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The Japan Business Manager Visa After the Repricing

Last updated 2026-10-23 Country japan Route business

The Japan Business Manager Visa After the Repricing

What does the Japan Business Manager visa require now?

Since 16 October 2025 the Business Manager status requires JPY 30,000,000 in capital or total investment (2026), at least one full-time employee who is a Japanese national, a permanent resident or a long-term resident, and either three years of management experience or a relevant master’s degree. Japanese at around CEFR B2 is required of the applicant or that employee. The capital figure rose from JPY 5,000,000, which closed the route for most self-funded founders.

What changed, exactly

The capital floor moved sixfold on 16 October 2025. Alongside it came three conditions that matter more than the money for some applicants:

  • A real employee. A Japanese national, permanent resident or long-term resident, employed full time. A foreign colleague on a work visa does not satisfy this.
  • Language cover. The applicant or the employee must show Japanese at roughly B2: JLPT N2, BJT 400, a degree taught in Japanese, completion of Japanese compulsory education, or twenty years of residence.
  • A professional plan review. The business plan must be reviewed by a licensed small and medium enterprise consultant, a certified public accountant, or a tax accountant. Paying an unlicensed person to draft the submission documents can breach the administrative scrivener law.

Immigration also expects a real office. A home address is generally refused, and the lease, photographs and company register are checked.

Who still qualifies

A founder with USD 250,000 or more of genuine capital, a leased office, one Japanese hire and a plan that an accountant has reviewed. That is the intended applicant, and the route works well for them: five year grants are available, dependants come along, and the status counts toward permanent residence.

It also suits a manager transferring into an existing Japanese company, where the capital and the employee already exist and the question is only whether the role is genuinely managerial.

Who no longer qualifies

The small consultancy founder who incorporated with JPY 5,000,000 and ran the business from a desk at home. That applicant was the core of the route before October 2025 and is now excluded on capital, on staffing and often on the office test at the same time.

The effect is visible in the numbers. Immigration agency data reported by the Japan Times on 2 September 2026 shows 953 Business Manager holders leaving Japan without a re-entry permission in the first half of 2026, roughly four times the same period in 2025. That is not a rounding error in a programme of this size.

The transition, and why 2028 matters

Existing holders are assessed leniently at renewal until 16 October 2028. After that the new criteria apply in full, including at renewal. A founder who qualified under the old rules has until then to reach JPY 30,000,000, hire a qualifying employee and fix the language requirement, or to find another status.

The agency says a capital figure below JPY 30,000,000 does not automatically mean refusal. In practice, most self-funded applicants no longer clear the assessment, and planning on the exception is not a strategy.

If you cannot meet it

The Startup Visa is the route designed for founders who do not yet qualify. It is a Designated Activities status granted on the recommendation of an approved municipality or one private organisation, runs up to two years in six month or one year increments, and has no fixed capital figure because each municipality sets its own conditions.

It is not an extension of the business route. At the end of the window you must convert to Business Manager, which means meeting the full JPY 30,000,000 test, the Japanese hire and the language requirement. The two years are for building the company to that point, and a plan that cannot get there is a plan the municipality should not approve.

Watchpoints

  1. The employee must be Japanese, a permanent resident or a long-term resident. A foreign hire on a work visa does not count toward the requirement.
  2. B2 is binding even though it is not in the Act. The criteria are delegated to a ministerial ordinance, so the language level binds without appearing in the statute.
  3. A home office is generally refused. Immigration checks the lease and the premises.
  4. The plan must be reviewed by a licensed professional. An unlicensed draft can create a separate legal problem.
  5. Renewals are being judged on the new criteria already in spirit. The lenient period ends on 16 October 2028.
  6. The route is the slowest path to permanent residence for a founder. Ten years ordinarily, or three years at 70 points, or one year at 80.

Sources

  • Immigration Services Agency, Business Manager landing criteria, revised 16 October 2025, checked 2026-10-23
  • Japan Times, reporting on Business Manager departures, 2 September 2026, checked 2026-10-23
  • Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Startup Visa programme, checked 2026-10-23