2026-10-23

Japan has no cap on foreign residents. That is being decided by March.

Japan has no legal limit on how many foreign nationals can live here. That is being decided right now, and the deadline is March.

Prime Minister Takaichi has pledged to finalize the basic policy on accepting foreign residents by the end of the fiscal year. A comprehensive population strategy is due even sooner, by the end of this year.

The question on the table is a cap. In parliament this month, Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya pressed for numerical limits on three things. The annual net inflow. The total number of foreign residents. Their share of the population.

Here is the context the headline skips. In January the number of Japanese nationals fell below 120 million for the first time in 42 years. Foreign nationals are about 4.13 million, around 3.47 percent of the population. The national projection has the total falling to roughly 87 million by 2070, with foreign nationals above 10 percent.

The country is shrinking, the share is rising, and the policy is being written in the same twelve months.

Caps are not hypothetical. Some statuses already have them. In April the government suspended new admissions in the food service category of the Specified Skilled Worker programme because the number was approaching its ceiling of 50,000.

If you are planning a move to Japan, that is the part to understand. Your route is not only a set of requirements. It is a queue with a number on it, and the number can close.

That is what I work on with people. Which status, which sector, and how much room is left in it.

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Japan has no cap on foreign residents. That is being decided by March.

外国人の受け入れに上限は無い。それが3月までに決まる

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