Permanent Residency Application Complete Guide for Foreigners in Japan 2026

How to apply for Japanese permanent residence: residence-period rules, documents, public payments and fees, with the October 1, 2026 guideline and filing-date transitions explained.

What is Permanent Residency and Why Get It

Permanent Residency in Japan is the status of residence granted under Article 22 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. A holder is recorded as “Permanent Resident” on the residence card and may live and work in Japan indefinitely. Unlike naturalization, Permanent Residency does not change your nationality — you keep your original passport and citizenship.

The practical advantages over work and family visas are substantial:

• No period-of-stay renewal: there is no expiry date attached to the status. You only renew the physical residence card every 7 years.
• No work-category restrictions: you can work in any field, change employer freely, start your own business, or work as a freelancer. Status of residence change is not required.
• No need for employer sponsorship: unlike Engineer / Specialist in Humanities, you do not depend on a contracting company for visa stability.
• Resilient to life changes: divorce, job loss, business failure, or career change do not automatically threaten your status (unlike Spouse of Japanese National or Specified Skilled Worker).
• Family stability: children born in Japan can more easily build their lives here; a foreign spouse may apply for a Spouse of PR visa.

What PR does not grant you: the right to vote in national or local elections, eligibility for some public-sector positions, automatic citizenship for children, and protection against deportation in cases of certain crimes or status violations.

The Three Statutory Requirements (Article 22(2))

Permanent residence is assessed under three legal requirements: good conduct, sufficient assets or skills for an independent livelihood, and whether permanent residence serves Japan's interests. Permission is discretionary, not automatic. Spouses and children of Japanese nationals, Permanent Residents or Special Permanent Residents are exempt from the first two requirements, but still face the national-interest assessment. Recognized refugees, complementary-protection beneficiaries and other officially qualifying protected persons are exempt from the independent-livelihood requirement.

Which rules apply also depends on the filing date.

Do not rely on a universal ¥3 million income threshold. Under the revised income assessment, household income is considered against the level specified in the guideline for the household size, and some part-time income earned on non-work statuses is not included. Tax, pension and health-insurance compliance and the household's circumstances are assessed separately. Ask Tree to check your filing date and records before choosing a route.

Immigration Services Agency: permanent residence guidelines — 2026-10-01 ↗

The 10-Year Continuous Residence Rule — Standard Path

Under the ordinary route, distinguish ten years of continuous residence from at least five consecutive years with a qualifying work or residence status within that period. Technical Intern Training and SSW No.1 do not count toward that five-year component. The revised guideline applicable from April 1, 2027 also excludes Employment for Skill Development, Intra-company Transferee and certain Designated Activities from its definition of a qualifying work status.

Do not treat all working years as interchangeable; check your status history against the guideline applicable to your application.

Applications made by March 31, 2027 still treat a three-year period of stay as the longest period. For applications from April 1, 2027, the normal requirement is the longest period available for your status. The three-year transition remains only if you held a three-year permission on March 31, 2027, this is your first PR application from April 1, 2027, and the decision is made before that three-year permission expires.

Continuous residence is assessed from your residence history and the reason for absences. The revised guideline applicable from April 1, 2027 says that, without a reasonable reason, one absence of six months or more, or absences totaling two years and six months or more within the preceding ten years, are ordinarily assessed negatively. Those are guideline assessment factors, not automatic cancellation rules; shorter absences do not guarantee permission either.

Shortened Residence Periods (Important Exceptions)

Spouses: separate the current rule from the April 2027 change

For applications made by March 31, 2027, the shortened residence route for a spouse of a Japanese national, Permanent Resident or Special Permanent Resident ordinarily requires a genuine marriage lasting at least three years and at least one year of continuous residence in Japan. For applications from April 1, 2027, the revised guidelines require five years of genuine marriage and three years of continuous residence in Japan. These are residence-route conditions, not a promise of permission.

For the qualifying children covered by the spouse/child exception, the previous guideline requires one year of continuous residence in Japan; the revised guideline applicable from April 1, 2027 requires three years. Confirm that your relationship falls within the official exception.

