Japan lifts permanent-residency fees from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000 on 1 October

From 1 October a foreign resident who applies in person for permanent residency in Japan will pay ¥200,000, about $1,250, instead of ¥10,000. The same ordinance, adopted by the Cabinet on 25 August, scraps the flat ¥6,000 fee for changing or renewing status of residence and replaces it with a scale tied to the length of stay granted.

At a government counter the new prices are ¥10,000 for three months or less, ¥33,000 for one year, ¥64,000 for three years but under five, and ¥75,000 for five years or more. Online filings for stays longer than three months get a discount of ¥3,000 to ¥10,000, so a five-year online renewal is ¥65,000. Permanent residency remains an in-person procedure only.

The legal ceiling is higher than the prices now set. The immigration law revised in May allows fees of up to ¥100,000 for ordinary status changes and ¥300,000 for permanent residency. The Immigration Services Agency chose figures inside those caps after a public-comment round. Applications filed before 1 October keep the old prices even if the decision comes later.

Reductions exist for people in financial hardship. After comments on the draft, the agency widened the group that can pay ¥10,000 for a temporary stay and ¥20,000 for permanent residency. The test is hardship on the scale of public assistance plus a humanitarian ground. Special permanent residents, the Korean and other communities whose families lost Japanese nationality after the war, sit under a different status and are not the target of the ¥200,000 line.

Justice Minister Hiraguchi Hiroshi told reporters the increase is needed so that policy on living with foreign residents can be carried out in an orderly way. Nikkei, writing when the statutory caps were raised in May, said the extra revenue is meant for language education and integration work. The foreign population has grown quickly. Local governments have been asking Tokyo for staff and classroom money for years.

The South China Morning Post noted a second track running beside the fees: tighter proposed tests for permanent residency, including an above-average household income. Those criteria are not the same instrument as the fee table, but together they change the cost and the standard of staying for good.

For employers the practical date is 1 October. A company that renews a specialist's three-year status at a counter will pay ¥64,000 instead of ¥6,000. A family applying for permanent residency will need ¥200,000 per application, in cash or whatever instrument the bureau accepts, on the day they appear. Refugee-designated applicants are in the reduced-fee group. Students on short stays will feel the smaller end of the scale.

Whether the new cash actually reaches language classes and local desks is a budget question for the next fiscal year. The ordinance only sets what the bureau charges at the window.