2025-07-08

Permanent residence is literally “the right for foreign nationals to reside permanently in Japan. Unlike other residence statuses, there are no restrictions on the period of stay and basically no restrictions on employment. For this reason, the percentage of applicants who are granted permanent residence is much lower than that of other statuses. If you are unsuccessful in your application for permanent resident status, here is a detailed explanation of what to do.

What is permanent residence?

Permanent residence is a status of residence that allows a foreign national to have “the right to reside permanently in Japan.

For example, let’s say that Mr. A, a foreign national, has a work visa and is working for a Japanese company. If Mr. A marries Ms. B, who has Japanese nationality, he/she can change his/her status of residence from the current working visa to “Spouse or Child of Japanese National”. This status of residence is commonly referred to as “permanent residence.

Once you have “Permanent Resident Status,” there are no restrictions on the period of stay and basically no restrictions on the type of work you can do. In other words, you can live like a normal Japanese person, but your nationality remains foreign.

Criteria for Permission

The first criterion for being permitted to acquire permanent residence is that the applicant must have a record of long-term residence in Japan. Specifically, the applicant must have resided in Japan for at least 10 years, and must also have been in Japan for at least 5 years with work or residence status.

In addition, there are “good conduct requirements,” such as not violating laws and regulations or failing to pay taxes, “independent livelihood requirements,” such as having enough assets and skills to earn a living independently, and “national interest Tei requirements,” such as being specially approved by the Minister of Justice.

If you are married to a Japanese national or have a child with a Japanese national, you have a strong basis for permanent residence in Japan, which is advantageous. Normally, annual income for the past five years is the standard for screening, but if you have a Japanese spouse, annual income for the past three years is basically the standard.

If your application is unsuccessful

If your application for permanent residence is denied, you will receive a “Notice of Denial”. However, this letter will not tell you why you were not approved.

If you want to know the reason why your application was not approved, you can visit the immigration office where you applied and ask the reason in person. However, you can only ask the reason once per person, and you cannot inquire by phone.

It is important to note that even if there are numerous reasons for disapproval, you will only be given the major reasons, and you will not be able to hear all the reasons.

Because of this, once you have been disapproved, you may consider visiting a professional administrative scrivener to request a reapplication. It is expected that the factors that led to the disapproval and the measures to be taken to reapply will take time and effort on the part of the applicant alone.

Summary

If your permanent residence has not been approved, you can check directly with the application office. However, it is difficult to obtain detailed information, so if you are considering reapplying, you should check with a professional administrative scrivener.