Other official residence-period exceptions

The official guideline includes several specific exceptions. A person holding Long-Term Resident status may use the exception after at least five years of continuous residence with that status. Applicants meeting the HSP 70-point conditions may use a three-year residence exception; those meeting the 80-point conditions may use a one-year exception. The special highly skilled category associated with J-Skip also has a one-year exception for applicants meeting the prescribed conditions.

People officially recognized as making a contribution to Japan in the fields listed in the guideline may use a five-year exception. Each route has evidence and other permission requirements; the years alone do not guarantee permission. Check the guideline that applies to your filing date.

J-Find is a Designated Activities status for job searching or preparing a business, not an independent fast track to PR. Whether a Designated Activities period counts toward the ten-year total or qualifies as work residence depends on the designated activity and the applicable guideline. Moving later to a work status does not automatically make every earlier period count. SSW No.2 can contribute to the qualifying work-residence component under the ordinary route, but it does not create an independent rule granting PR after five years.

You still need to meet the applicable total-residence requirement or a separate official exception, plus the other permission requirements.

Immigration Services Agency: permanent residence guidelines — 2026-10-01 ↗

Tax, pension and health-insurance payments

Immigration examines whether taxes, pension and public health-insurance premiums were paid properly and on time. Paying outstanding amounts now does not erase past late payments. The required documents and record periods depend on your application route; check the current official checklist and keep receipts. A late payment can count against an application, but the decision depends on all circumstances rather than an automatic refusal rule.

Permanent-residence application procedure and required documents ↗

Required Documents

A PR application file typically requires many documents. The exact list and the required look-back period vary significantly by status of residence and personal circumstances. For example, work-status applicants are generally asked for resident-tax documents for the most recent 5 years and pension / health-insurance documents for the past 2 years, while HSP and some family-status routes use different periods. The following outlines the practical standard as of 2026:

Core application items

• Application for Permission for Permanent Residence
• One photograph (4 × 3 cm, taken within the six months before application). For residence cards issued from June 14, 2026, a photograph is required if the applicant is aged one or over on the card's issue date; applicants younger than one do not need to submit it.
• Reason letter explaining why you want PR, your life plan in Japan, and your social ties (free-form, generally 1–3 pages)
• Residence card — see Residence Card Procedures Guide
• Passport (presented at the counter)

Identity and household

• Resident certificate of the applicant and all household members — full version with all items including My Number omitted but relationships shown
• Family register for spouse-of-Japanese cases, plus marriage registration record
• For HSP applicants: HSP points calculation table with supporting evidence (degree certificates, salary slips, etc.)

Income, tax and social insurance evidence

• Employment certificate from current employer
• Taxation certificate and payment certificate for resident tax for the most recent 5 years (for HSP, 1 or 3 years depending on path)
• National tax payment certificate No. 3 (納税証明書・その３), covering all five categories: withholding income tax and special reconstruction income tax; declared income tax and special reconstruction income tax; consumption tax and local consumption tax; inheritance tax; and gift tax. It certifies no unpaid amount as of the issue date; no target period needs to be specified.
• Pension payment records: Nenkin Teiki-bin or printed records from the Nenkin Net, covering at least 24 months
• Health insurance payment records and proof of coverage, such as an eligibility confirmation document, qualification information, or other documents specified by Immigration; payment receipts may be required where premiums are paid directly. (Note: from December 2024, new traditional health-insurance cards are no longer issued; the Immigration document list now reflects the new coverage-proof documents.)
• Withholding slips for the last 1–5 years
• Bank deposit balance certificate or fixed assets evidence if income is on the marginal side

Who can be my guarantor, and which documents are required?

The guarantor is normally a Japanese national, Permanent Resident or Special Permanent Resident residing in Japan. The current standard checklist asks for a guarantee letter and a document identifying the guarantor, such as a driver's-license copy. The guarantor's income, tax-payment and employment certificates are not standard required guarantor documents. This does not remove the applicant's own income and public-payment evidence requirements; additional material may be requested for an individual case.

• Career and educational background materials (CV, diplomas) as relevant
• Business license, registration certificate and financial statements if you are self-employed or a company executive

Application fee

The ordinary permanent-residence permission fee is ¥200,000 for applications received from October 1, 2026. Applications received by September 30, 2026 keep the previous fee (¥10,000 for applications received from April 1, 2025). A ¥20,000 reduced fee applies only to applicants who meet the official reduction criteria, not to everyone. The fee is payable on permission; professional service fees are separate.

