Permanent residency in Japan has always been the quiet end point of a long stay. Ten years, a clean record, a steady income, and one day the Immigration Services Agency grants you the status of eijūsha, permanent resident, with no limit on your activities and no renewal to worry about again.
That bargain is being rewritten. On 4 August 2026 the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) published two drafts for public comment: a revised set of Permanent Residency Guidelines, which govern who gets the status, and a first-ever set of guidelines on revoking it. The comment period, according to the agency's call for comments, ran until 3 September. As of today, 4 September, both documents are drafts. The revocation text still carries the placeholder "令和８年〇月〇日策定", adopted on the blank day of a blank month of 2026. Nothing in either draft is in force, and the final versions may differ. But drafts at this stage show the direction clearly, and the direction is towards a more demanding deal on both sides of the grant.
The Deal as It Stands Today
The current guidelines, last revised on 24 February 2026, rest on the three legal requirements in Article 22(2) of the Immigration Control Act: good conduct, the means to live independently, and a stay that is in Japan's interest.
In practice that means, as a rule, ten years of continuous residence, of which at least five on a work or residence status (technical intern training and Specified Skilled Worker (i) do not count). It means no fines or prison sentences. It means taxes, pension contributions and health insurance premiums paid properly, and the current guidelines already warn that paying late counts against you even if the arrears are cleared by the time you apply. Applicants must hold the longest permitted period of stay for their current status.
The exceptions are well known. Spouses of Japanese nationals or permanent residents qualify after three years of real marriage and one year in Japan. Highly skilled professionals with 70 points on the points table can apply after three years, and those with 80 points after one year.
What the Draft Grant Guidelines Ask For
The draft revision keeps the ten-year rule and the three legal requirements. What changes is how high each bar sits.
The status is described differently. For the first time, the guidelines state that permanent residency is the most stable legal status a foreigner can hold, one under which the holder is expected to spend the rest of their life in Japan, and that applications therefore require "特に慎重な審査", especially careful review. The national interest requirement is sharpened as well: a stay must bring a positive and concrete benefit to Japan, not merely avoid harming it.
Income is measured against Japanese households. The draft asks whether household income has continuously exceeded the average income of Japanese households of the same size. Earnings of family members on a dependant status do not count towards the total, while relatives abroad whom the applicant supports do count towards household size. The ISA's own summary calls this a raising of the standard.
A pension test appears. The draft compares the applicant's projected state pension with what someone would receive after thirty years in the employees' pension scheme on that above-average income. Where the projection falls short, financial assets that could cover the gap can make up for it, with the required amount scaled to the applicant's age.
Japanese at B1 becomes a factor. The draft asks for Japanese at B1 level on Japan's "Reference Framework for Japanese Language Education", the national adaptation of the European CEFR scale. B1 is the level of an independent user who can handle familiar matters at work and in daily life. Highly skilled professionals and their families are exempt, as are applicants who have completed at least six years of primary or secondary schooling in Japan, and certain children of permanent residents born in Japan.
Understanding the rules is tested. Applicants would have their knowledge of Japan's systems and rules checked, based mainly on the government's Guidebook on Living and Working. A poor understanding, or no interest in acquiring one, would count against them.
School-age children must be in school. Parents of children of compulsory school age would need to show that the children attend elementary or junior high school.
Spouses wait longer. The spousal exception would rise from three years of marriage and one year in Japan to five years of marriage and three years in Japan. The points-based fast tracks at three years and one year remain in the draft.
The timing is set out at the end. The revised guidelines would apply to applications filed from 1 April 2027. The income and public-burden elements, however, would also apply to applications filed in the six months before the revision date that are still pending on that date, and the ISA's summary says the income element is to take effect this October. Anyone planning to apply in the coming months cannot assume the old income test will be the one applied.
The Other Draft: When Permanent Residency Can Be Taken Away
The second draft deals with a power Japan created in 2024. The amendment to the Immigration Control Act passed that year added new grounds for revoking permanent resident status, in Article 22-4(1)(viii) and (ix). According to the grant draft, those provisions take effect on 1 April 2027. The revocation draft explains how the agency intends to use them.
