Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

• For Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, work needing scientific, technical or humanities knowledge requires a university degree or equivalent education in a related subject, a related course completed at a Japanese advanced vocational school (専修学校) that meets requirements the Minister of Justice sets by public notice (告示), or 10 years' experience (counting time studying a related subject) — unless the work is information processing and the applicant has passed an examination or holds a qualification the Minister names by public notice. Work needing a way of thinking or sensitivity rooted in a foreign culture — translation, interpreting, language teaching, public relations, advertising, overseas trade, fashion or interior design, product development and similar work — requires 3 years' experience in related work, except for a university graduate doing translation, interpreting or language teaching.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Business Manager, the business must have an office in Japan (or premises secured for one, if it has not started), must be run with at least one full-time staff member living in Japan besides those running or managing it (not counting people on a status of residence in Appended Table I of the Act), and must have total assets of 30 million yen or more, counting capital and contributions. One of the people running it or working in it full-time, who will be living in Japan while the applicant runs or manages it, must understand and use Japanese with a high degree of independence or better. The applicant must hold a doctorate, master's or professional degree in business management or in a field the business needs, or have 3 years or more of experience running or managing a business, counting time on Designated Activities granted to prepare to start one.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Specified Skilled Worker (i), the employment contract, the employer and the support plan must meet the Act's requirements, and the applicant must be 18 or over and in good health, prove by a test or other evaluation the skills and the Japanese the work and daily life need — the skills and Japanese tests are waived for someone who completed Technical Intern Training (ii) well in related skills — and hold a passport from a government or region the Minister of Justice names by public notice (告示) as cooperating with deportation. Time already spent on Specified Skilled Worker (i) must not have reached 5 years in total (6 where there is good reason to stay longer), not counting time the person could not work because of pregnancy, childbirth, childcare or other unavoidable circumstances. No deposit or other property of the applicant or their family may be held, and no penalty contract made, in connection with the work, and any fees paid to a foreign agency must be understood and agreed, home-country procedures followed, regular charges for food and housing agreed, fair and itemised, and any field-specific criteria met.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.((1), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 2-5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Specified Skilled Worker (i), the employment contract, the employer and the support plan must meet the Act's requirements, and the applicant must be 18 or over and in good health, prove by a test or other evaluation the skills and the Japanese the work and daily life need — for the time being, the skills and Japanese tests are waived for someone who completed Technical Intern Training (ii), under the Technical Intern Training Act as it read before Act No. 60 of 2024, well in related skills — and hold a passport from a government or region the Minister of Justice names by public notice (告示) as cooperating with deportation. Time already spent on Specified Skilled Worker (i) must not have reached 5 years in total (6 where there is good reason to stay longer), not counting time the person could not work because of pregnancy, childbirth, childcare or other unavoidable circumstances. No deposit or other property of the applicant or their family may be held, and no penalty contract made, in connection with the work, and any fees paid to a foreign agency must be understood and agreed, home-country procedures followed, regular charges for food and housing agreed, fair and itemised, and any field-specific criteria met.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.((1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 5(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Specified Skilled Worker (ii), the employment contract and the employer must meet the Act's requirements (with no support plan), and the applicant must be 18 or over and in good health, prove by a test or other evaluation the high-level skills (熟練した技能) the work needs, and hold a passport from a government or region named by public notice as cooperating with deportation. The rules on deposits, penalty contracts, foreign agency fees, home-country procedures, regular charges and field-specific criteria are the same as for item (i), and someone who has stayed on Technical Intern Training must be found to be working to pass on to their home country the skills learned in Japan.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Specified Skilled Worker (ii), the employment contract and the employer must meet the Act's requirements (with no support plan), and the applicant must be 18 or over and in good health, prove by a test or other evaluation the high-level skills (熟練した技能) the work needs and that they understand and use the Japanese needed to live independently and the Japanese the work needs, and hold a passport from a government or region named by public notice as cooperating with deportation. The rules on deposits, penalty contracts, foreign agency fees, home-country procedures, regular charges and field-specific criteria are the same as for item (i). An application for a Certificate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書) made before this rule took effect is judged under the earlier criteria, which had no Japanese requirement, and so is a landing application by someone holding a certificate issued before then, or issued later under the earlier criteria, made within 3 months of that day or of the certificate's issue.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.((1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(2)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For Student, the applicant must be admitted to a school the row lists — a Japanese university or equivalent, technical college, advanced vocational school (専修学校), high school, junior high or primary school, or miscellaneous school (各種学校), in most cases not to study only at night or by correspondence — and have enough assets, scholarships or other means for their living costs unless someone else pays them, and the school must have a system to manage foreign students' attendance, their keeping to the Act's limits on activities and their studies. Someone coming to study only Japanese must attend a Japanese-language school the Minister of Justice names by public notice (告示) or a certified Japanese-language institution (認定日本語教育機関), in its course for study. A student entering another course at an advanced vocational or miscellaneous school needs a year of Japanese at such a school, a Japanese test showing enough ability, or a year at a Japanese school, and the school needs a full-time staff member for foreign students' daily life; a school counted only as equivalent to a miscellaneous school must be one the Minister names by public notice.