Japan Just Raised The Price Of Staying. Check Your Assignees.
Fees are up twentyfold, new income and language tests are coming, and the income rule reaches back to applications already filed.
The fee is the headline, but the sequence matters more. Income and pension tests apply to most new applications from April 2027, with Japanese language ability at independent user level alongside them, and eligibility for spouses of Japanese nationals moves from three years of marriage to five. The changes sit within a wider push by the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to tighten immigration controls.
The rise in Japan’s permanent residence application fee, from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000, in force since 1 October.
UPI, 2026
The Rules Changed Mid Process
An assignee who accepted a Japan posting expecting to apply for permanent residence after a few years is now planning against a different test. Japan is the sharpest example, but not the only one. The UK’s HC 584 rule changes, effective 8 October, also touch settlement and Skilled Worker routes.
- The fee is ¥200,000, about $1,270, and fees for other residence status changes and extensions rise to as much as ¥75,000.
- Applicants must earn above Japan’s average household income, with a reference figure of ¥5.75 million reported, so a single income assignee on a modest package may fall short.
- Projected pension benefits will be compared with those from 30 years of enrolment in Japan’s employees’ pension system, which penalises short or broken enrolment histories.
- Spouses of Japanese nationals will need five years of marriage and three years living in Japan, up from three and one.
Check What You Have Promised
The risk is not the fee. It is a conversation held years ago that nobody has revisited.
- List every current and incoming Japan assignee whose package, offer letter or informal conversation mentions permanent residence, and note the date it was discussed.
- For anyone planning to apply, compare household income with the new threshold and pension history with the 30 year benchmark before the April 2027 start date.
- Decide who pays the ¥200,000 fee and any language course cost, and write the answer into policy rather than leaving it to goodwill.
- Review settlement expectations at every status renewal, since extension fees have risen too.
Permanent residence is easy to mention in an offer conversation and hard to revisit later. Japan has just made that gap expensive. Find every promise before the assignee does.
Pinewood helps families plan realistically for settlement, covering housing, schooling and timing, so the expectations set before a move match the rules in force when it happens. Get in touch before the next Japan offer letter goes out.
