Match the status to the work in Japan.
Management, intra-group transfers and professional employment use different residence statuses. A company registration or investment alone does not authorise the founder or staff to work.
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Japan
Business operations, professional employment and distinct highly skilled talent routes.
Complete analysisJapan:
Japan:
the full mobility picture.
Route map, corporate transfers, talent and founder routes, family, compliance, timelines and a mobility capital analysis, in one guide with official sources.
Choose your perspectiveDifferent needs.
Different needs.
Different pathways.
Each service area leads to its own programme selection and detailed guidance.
Talent, research and a place to begin.
Compare the points-based Highly Skilled Professional route with J-Skip’s specific high-income and experience criteria, and J-Find’s time-limited opportunity for eligible recent graduates. There is no single generic “J visa”.
Explore WG Signature ↗Residence, family, education and the structures that make routes available.
Programme guides with eligibility, evidence, steps and a mobility capital analysis.
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Your options at a glance
Highly Skilled Professional
A points-based status for advanced researchers, specialist professionals and business managers with a substantive role in Japan. The route can support an accelerated permanent-residence application, but the points score does not replace the underlying work, conduct or residence requirements.
Available · points and activity assessmentRequirements, process & FAQsJ-Skip: Special Highly Skilled Professional
An alternative to the standard points calculation for professionals with high remuneration and substantial qualifications or experience. J-Skip supports a genuine Japanese research, technical or management role; it is not a general investor visa or permission to remain without qualifying work.
Available · separate high-level testsRequirements, process & FAQsJ-Find: Future Creation Individual
A designated-activities route for recent graduates of eligible leading universities to explore employment or prepare a business in Japan. It provides a structured period to develop a credible next step, rather than an investment-based settlement right.
Available · eligible recent graduatesRequirements, process & FAQsBusiness Manager
Residence for substantive management of a real Japanese business. The framework changed materially in October 2025: a newly prepared application must address capital, staffing, management capability, Japanese-language capability and a credible operating plan.
Available · reformed criteria applyRequirements, process & FAQsEngineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services
A core employment status for professional technical and humanities work, and specified work requiring knowledge rooted in foreign culture. The decisive issue is the employee’s actual duties and qualifications, not a generic “office worker” label.
Available · duties and qualifications assessmentRequirements, process & FAQsIntra-company Transferee
A route for time-limited transfers from an overseas group operation into a Japanese office to perform qualifying professional work. It is useful for enterprise mobility when the corporate relationship and the employee’s pre-transfer duties can be evidenced clearly.
Available · qualifying group assignmentRequirements, process & FAQsStartup Visa: Designated Activities for founders preparing a Japanese business
A founder who cannot yet meet the Business Manager criteria may enter Japan under Designated Activities to prepare the business, supported by a local government or certified private body approved by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Since 1 January 2025 the former Special Zone scheme and the METI scheme have been unified and operate nationwide, with a cumulative period of up to two years. The status is preparatory: the authority expects a credible transition to Business Manager, not an open-ended stay.
Available nationwide · Designated Activities for up to two yearsRequirements, process & FAQsPermanent Residence: the ten-year rule and the Highly Skilled Professional shortcuts
Permanent residence removes the activity and period-of-stay limits attached to every other status. The Minister of Justice grants it under Article 22 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, applying published guidelines that were revised in February and October 2026. The standard expectation is ten years of continuous residence; Highly Skilled Professional points can reduce the residence period, but every other requirement, including good conduct and full payment of taxes and social-insurance contributions, still applies.
Established discretionary permission · Immigration Control Act Article 22Requirements, process & FAQsHighly Skilled Professional (ii): indefinite residence for established professionals
Highly Skilled Professional (ii), 高度専門職2号, is the second stage of Japan's points-based status. After three years of HSP activity, a holder who still scores 70 points or more, has conducted themselves well and whose continued stay is in Japan's interest may receive a status without a fixed period of stay and with permission to combine the principal activity with almost any other work-status activity. It is not permanent residence: the status remains tied to a qualifying activity and can be lost if that activity stops.
Available · points and conduct assessment after three years of HSP activityRequirements, process & FAQsDependant and family statuses: 家族滞在, HSP family privileges and spouses of Japanese nationals
Family members do not share the principal's status in Japan; each holds their own. A spouse or child of a work-status holder usually holds Dependant (家族滞在), which permits daily life and study but allows paid work only with permission and within 28 hours a week. Highly Skilled Professionals receive wider concessions for spouses, and in defined circumstances for a parent or a domestic worker. Spouses of Japanese nationals and permanent residents hold a status with no activity restriction. The right choice depends on the principal's status, household income and what each family member intends to do.
Established family statuses · conditions depend on the principal's statusRequirements, process & FAQsDesignated Activities: the Digital Nomad status, job-hunting permissions and other designated categories
Designated Activities (特定活動) is the status the Minister of Justice uses for activities that do not fit a listed category. Some are published in the Designated Activities notice, including the Digital Nomad category introduced on 31 March 2024, the continued job-hunting permission for graduates and the family concessions for Highly Skilled Professionals; others are designated individually. The common feature is that the permitted activity is written into the designation, and nothing outside it is allowed.
Available · conditions set by the Designated Activities notice and individual designationRequirements, process & FAQsLabour dispatch, contracting and secondment: structuring foreign assignees lawfully
When a foreign professional works at premises that are not their employer's, Japanese law asks a question that immigration status alone does not answer: who directs the work? If the client directs the worker, the arrangement is labour dispatch and must run through a licensed dispatch business within the Worker Dispatch Act's limits. If the contractor directs its own staff and runs the work as its own business, it is contracting (請負). A secondment (出向) is a third structure with its own limits under the Employment Security Act. Mislabelling is called disguised contracting (偽装請負) and exposes the client, the contractor and the assignee.
Compliance mechanism · Worker Dispatch Act, Employment Security Act and the 1986 classification criteriaRequirements, process & FAQsBusiness Manager after 16 October 2025: what founders must now show
The ministerial ordinance governing the Business Manager (経営・管理) landing criteria was revised with effect from 16 October 2025. A founder who files a new application must now show capital or investment of at least JPY30 million, at least one full-time employee from a defined group, a relevant postgraduate degree or three years of management experience, Japanese-language capability at CEFR B2 held by the applicant or a full-time employee, and a business plan reviewed by a qualified Japanese professional. Existing holders have a three-year transitional period for renewals. This page covers the changes; the Business Manager page covers the status as a whole.
Reformed criteria in force · three-year transitional period for existing holdersRequirements, process & FAQs