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A research student or auditor (研究生, 聴講生) studying only by auditing classes must be entering a Japanese university or similar institution, a technical college or the specialized course of an advanced vocational school for study other than Japanese alone (or a university's night graduate school), be admitted through the school's own selection, and attend classes for 10 hours or more a week. A high-school student must be 20 or under with at least a year of Japanese-language education or education in Japanese, and a junior high or primary pupil 17 or under or 14 or under, with a guardian in Japan, a full-time staff member for foreign pupils' daily life and suitable lodging; exchange programmes of public bodies and the like lift the age conditions, and for high school the Japanese condition too.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Legal/Accounting Services requires work as one of the licensed professions listed — attorney, judicial scrivener, land and house investigator, registered foreign lawyer, certified public accountant, registered foreign certified public accountant, certified public tax accountant, labor and social security attorney, patent attorney, maritime procedure agent or administrative scrivener. Medical Services requires work as one of the medical professions listed, from physician and dentist to prosthetist and orthotist; an assistant nurse may work only as training within 4 years of being licensed in Japan, and a pharmacist, dental hygienist or one of the listed therapists and technologists only when invited by a Japanese medical institution or pharmacy. Researcher requires a master's degree or 3 years' research in the field after a university degree (or a qualifying vocational course), or 10 years' research in the field, and Instructor at a miscellaneous school or similar, or in a post other than teacher, requires a degree, a qualifying vocational course or a teaching licence, plus 12 years of education in the language to be taught or 5 years of teaching the subject.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Intra-company Transferee requires that, just before the transfer, the applicant worked at the organization's office abroad for at least a year in a row in work of the kind Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services covers (counting time on this status at its office in Japan); Nursing Care requires that someone who did Technical Intern Training and qualified as a care worker through the routes the row names be found to be working to pass on the skills to their home country. Skilled Labor requires, in most trades, 10 years' experience counting study — cooking foreign cuisine, foreign building or civil-engineering skills, making or repairing foreign products, working jewels, precious metals or furs, training animals, or offshore or geothermal drilling — but 5 years for wine experts with an international competition record or a recognised qualification, 3 years for sports coaches (or competing internationally), and 250 flight hours for airline pilots. Entertainer, for theatre, entertainment, song, dance or music performances, requires that the contracting organization, the venue or the event meet the conditions the row lists — among them an event run by a public body or a school, or pay of 500,000 yen a day or more for a stay of up to 30 days.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Intra-company Transferee for its item (i) activities requires that, just before the transfer, the applicant worked at the organization's office abroad for at least a year in a row in work of the kind Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services covers; for its item (ii) activities, a transfer to learn skills, a year in a row just before the transfer in work at the office abroad through which skills can be learned, and less than a year in total already spent on that kind of Intra-company Transferee; Nursing Care requires only pay equal to a Japanese national's. Skilled Labor requires, in most trades, 10 years' experience counting study — cooking foreign cuisine, foreign building or civil-engineering skills, making or repairing foreign products, working jewels, precious metals or furs, training animals, or offshore or geothermal drilling — but 5 years for wine experts with an international competition record or a recognised qualification, 3 years for sports coaches (or competing internationally), and 250 flight hours for airline pilots. Entertainer, for theatre, entertainment, song, dance or music performances, requires that the contracting organization, the venue or the event meet the conditions the row lists — among them an event run by a public body or a school, or pay of 500,000 yen a day or more for a stay of up to 30 days.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Highly Skilled Professional (i) requires the criteria of Ministry of Justice Order No. 37 of 2014, an activity that also falls under a status from Professor to Journalist in Appended Table I(1) or from Business Manager to Skilled Labor in I(2) (meeting that status's criteria here), and that the activity not be found inappropriate in view of its effect on Japan's industry and people's lives. Technical Intern Training requires that the technical intern training plan be certified under the Technical Intern Training Act, and Trainee that the applicant be 18 or over, learn skills that cannot be learned by repetition alone and are hard to learn where they live, under a full-time instructor with 5 years' experience, for use in work after going home, with practical training (実務研修) only in the programmes the row lists and for no more than two-thirds of the training time unless the row allows more. Dependent requires that the applicant be supported by someone staying on a status in Appended Table I(1) or I(2), on Cultural Activities, or on Student at a university, a technical college or the specialized course of an advanced vocational school, among others.This is the rule until 31 March 2027.((1), Ministerial Order for Defining the Criteria in the Right-Hand Column of the Entry for Highly Skilled Professional in the Appended Table I(2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 1(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Highly Skilled Professional (i) requires the criteria of Ministry of Justice Order No. 37 of 2014, an activity that also falls under a status from Professor to Journalist in Appended Table I(1) or from Business Manager to Skilled Labor in I(2) (meeting that status's criteria here), and that the activity not be found inappropriate in view of its effect on Japan's industry and people's lives. Employment for Skill Development (育成就労), which takes the place of Technical Intern Training in the table, requires that the employment for skill development plan be certified under Article 8(1), 8-5(1) or 8-6(1) of the Act on the proper implementation of employment for skill development of foreign nationals (Act No. 89 of 2016) and that the applicant's conduct be good, and Trainee that the applicant be 18 or over, learn skills that cannot be learned by repetition alone and are hard to learn where they live, under a full-time instructor with 5 years' experience, for use in work after going home, with practical training (実務研修) only in the programmes the row lists and for no more than two-thirds of the training time unless the row allows more. Dependent requires that the applicant be supported by someone staying on a status in Appended Table I(1) or I(2), on Cultural Activities, or on Student at a university, a technical college or the specialized course of an advanced vocational school, among others.This is the rule from 1 April 2027.((1), Ministerial Order for Defining the Criteria in the Right-Hand Column of the Entry for Highly Skilled Professional in the Appended Table I(2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 1(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• 1 April 2026

