Japan raises the permanent residency fee to 200,000 yen and adds an income test

Japan raised the fee for a permanent residency application to 200,000 yen on 1 October, twenty times the previous 10,000 yen charge. At about 1,270 dollars, or 955 pounds, the new fee is large enough to change who applies, not only how the immigration office accounts for the paperwork. Applicants must also show stable income at or above the Japanese average. A basic Japanese-language requirement begins in April 2027. The package is part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's tightening of rules on foreign residents.

The fee change is not limited to the permanent residency form. Before Thursday, a non-permanent resident paid 6,000 yen to change status or extend a stay. From 1 October that charge varies with the length of stay sought: 10,000 yen for three months or less, up to 75,000 yen for five years or more. Applicants in financial hardship, and people designated as refugees, are to receive discounts. The permanent residency fee and the extension fee are therefore two different instruments. One is a twenty-fold jump to 200,000 yen. The other is a sliding scale that tops out at 75,000 yen. Reporting that collapses them into a single hike misstates the bill a worker on a five-year status will actually pay.

The income test uses a published benchmark. Data released in July put average household income at 5.75 million yen as of 2024. Aspiring permanent residents must earn a stable income at or above the Japanese average. AFP reported a further pension condition: expected benefits equivalent to someone who has paid pension insurance for 30 years. Previous guidelines did not set numeric thresholds for income, pension or language. The shift is from discretion to a figure an applicant can fail. A household at 5.75 million yen is the line. Anyone under it, however long they have lived in Japan, does not meet the new income rule.

Language comes later. From April next year, permanent residency applicants will have to show basic Japanese. AFP described the standard as the ability to carry a casual conversation. That is a lower bar than the professional tests used for some work visas, and it is still a new bar. Previous practice did not require a stated language level for this status. The delay to April gives current applicants a window. It also gives the immigration office time to define what casual conversation means in an exam room.

The queue on the eve of the hike was visible. AFP visited an immigration office in central Tokyo and found hundreds of people waiting to file before the price rose. Yujie Chono, a 22-year-old American-born university student, said he had been waiting five hours. He told AFP, in fluent Japanese, that he understood the worry about culture and numbers, and that Japan's low birth rate and ageing population still required foreign residents. His five-hour wait is a small sample of the behaviour the fee is already producing: file now, at the old price, or pay 200,000 yen later.

The policy sits on a contradiction Takaichi's government has not resolved in the text of the rules. Japan has labour shortages in care, construction, agriculture and services, and one of the oldest populations in the world. Foreign residents are a rising share of the workforce. Opposition to further immigration has also risen, and the permanent residency fee is the instrument chosen to answer it. A twenty-fold fee does not reduce the number of people already in the country. It reduces the number who will convert a temporary status into a permanent one, and it selects for income. The 5.75 million yen line will fall harder on students, part-time workers and dependents than on salaried engineers.

What takes effect on Thursday is the money. What takes effect in April is the language test. The income and pension tests arrive with the new rules, in stages. The open question is whether the 200,000 yen fee cuts applications sharply enough to show up in the next residency statistics, or whether the people who can clear 5.75 million yen simply pay it and continue. Chono's queue suggests the first response is to file before the price moves. The second response will be visible only after the old forms are gone.