Whilst pondering my next few years movements the other day it dawned on me that my current visa expires in 2 yrs time, naturally I’m hoping and confident it will be extended but what if it isn’t?

Before i go much further, if you’re looking for the Immigration Bureau of Japan then here’s the official link, this is a very handy website if you live of plan on living in Japan. For all your Visa requirements then go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan or MOFA for short, it’s another must bookmark site.

With that question on my mind i started to look at my options. The easiest is another 3 yr Engineers Visa like I’m currently on now. If my current working arrangements go south then things get a little tougher.

I was previously of the impression that after 6 – 8 yrs getting permanent residency was pretty much a matter of filling out the forms, ticking some boxes and we’re done …. wrong.

I came across this website, a guideline to obtaining permanent residency in Japan with actual examples of past applicants and whether or not they were approved or denied.

For all the examples for acceptance and denial criteria check out the site here and here’s a link to the Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residency which is as good as i’ve found.

The examples showing the people denied residency in Japan are interesting, what i found more interesting is what it TAKES to get granted permanent residency in Japan, that’s the one that people are interested in.

The specific criteria is still pretty vague, the high level message is not, you need to “have made or be significantly contributing towards Japan in xxxxxxxx”

Some examples include;

{ 21 comments }