Japan Now Charges ¥200,000 for Permanent Residency: The New Residence Fees and the Final 2026 Guidelines

For most foreigners living in Japan, renewing a visa used to cost ¥6,000. Applying for permanent residency cost ¥10,000. Both numbers are gone. Since 1 October 2026, a renewal costs between ¥10,000 and ¥75,000, depending on how long a stay Japan grants, and a permanent residency permission costs ¥200,000.

On the same day, the Immigration Services Agency published the final version of its Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence. The Brief described the draft in September, in Japan rewrites the permanent residency deal. The final text is now out, and it carries its own timetable. Together, the two changes reset what it costs, in money and in paperwork, to build a long-term life in Japan.

The new fee table

The Agency's fee notice and its English leaflet set out the amounts. They apply to a change of status of residence and to an extension of the period of stay, and they now depend on the period of stay granted:

Before the revision, the same permissions cost a flat ¥6,000 at the counter or ¥5,500 online. Permission for permanent residence rises from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000, and it can only be paid at the counter.

Two details matter in practice. First, the fee is set by the stay you are granted, not the stay you ask for. You apply, the Agency decides, and the amount follows the decision. Second, the leaflet notes that online payments carry a separate transaction fee on top of the amounts in the table.

Who pays the old fee and who pays the new one

The transitional rule is simple and generous. According to the Agency, the new fees are paid by foreign nationals who apply on or after 1 October 2026 and then receive the permission. An application received by 30 September 2026 pays the old fee, even if the permission is granted after 1 October.

For anyone who filed in September, that is the end of it. For everyone else, the new table applies from the next renewal onward.

How the fees are paid now

The payment method depends on how you applied.

• Counter applications are still paid with revenue stamps. The Agency's leaflet says the amount will be shown on the postcard sent when the examination is complete. It asks applicants to buy the stamps in advance at a large post office, because the shops inside immigration bureaus hold limited stock, and it notes that revenue stamps can only be bought with cash.
• Online applications are paid by convenience store payment or bank payment only, including cashless internet banking. Revenue stamps are no longer accepted for online applications. After the examination is finished, a separate email arrives with a payment link and the amount.

The Agency also warns that payment emails come only from the address of its designated payment operator, and that any other address asking for a fee is a scam. With five-figure sums now involved, that warning deserves to be taken literally.

Why Japan says it raised the fees

The Agency's Q&A on the revision gives the official reasoning. Long-term residents, it says, should bear a reasonable share of the cost of strengthening immigration control and keeping administration fair. The caps were set with reference to actual processing costs, the cost of immigration control, fees charged in other countries and room for future inflation.

The Q&A also explains the shape of the table. Fees rise with the length of stay because the benefit a resident receives grows with it. But the fee per year falls for longer stays: a five-year permission at ¥75,000 works out at ¥15,000 a year, against ¥33,000 for a single year. The Agency's reason is that holders of long permits generally have good records. Online fees are lower to push applications away from crowded counters.

The extra revenue, according to the same Q&A, will fund digitalisation of immigration administration, protection and support for refugees, the "Zero Illegal Stay" plan, Japanese language and local-rules learning programmes, and better information and consultation services for foreign residents.

The Brief looked at the wider pattern of governments raising charges on residents who cannot vote in the fee state. Japan's revision is a clear case of it, and the Agency is open about the logic.

The narrow reduction

There is a reduction, but it is deliberately narrow. The Agency's reduction page explains that the amended Immigration Control Act, as changed by Act No. 32 of 2026, allows the fee to be reduced or waived for people designated by Cabinet Order.

• The reduction is for people in financial hardship comparable to recipients of public assistance who also need humanitarian consideration. The Q&A is explicit that both conditions must be met.
• The reduced fee is ¥10,000 for a change of status or an extension, and ¥20,000 for permanent residency.
• For permanent residency, the reduction is limited to spouses and children of Japanese nationals, permanent residents and special permanent residents, and similar cases.
• Supporting documents must be filed with the application, and the online system does not support the reduction. Anyone claiming it has to apply at the counter.

For an ordinary working family, none of this applies. The reduction exists so that refugees, trafficking victims and others in real hardship are not refused a permit only because they cannot pay.

