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.
A status assessment linked to the real job and the readiness of the Japanese operation.
Distinct eligibility, documentation, application steps and FAQs for each route.
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 & FAQsA 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 & FAQsA 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 & FAQsWhen 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 & FAQsStart with your objective, background and intended activity. WG can coordinate the next assessment and the appropriate professional input.