New tests for long-term residents
Japan tightened its permanent-residency rules on October 1, adding clearer financial, language and social-integration requirements while increasing the application fee from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen. The measures will take effect in stages and form part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s wider effort to impose stricter controls on foreign residents.
Applicants will have to demonstrate annual income above the national average and enough Japanese to conduct casual conversation. They must also show an understanding of social rules and expected pension benefits comparable to those of someone who paid pension insurance for 30 years. Previous guidance did not specify thresholds for income, pension entitlement or language ability.
The fee increase took effect immediately. Hundreds of people queued at a central Tokyo immigration office before the change, according to AFP. One applicant, American-born university student Yujie Chono, said he waited five hours to submit his paperwork.
Permanent residency can provide stability, freedom to change employment and greater credibility with lenders. Foreign residents without it can have difficulty obtaining mortgages. The new requirements may prevent some residents from applying, but they do not by themselves revoke anyone’s current permission to remain in Japan.
Tightening amid labor shortages
The policy arrives as Japan balances demographic pressure against growing political resistance to immigration. Its population is aging, the birth rate is low and employers in multiple sectors face labor shortages. Business voices have argued that Japan needs more foreign workers and should support their long-term settlement with language education and better treatment.
At the same time, immigration became a major issue in the previous year’s upper-house election. The Japanese-first Sanseito party made substantial gains, while misleading claims about foreign residents circulated online. Takaichi has said that rising numbers of foreign residents have left some citizens feeling anxious or unfairly treated, and has promoted what she calls orderly coexistence.
The government has already tightened rules for business-manager visas. Under those changes, entrepreneurs who fail to meet new conditions may have to leave the country. The permanent-residency measures extend that direction to people seeking an indefinite future in Japan.
Chono, who has lived in the country for a decade, described the tension at the center of the debate: concern about preserving culture alongside the need for younger residents to support an aging society. The new system answers that tension by demanding more evidence of earnings, language ability and pension security from applicants. Whether it also makes it harder for the workers Japan needs to establish durable lives will be a central test of the policy.
