Sep 9, 2026
10,000 yen becomes 200,000: Japan's permanent residency fee
永住の手数料が、1万円から20万円になりました
Since October 1, 2026, permanent residency in Japan costs 200,000 yen.
Until September 30 it cost 10,000.
That is not a typo. Twenty times, in one step. Renewal fees went up too, to as much as 75,000 yen depending on the case.
It is the date your application was received that counts, not the date they answer. Received by September 30, you pay 10,000. Received from October, you pay 200,000.
That was roughly three weeks of warning for a 190,000 yen difference.
Japan’s immigration fees have been low for a very long time. The permanent residency fee had not moved since 1981, and processing costs money. Nobody expected 10,000 yen to last forever.
The timing is what makes it sting.
It arrives in the same month as the new permanent residency rules: an income test, a pension threshold, and a Japanese language requirement. The bar went up. The price of trying went up twenty times. Both at once.
For a care worker or a cook earning under 3 million yen, 200,000 yen is not a fee. It is a month of living.
The September 30 line has passed. If you apply now, the fee is 200,000 yen. It is reduced to 20,000 yen only for limited cases, such as spouses or children of Japanese nationals, permanent residents, or special permanent residents. The Immigration Services Agency has the details: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/16-4.html
2026年10月1日から、日本の永住許可の申請手数料は20万円になりました。
9月30日までは1万円でした。
一度に20倍に上がったことになります。更新の手数料も上がり、在留期間によっては窓口で7万5千円になります。
分かれ目はここです。適用される料金は、申請が受け付けられた日で決まります。許可が下りた日ではありません。9月30日までに受け付けられた申請は1万円、10月に入ってからは20万円です。
19万円の差に対して、猶予はおよそ3週間でした。
日本の在留手続の手数料は長いあいだ低いままでした。永住の手数料は1981年から動いていません。審査には費用がかかりますし、1万円がずっと続くと思っていた人もいないはずです。
それでも、時期の重なり方はつらいところです。
しかも、永住の新しい要件が始まるのと同じ月です。世帯平均を超える年収、年金の要件、そして日本語能力です。基準が上がり、挑戦する費用が20倍になり、それが同時に起きました。
年収300万円に届かない介護職や調理の仕事をしている人にとって、20万円は「手数料」ではありません。1か月の生活そのものです。
9月30日の区切りは過ぎました。これから申請する場合の手数料は20万円です。2万円に減額されるのは、日本人、永住者または特別永住者の配偶者または子などに限られます。詳しくは出入国在留管理庁の案内をご確認ください。 https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/16-4.html
Comments
No comments yet.
Log in to like, comment, and repost.
Keep reading
1 min read
"Fake it till you make it": an APU graduate's first year inside a Japanese company
Aditi is from Mumbai, the city of dreams as she calls it. She now lives in Fukuoka and works in international sales for a Japanese company that makes construction equipment.
1 min read
“Fukuoka is top tier”: a Madrid makeup artist, now teaching in Fukuoka
Alicia came from Madrid, where she worked as a makeup artist on jobs that included CHANEL. Her company sent her to Fukuoka, and it worked out. She talks about two beauty standards, teaching a language that is not her own, and why Spain is full of sunglasses and Japan is full of umbrellas.
Sep 8, 2026 · 1 min read
371,215 workplaces, and a third that understand the rules
Foreign hiring in Japan is running well ahead of the ability to keep people. 63% of the workplaces doing it have fewer than 30 staff, and 23.8% admit they do not understand the visa rules.