Japan lifts the permanent-residency fee from 64 dollars to 1,271

Japan raised the fee for a permanent-residency application from about 64 dollars to 1,271 dollars on Thursday, a 2,000 percent increase, and it attached income, pension and language tests that applicants have not had to meet in this form before.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced the package on X. "There are citizens who feel anxiety and a sense of unfairness," she wrote. The measures, she said, were meant to ensure that "both citizens and foreigners can live safely and securely." The fee rise is the largest in Japan's history, the New York Times reported. In July the government had already raised some tourist visa prices by more than 400 percent.

The immigration agency revised its guidelines the same day. Applicants will need an income at or above the average for Japanese households. That average was about 5.75 million yen in 2024, roughly 36,500 dollars. The Times put the income floor at 36,428 dollars a year. Projected pension benefits must line up with what an employee might receive after 30 years in the employees' pension scheme, measured at the applicant's income when they apply. Language must reach the level of an "independent user," and the agency will for the first time score understanding of Japanese rules and customs.

The dates are staggered. Mainichi reported that the revised guidelines take effect in April 2027, while the income test applies back to applications filed from April 2026. Fees for residence-status applications jumped on Thursday itself. A file opened this spring can therefore be judged on a rule published in October. That retroactive income screen is the part of the package that reaches people already in the queue, not only people who apply next year.

Spouse routes tighten as well. Previously, a spouse of a Japanese national or a permanent resident could seek permanent residency after three years of marriage and one year of residence. The new guidelines raise those floors to five years of marriage and three years of residence. The ordinary path still requires, in principle, more than 10 years in Japan. The spouse shortcut was the faster door. It is now a slower one, by two years of marriage and two years of residence.

The government can also take permanent residency away. Under the rules, status can be revoked if a resident fails to pay pension contributions, health insurance or taxes, or if they break immigration law or the penal code. A grant is no longer only a grant. It is a status that can be reviewed against bills and a criminal file.

The official name of the package is the Comprehensive Measures for Acceptance and Coexistence of Foreign Nationals. The title says acceptance. The operative clauses raise the price of applying, raise the income bar to the household average, add a language test, lengthen the spouse clock, and add a revocation trigger. Takaichi has framed the same clauses as a reply to public unease. The fee multiple is the cleanest measure of that reply: 64 dollars to 1,271, twenty times the old charge, due at the application window.

Who is affected depends on the clock. A tourist who wanted a visa in July already met the earlier price rise. A worker who filed for permanent residency in May of this year can meet the income test even though the guideline was revised in October. A spouse who married two years ago and planned to apply after three years of marriage now waits until year five, and must also show three years of residence rather than one. A person who already holds permanent residency faces a new risk on unpaid pension and tax, not only on a fresh application.

The 5.75 million yen floor is a household average, not a wage for a single worker. An applicant whose own pay sits under that average fails even if the pay is ordinary for their job. The pension test asks for a projected benefit equal to 30 years of contributions at the applicant's current income. A newcomer with a high salary and a short contribution history may fail the pension line while passing the income line. The two tests can point different ways.

April 2027 is when the full guideline set applies. Thursday is when the fee changed. Between those dates, the income rule reaches back to April 2026 files. The open question for anyone in that queue is whether a form accepted under the old guidance will be scored under the new one, and Mainichi's account of the retroactive income screen says yes.