Japan’s immigration offices were swamped on Monday as foreign residents rushed to file applications before a steep fee increase takes effect on 1 October. The fee for a permanent-residency application rises from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000 (about US$1,268), a twentyfold increase, while fees to change or renew a residence status rise from ¥6,000 to as much as ¥75,000, depending on the length of the permit. Applicants at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau reported waits of more than seven hours.
The increase, approved by the government in August, is separate from — but arrives alongside — the new permanent-residency income test that also takes effect 1 October: applicants must generally show income above the national household average (¥5.75 million a year in 2024, per a labour-ministry survey), a requirement applied retroactively to applications filed as far back as April, plus pension savings sufficient to cover 30 years of payments. Immigration consultant Yuki Hirose said the fee change triggered a rush of last-minute permanent-residency filings, with the online application system restricting the number of concurrent users.
Justice minister Hiraguchi Hiroshi said the higher fees are meant to help fund the cost of managing the country’s growing foreign-resident population, which reached a record 4.12 million — about 3% of Japan’s population — at the end of 2025. Further tightening is set for April 2027, when Japan plans to add a Japanese-language proficiency test and require permanent residency to demonstrate a “concrete benefit” to the country, according to Japan’s Immigration Services Agency.
For anyone with a Japan permanent-residency or status-renewal application already in progress or planned for this cycle, the two dates to track are 1 October (fee jump and income/pension test) and April 2027 (language and benefit-to-Japan requirements).