What a family now pays

The fee is charged per permission, and the published table makes no distinction for children. A family of four whose members each receive a one-year extension at the counter now pays ¥132,000 a year, where it used to pay ¥24,000. If the same family applies for permanent residency together, the counter fees alone reach ¥800,000.

The arithmetic favours two things: longer permits and online filing. A household that qualifies for three- or five-year stays and files online pays considerably less per year than one renewing annually at the counter. Since the length of stay granted is the Agency's decision, the practical lever is a clean record: taxes, pension and health insurance paid on time, notifications filed, no gaps.

The final permanent residency guidelines

The second change of 1 October is the bigger one. The revised guidelines replace the earlier text and set out how the Agency weighs three legal requirements: good conduct, the means to support oneself, and that the applicant's permanent residence is in Japan's interest. The final version keeps the substance of the draft.

• Income. Household income should consistently reach a level above the average income of Japanese households of the same size. Income of family members on dependant status does not count, and dependants abroad are added to the household size.
• Pension. The applicant's projected pension is compared with what someone would receive after 30 years of work at that income level in the Employees' Pension system. A shortfall can be covered by financial assets, with a lower asset requirement for younger applicants.
• Residence. Generally 10 years of continuous residence, including 5 years on a work or residence status, while holding the maximum period of stay for the current status. A single absence of more than six months, or more than two years and six months in total within the past ten years, without good reason, generally counts against the applicant.
• Taxes and public charges. Income tax, residence tax and other taxes, plus public health insurance and pension contributions, must have been paid properly, generally assessed for the whole household. Past arrears or enforced collection count against the applicant even if they are settled.
• Japanese language. Generally B1 level under Japan's reference framework for Japanese language education, with exemptions that include highly skilled professionals and their families, people with six or more years of schooling at Japanese primary or secondary level, and certain children of permanent residents.
• Rules and institutions. Applicants' understanding of Japan's systems and rules will be checked, mainly against the government's Living and Working Guidebook, by a method the Agency designates.
• School-age children. Parents of school-age children must show that the children attend elementary or junior high school.

The shortened routes remain. Spouses of Japanese nationals and permanent residents need five years of genuine marriage and three years of residence. Highly skilled professionals with 70 points qualify after three years, with 80 points after one. The separate guideline on contributions to Japan has been abolished and folded into the new text. For the language side in a wider comparison, see the Brief's overview of language requirements for residency and citizenship.

When the new rules bite

The timetable is in the guidelines' final section and deserves careful reading:

1. The revised guidelines apply to applications filed on or after 1 April 2027.
2. Two parts, the income criterion and the criterion that the applicant must not be a burden on public funds, also apply to applications filed six months before the revision date, that is from 1 April 2026, which were still pending on 1 October 2026.
3. On the maximum-period-of-stay requirement, a holder of a three-year permit is treated as holding the maximum if they apply by 31 March 2027. After that date, the concession only survives for a first application from someone who held a three-year permit on 31 March 2027 and receives a decision before that permit expires.

The guidelines also note that the 2024 amendment to the Immigration Control Act writes compliance with legal duties and payment of public charges into the statutory test itself from 1 April 2027, while stressing that these factors were already being considered.

What this means for someone planning a life in Japan

For a household already on the path, the dates are the plan. The general rule gives applicants until 31 March 2027 before the revised guidelines apply. The text is less clear on one point: it reaches the income and public-burden criteria back to cases filed between April and September 2026 that were still pending on 1 October, but it does not spell out how those two criteria are handled for applications filed between October 2026 and March 2027. A family that would fail the average-income test should not plan on the window being a safe harbour, and should get the question answered for its own case before filing. A family whose income clears the bar has less reason to rush, but will pay the ¥200,000 per person regardless.

For anyone still deciding whether Japan is the right base, the fee change is small next to the guidelines. Japan's tax rules for newcomers, including the treatment of foreign income for non-permanent residents, are on the Japan country page. The more useful question is whether a household can meet an average-income test and a 30-year pension benchmark ten years from now, which is exactly the frame of the Brief's ten-year test.

Japan has not closed the door. It has priced it, written down who walks through it, and published the timetable. That is more than many countries offer.

Work with Sebastian

If you are building a long-term life in Japan, or weighing it against other bases in Asia, and want residence, income and tax planned together before the 2027 rules apply, that is the kind of cross-border planning Sebastian works on with internationally mobile families. Book a consultation.