose the status, but for most purposes short of voting you are settled.
The rules around it are changing more than at any point in decades. Three separate reforms land between October 2026 and April 2027, and they affect cost, eligibility and whether the status can be taken away.
The three reforms you need to know about
- The fee went from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000 on 1 October 2026. Applications accepted on or before 30 September 2026 keep the old fee even if the decision comes later. The fee is payable on approval, not on filing.
- Financial and pension standards tightened from October 2026. Household income is assessed against the national average for a household of comparable size over the previous five years, with pension sufficiency also examined. Financial assets can offset a shortfall.
- A Japanese language requirement arrives in April 2027. Applicants will generally need to demonstrate ability at around CEFR B1, equivalent to JLPT N2. April 2027 also brings deliberate non-payment of taxes or social insurance as a ground for revoking permanent residency after it has been granted.
If you are close to eligible now, the timing question is worth taking seriously rather than deferring.
How long you have to have been here
The standard requirement is ten continuous years of residence in Japan, of which at least five must be under a work-based or status-based residence category. Time on a student visa counts toward the ten but not toward the five, and time on Technical Intern Training or Specified Skilled Worker (i) counts toward neither portion of the work requirement.
The shortcuts are substantial:
- Spouse of a Japanese national or permanent resident. Currently three years of genuine marriage plus one year of residence in Japan. Announced changes move this to five years of marriage and three years of residence.
- Highly Skilled Professional at 70 points. Three years, with the score held throughout. See the HSP points system.
- HSP at 80 points, or J-Skip. One year.
- Long-Term Resident. Five continuous years.
"Continuous" is doing work in all of these. Long absences break the chain. As a rough guide, more than roughly three months out of Japan in one trip, or more than about 150 days out in a year, invites questions and can reset the clock.
What immigration is actually assessing
Beyond the years, three tests:
Good conduct. No criminal record, no significant traffic violations, no immigration violations. Minor traffic offences are usually survivable; a pattern of them is not. Overstaying, even briefly, is treated seriously.
Independent livelihood. You must be able to support yourself without public assistance. There is no published income floor, and immigration looks at employment stability, savings, dependants and several years of income history together rather than at a single number. From October 2026 the benchmark moves toward the national average for a household your size over five years.
Contribution to Japan, in the formal sense. In practice this means your record of paying what you owe.
Tax and pension are where applications die
This is the single most common reason for refusal, and it is the one most within your control.
Immigration checks that national and local taxes, National Pension or Employees' Pension contributions, and health insurance premiums have been paid, and paid on time. Paying late is assessed negatively even when the balance is fully settled by the time you apply. A pension payment made in April for a bill due the previous June shows up in the record and counts against you.
If you have been enrolled but paying irregularly, the practical advice is to get current, then let two or three clean years accumulate before applying. Applying with a messy record and hoping it goes unnoticed does not work; the records are pulled directly.
The period-of-stay rule
You must hold a sufficiently long period of stay at the time you apply. Until 31 March 2027, holding a three-year period satisfies this. From 1 April 2027 you generally need the longest period available for your status of residence, which for most work statuses means five years.
This creates a planning problem for anyone on rolling one-year grants. Getting a longer period at your next renewal becomes a prerequisite, not a convenience.
The guarantor
You need a guarantor resident in Japan who is a Japanese national, permanent resident or special permanent resident. The role is not financial in the way a loan co-signer is. The guarantor confirms that you live lawfully and stably; they do not take on your debts. Employers, long-standing friends and family members all commonly serve.
Timing and what happens after
The Immigration Services Agency publishes a standard processing period of four to six months. Real cases frequently run longer, and there is no expedite route.
Once granted, you keep permanent residency as long as you maintain residence in Japan. Leaving for an extended period without a re-entry permit ends it, so use the re-entry permit system if you will be away for more than a year. From April 2027, deliberate failure to pay taxes or social insurance becomes a revocation ground, with unavoidable circumstances such as illness or job loss taken into account.
Permanent residency is not naturalisation. You keep your nationality, you cannot vote, and you must still carry a residence card and report address changes.
Where to go next
For the fee changes in detail, see 2026 Fee Changes. For the income standards, see Financial and Income Requirements. For the coming language bar, see Japanese Language Requirements.
Back to Visa Types.