  The text on this site

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 12 of 2026The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 16 October 2025

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 50 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 30 September 2025

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the Ministerial Order to Provide for the Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法施行規則及び出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 47 of 2025The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 10 June 2024

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 41 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 26 April 2024

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 33 of 2024The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 August 2023

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 28 of 2023The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 14 November 2022

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 38 of 2022The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 November 2022

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 47 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 29 August 2020

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 47 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

• 1 April 2020

  Ministerial Order Partially Amending the Ministerial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, Paragraph (1), Item (ii) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act

  出入国管理及び難民認定法第七条第一項第二号の基準を定める省令の一部を改正する省令

  Ministry of Justice Order No. 29 of 2020The text after this amendment, on e-Gov

All 16 amendments already in force

• Under the Act, someone landing with a re-entry permit, or holding a refugee travel document issued under it, is examined only for a valid passport and for the grounds that bar landing, so these criteria are not examined for them.(Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 7(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• None of the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services criteria apply to someone who will represent parties in international arbitration or international mediation proceedings under Article 98 of the Act on foreign lawyers (Act No. 66 of 1986).((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• None of the Researcher criteria apply to research under a contract with a national or local government body, a corporation set up directly by an Act or by a special Act, an independent administrative agency, or a corporation run on public funds that the Minister of Justice designates by public notice; and the degree-or-experience criterion is lifted for someone transferred from the organization's office abroad who has done research there for a year or more in a row just before the transfer.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• For the time being, the Specified Skilled Worker (i) skills and Japanese tests are also waived, where the skills are related to the work, for someone who completed well the item (ii) activities of Technical Intern Training as the Act read before the Technical Intern Training Act changed it, or who, under an earlier wording of the Act, stayed for more than a year on Designated Activities granted to master skills learned as a trainee and completed that well. Time on Designated Activities granted to continue the same work at the same organization after Technical Intern Training, to work in construction or shipbuilding under a plan the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism approved and continue that work, or to work for a Japanese organization while hoping to stay on Specified Skilled Worker, counts towards the Specified Skilled Worker (i) 5-year limit.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 8(2), Suppl. Prov. Art. 10(1), Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1), Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1)(i), Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1)(ii), Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1)(iii), Regulation for Enforcement of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Suppl. Prov. Art. 6(1)(iv)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A university, technical college or similar school that, in the year before 26 April 2024, accepted Student-status foreign nationals studying only Japanese need not be a Japanese-language school named by public notice (告示) or a certified Japanese-language institution (認定日本語教育機関) for an applicant coming to study only Japanese there, other than only at night or by correspondence. An applicant coming there as an auditing or research student to study only Japanese is not barred from the auditing-student criteria for that reason, but must still be admitted through the school's selection and attend 10 hours or more a week.This is the rule until 31 March 2029.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 4(1), (1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• The relief for a university, technical college or similar school that, in the year before 26 April 2024, accepted Student-status foreign nationals studying only Japanese has ended: an applicant coming to study only Japanese there now needs the school to be a Japanese-language school named by public notice (告示) or a certified Japanese-language institution (認定日本語教育機関), as at any other school, and an auditing or research student no longer meets the auditing-student criteria by studying only Japanese.This is the rule from 1 April 2029.((1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 4(1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• A landing application, or an application for a Certificate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書), to do Business Manager activities made before 16 October 2025 and not yet decided on that day is judged under the criteria as they read before it. So is a landing application made within 3 months of that day by someone given a certificate before it — or, for a certificate issued later under the earlier criteria, within 3 months of its issue.(Suppl. Prov. Art. 1(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1)(i), Suppl. Prov. Art. 2(1)(ii), Suppl. Prov. Art. 3(1)) (the provisions it rests on)

• The Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act makes these criteria a condition of landing: the immigration inspector examines whether the intended activity meets them, and the foreign national must prove it themselves — someone coming to do Highly Skilled Professional (i) or Specified Skilled Worker work by means of a Certificate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書).(Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 7(1), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 7(1)(ii), Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act Art. 7(2), (1)) (the provisions it rests on)
• Many criteria turn on what the Minister of Justice sets by public notice (告示): which information-processing examinations and qualifications count, which advanced vocational school courses qualify, which governments' passports a Specified Skilled Worker may hold, which Japanese-language schools a student may attend, and, for the Specified Skilled Worker fields the Minister names, criteria that the head of the administrative body responsible for the field sets after consulting the Minister.((1)) (the provisions it rests on)