The Application Process Step-by-Step

After Approval: Your Rights and What Changes

Once approved, your status is recorded as 永住者 with no period of stay. In daily life the practical changes are:

• No status renewal: Permanent Resident has no period of stay, but the physical residence card still has an expiration date and must generally be renewed every 7 years at the immigration office (the card of a PR holder under 16 is valid until their 16th birthday).
• Free choice of work: any field, including self-employment, freelance, fields not listed in the original work permission scheme.
• Family visa stability: a foreign spouse may apply for Spouse of PR; children born after PR acquisition can hold PR-child or PR status under appropriate conditions.
• Re-entry rules: if leaving Japan for more than 1 year, you must hold a valid re-entry permit. The Special Re-entry Permit covers absences of up to 1 year only. A standard re-entry permit may allow an absence of up to 5 years for PR holders, within the permit's validity period and subject to the applicable rules. Failing to re-enter within the permit window means losing PR.

How PR can be lost

PR is not lost easily, but it is not unconditional. The main grounds for loss are:

• Leaving Japan beyond your re-entry permit window
• Being subject to deportation grounds under Article 24 of the Immigration Control Act (certain crimes, immigration violations)
• Acquiring PR by false declaration or fraud (status can be revoked under Article 22-4)
• Separate from application screening, new permanent-resident revocation grounds, including deliberate non-payment of public dues, take effect on April 1, 2027. They do not mean every missed payment causes automatic cancellation. Unavoidable inability to pay, such as illness or unemployment, is not the intended target; the cause of non-payment, subsequent payments and individual circumstances are considered. Where the new grounds apply, a change to another status may be made instead of revocation and departure.
• Naturalization (you become Japanese instead and the residence status concept no longer applies)

The 2024 Reform: PR Revocation for Tax / Social Insurance Default

Separate from application screening, new permanent-resident revocation grounds, including deliberate non-payment of public dues, take effect on April 1, 2027. They do not mean every missed payment causes automatic cancellation. Unavoidable inability to pay, such as illness or unemployment, is not the intended target; the cause of non-payment, subsequent payments and individual circumstances are considered. Where the new grounds apply, a change to another status may be made instead of revocation and departure.

Guidelines on revocation of Permanent Resident status / 2027-04-01 ↗

How long must I wait before applying again after a refusal?

The published permanent-residence procedure sets no fixed reapplication waiting period. First check the previous refusal reasons and review your circumstances and evidence. Do not assume that waiting 24 months guarantees approval or that unchanged documents guarantee a particular result. The timing and material needed depend on the issue in your case; ask for an individual review before filing again.

Immigration examines whether taxes, pension and public health-insurance premiums were paid properly and on time. Paying outstanding amounts now does not erase past late payments. The required documents and record periods depend on your application route; check the current official checklist and keep receipts. A late payment can count against an application, but the decision depends on all circumstances rather than an automatic refusal rule.

Do not rely on a universal ¥3 million income threshold. Under the revised income assessment, household income is considered against the level specified in the guideline for the household size, and some part-time income earned on non-work statuses is not included. Tax, pension and health-insurance compliance and the household's circumstances are assessed separately. Ask Tree to check your filing date and records before choosing a route.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Start with a timeline of your residence statuses, trips abroad and tax or social-insurance payments. Your application date determines which guideline applies, so do not decide from a single score, income figure or number of years. If you want to know when you can apply and which records to prepare, ask Administrative Scrivener Corporation Tree to review your situation before filing.

The ordinary permanent-residence permission fee is ¥200,000 for applications received from October 1, 2026. Applications received by September 30, 2026 keep the previous fee (¥10,000 for applications received from April 1, 2025). A ¥20,000 reduced fee applies only to applicants who meet the official reduction criteria, not to everyone. The fee is payable on permission; professional service fees are separate.

Immigration Services Agency: permanent residence guidelines — 2026-10-01 ↗

Check the Immigration Services Agency's current fee schedule ↗

• Related reading: Shakai Hoken for Foreign Workers, Year-End Tax Adjustment for Foreign Workers, and Residence Card Procedures Guide