Japan's Highly Skilled Professional status is the only residence category that is scored rather than simply granted or refused. You total points for your degree, career length, salary, age and a handful of bonus items. Reach 70 and you qualify. Reach 80 and the wait for permanent residency drops to a single year.
That last figure is the reason the category exists in most people's plans. The other benefits are conveniences. The one-year PR track is a genuine outlier in a system where the standard wait is ten.
The three tracks
HSP splits into three activity types, and you are scored against the table that matches your work.
- HSP (i)(a), Advanced Academic Research. Researchers, university teaching staff, and people directing research work.
- HSP (i)(b), Advanced Specialised and Technical Activities. The broadest of the three. Engineers, IT specialists, finance professionals, designers, translators: work that would otherwise sit under the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities status.
- HSP (i)(c), Advanced Business Management. Company directors, executives and owners running an operation in Japan.
The three tables weight the same broad factors differently. Salary carries more weight in the management table; publications and patents only appear in the research one.
How the points add up
The scored factors are consistent across tracks even when the values differ:
- Academic background. A doctorate scores highest, then a master's, then a bachelor's. A second degree in a different field adds a few points on top.
- Professional career. Counted in bands of years of relevant experience, with more years scoring more.
- Annual salary. The single largest lever for most applicants. Points scale with income and interact with age, so a high salary early in a career scores particularly well. There is a floor: applicants under the (i)(a) and (i)(b) tracks generally need at least ¥3 million a year to score at all.
- Age. Younger applicants score more. The bands run downward from under 30.
- Japanese ability. JLPT N2 and N1 both carry points, with N1 worth substantially more. A degree from a Japanese university adds points separately.
- Bonus items. Graduating from a university that ranks highly in the major world rankings, holding certain national qualifications, working in a designated growth field, working for an innovation-designated employer, or completing a JICA training programme.
Run your own numbers against the Immigration Services Agency's published table before assuming you fall short. The interaction between salary and age surprises people in both directions: a 28-year-old on ¥6 million can clear 70 points with a bachelor's degree and no Japanese, while a 45-year-old on the same salary will not.
What 70 points buys, and what 80 adds
At 70 points you get a five-year period of stay from the outset, rather than the one or three years typical of a first work visa. Permission to work is broader than an ordinary work status: you can hold activities across several categories at once, which matters if you teach on the side or sit on another company's board.
You can also sponsor a parent to come to Japan to help with a child under seven or a pregnancy, subject to a household income test, and sponsor domestic help under conditions that ordinary work visa holders cannot meet. Spouses of HSP holders can work full-time in certain professional categories without needing their own qualifying degree.
Permanent residency opens at three years of residence at 70 points. At 80 points it opens at one year. In both cases you have to have held the score throughout the period and still meet the general PR conditions on conduct, income, tax and pension.
J-Skip: the version without a points table
Since 2023 there has been a second route in, aimed at people who would obviously clear 80 points and should not have to prove it line by line. J-Skip drops the table entirely and uses flat thresholds:
- Researchers and engineers: a master's degree or higher plus ¥20 million in annual income, or ten years of professional experience plus ¥20 million.
- Business managers: five years of management experience plus ¥40 million in annual income.
J-Skip holders get a permanent-residency track at one year, the same family and domestic-worker concessions as 80-point HSP, and priority lanes at immigration on entry and departure.
HSP (ii): the open-ended version
After three years on HSP (i) you can apply to change to HSP (ii), which comes with an indefinite period of stay and looser activity restrictions. It sits between the ordinary work statuses and permanent residency, and it is worth considering if you want stability without committing to the PR application or if a gap in your record makes PR risky for now.
Applying
The mechanics are the same as any other work status: your employer files a Certificate of Eligibility application at the regional immigration bureau, and you convert it to a visa at a Japanese embassy or consulate. The difference is the paperwork proving each scored item, which is substantial. Degree certificates, employment histories, salary evidence and language certificates all need to be documented, and points you cannot evidence do not count.
If you are already in Japan on another work status and your score has crossed 70, you can change status from inside the country instead. See Changing Your Status of Residence.
For the permanent-residency side of the fast track, including the income and language rules tightening from October 2026 and April 2027, see Permanent Residency.
Back to Work Visas.