There are three grounds. The first is failing to comply with duties under the Immigration Act, such as renewing or carrying the residence card. A single lapse, such as forgetting a renewal, technically qualifies, but the draft says one such lapse alone is not expected to lead to revocation.
The second is intentionally not paying taxes and public charges. The draft defines these broadly: income tax, resident tax, corporation tax and fixed asset tax, plus national health insurance and pension premiums. Fees and fines do not count; the draft's own examples are the Mount Fuji trail fee and traffic fines. Failing to file a return that was plainly required also counts as non-payment, and so can unpaid taxes of a company that the permanent resident controls.
"Intentionally" is the filter. The draft lists what it expects to qualify: long arrears combined with moving without registering, ignoring repeated demands, repeatedly breaking an agreed instalment plan, a conviction for tax evasion, and hiding assets to defeat collection. It also lists what should not: inability to pay through illness, disaster or unemployment, including business downturns, domestic violence and job loss caused by harassment; being on an instalment plan and keeping to it; being on welfare-level support; and an employer that deducted the tax from your salary and never paid it over. There is no fixed arrears threshold. And non-payment that took place before April 2027 but comes to light afterwards can count, although the draft says later payment behaviour will be weighed as well.
The third ground is a custodial sentence, even a suspended one, for listed intentional offences: theft, fraud, extortion, assault, homicide, dangerous driving causing death or injury and others.
The consequences are graded. In most cases the draft expects the Minister of Justice to change the person's status ex officio, usually to Long-Term Resident (teijūsha), rather than revoke it and require departure. Revocation is reserved for cases where continued residence is not appropriate, such as a clear intention never to pay, or a further conviction on top of an earlier prison sentence. A person moved to Long-Term Resident can apply for permanent residency again once they meet the requirements. Government and municipal officials who come across a possible case may report it to the ISA, but the draft stresses that reporting is voluntary and that a report alone decides nothing.
What the New Deal Means in Practice
Taken together, the two drafts turn permanent residency from a finishing line into a status that has to be kept. The grant side asks for evidence that an applicant will not become a public charge for decades: above-average income, a pension record built over a working life in Japan, and the language and civic knowledge to function without help. The revocation side makes the same promise enforceable afterwards.
Three groups feel this most. Foreign spouses of Japanese nationals face the largest extension, from three years of marriage and one year in Japan to five and three. The self-employed and freelancers carry the most risk on the pension test, because the projection is built on employees' pension membership, and gaps from years in the national pension scheme or abroad would need to be covered by assets. Families with children in international schools face an open question: the draft speaks of elementary and junior high school attendance, and the final text will show how schools outside the standard system are treated.
The highly skilled professional route, by contrast, keeps its speed and its exemption from the language requirement. The direction is consistent with a policy that wants to attract high earners and hold everyone else to a higher standard.
What to Do Before the Rules Are Final
The drafts are not law, but several steps make sense under any final version.
Pay everything on time, and keep the proof. Late payment already counts against applicants under the current guidelines, and the revocation draft makes wilful non-payment a ground for losing the status afterwards. Bank records and receipts for resident tax, pension and health insurance are the core of any file, in the same way that a clean paper trail protects tax residency claims elsewhere.
Check your pension record now. The draft's pension test looks back over your whole contribution history. Knowing where the gaps are, and what assets would be needed to cover them, is better done before an application than after a refusal.
Start on Japanese early. B1 is an achievable level, but not one reached in a few months from scratch. If the requirement survives into the final text, it will apply to applications filed from April 2027.
Think about timing, but do not rush a weak application. The income test may apply to pending applications before April 2027, so an early filing is not automatically safer. An application refused under the current rules stays on record.
Japan remains one of the most stable places in the world to build a long life, and the tax treatment of newcomers is its own subject. But a ten-year residency plan now needs a ten-year view of the rules as well, which is exactly the discipline behind the ten-year test. For families who want a second anchor alongside Japanese residency, The Two-Passport Family sets out the options.
Work with Sebastian
If you live in Japan or plan a long stay there and want to understand where you stand under the current and draft rules, book a consultation.
