Business Manager visa after the 2025 reforms: what founders must now show

What changed on 16 October 2025

The Business Manager status (経営・管理) covers the management or administration of a business in Japan. Until October 2025 the landing criteria could be met with JPY5 million of capital or two full-time employees, an office and a plausible plan. The ministerial ordinance was revised with effect from 16 October 2025, and a new application must now show five things: 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 business-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. A private home is in principle no longer accepted as the office, sector licences must be held, and tax and social-insurance compliance is checked at renewal.

Applications filed before 16 October 2025 are examined under the previous criteria. Existing holders have a three-year transitional period: a renewal filed by 16 October 2028 is not refused solely for failing the new criteria, though ISA weighs the business's condition and whether the criteria are likely to be met by the next renewal. After that date the new criteria apply to renewals, with a limited exception for sound, compliant businesses expected to comply by the following renewal. The same treatment applies to Highly Skilled Professional management-category holders and to Startup Visa holders confirmed before the change.

The five criteria in detail

Capital. JPY30 million is measured as paid-in capital for a company, or total contributions for a partnership-type entity. Retained earnings and reserves do not count, and salaries or office costs cannot be added to reach the figure. A sole proprietor shows the total genuinely invested in the business: premises, a year of staff salaries, equipment. Where the founder manages several companies, at least one must meet the threshold alone. The money must be paid in and recorded before filing; ISA examines the source and the bank trail.

Staff. One full-time employee who is a Japanese national, a special permanent resident or a holder of Permanent Resident, Spouse or Child of Japanese National, Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident or Long-Term Resident status. A foreign co-founder on an Engineer/Specialist status does not count. Nor do dispatched, seconded or contracted workers. ISA's indicators of full-time employment include a fixed schedule, around 30 hours or more a week and employment-insurance enrolment; the wage ledger and the employee's residence record are the evidence.

Capability. A master's, doctorate or professional degree in a field relevant to the business, foreign degrees included, or three years' experience in business management or administration, with employment certificates that describe management duties. ISA states that preparation time under the Startup Visa counts towards the three years.

Language. The applicant or a full-time employee must have Japanese at CEFR B2 or above: JLPT N2, a BJT score of 400, twenty years of mid- to long-term residence, graduation from a Japanese higher-education institution or completion of Japanese compulsory schooling plus high school. A Table I status holder may satisfy this test as the employee even though they cannot satisfy the staff test, which gives a founder with a Japanese-speaking foreign colleague a lawful route to the language criterion.

Plan review. The plan submitted for the initial decision must be reviewed by a Japanese registered SME management consultant, certified public accountant or tax accountant who is not an officer or employee of the company. The reviewer's opinion is an exhibit; a plan that does not survive an independent review should be revised before filing.

Sequencing a company under the new rules

The practical consequence is that the order of operations has reversed. A founder used to arrive, incorporate, then build. Now the company must be capitalised, staffed, housed and reviewed before the Certificate of Eligibility application, which means either a trusted Japanese partner, a professional firm acting under instruction, or the Startup Visa's two-year preparation period. For founders who cannot do the first two, the Startup Visa is the honest route: it exists to give time to meet criteria that cannot be met from abroad.

Who the reform helps, and who it excludes

The reform targets under-capitalised ventures that existed to support a status rather than to trade. It helps founders with real businesses in two ways: the authority's examination becomes more predictable, because the criteria are specific, and the resulting company is more useful, because a capitalised and staffed Japanese entity is a credible affiliate for a US L-1 new-office petition or a Singapore group structure. A family business placing a member in Japan to run a distribution subsidiary will find the criteria straightforward if the subsidiary is genuine.

It excludes founders without JPY30 million or the ability to raise it, founders who intended to work alone, and founders who planned to learn the market before committing. Some of these can use the Startup Visa; others should consider employment under a work status with a Japanese company first, building the three years of management experience and the language level that the criteria reward. An MBA or a relevant master's satisfies the capability test on its own; the experience route requires certificates that describe management duties, not titles.

Common errors under the new regime

• Counting a foreign co-founder on a work visa as the full-time employee. The staff test excludes Table I status holders.
• Treating JPY30 million as a cash balance to be shown rather than paid-in capital to be recorded, or as a figure to be reached by adding salaries and rent.
• Having the company's own accountant or an officer review the plan. The reviewer must be external and qualified.
• Assuming the transitional period means no change. Renewals during the three years are examined on whether the business will meet the criteria; after 16 October 2028 they must.
• Registering the office at the founder's apartment.
• Filing without the April 2026 declaration about the organisation's representative where ISA requires it for Category 3 and 4 applicants.

The Business Manager status remains the natural route for a founder or a subsidiary head, and the management years it produces feed the HSP table and the accelerated permanent-residence routes. What the reform demands is that the company be real before the founder arrives. For founders whose plans were real anyway, that is a sequencing problem rather than a barrier.