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2026-09-09

10,000 yen becomes 200,000: Japan's permanent residency fee

永住の手数料が、1万円から20万円になります

Starting October 1st, applying for permanent residency in Japan costs 200,000 yen.

Today it costs 10,000.

That is not a typo. Twenty times, in one step. Renewal fees are going up too, to as much as 75,000 yen depending on the case.

It is the date you file that counts, not the date they answer. File by September 30 and you pay 10,000. File in October and you pay 200,000.

That is 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.

If you have been putting off your permanent residency application, this is the month to stop.

What is holding you up?

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