2025-05-02

There are two types of status of residence: “Highly Skilled Worker” and “Technician Country. What is the difference between them? Let us explain in detail.

What is a “highly skilled personnel”?

The Immigration Bureau defines “high-level human resources” as follows

・Human resources who are expected to bring innovation to Japanese industry, promote the development of the professional and technical labor market through friendly competition with Japanese nationals, and increase the efficiency of the Japanese labor market.

・The expression is a bit confusing, but more succinctly put, they are “excellent human resources who can develop the Japanese economy through new ideas and skills.

Highly skilled human resources are classified into the following three fields. However, the evaluation items for each field differ, so it is necessary to confirm the activities that are appropriate for you.

1) Advanced academic research field
Activities to engage in research, teaching research, or education (e.g., university professors)
⇒ “Advanced Professionals 1 (a)”
2) Advanced professional/technical field
Activities to engage in work requiring knowledge or skills, or activities to engage in education (e.g., IT engineers) ⇒ “Advanced Professionals 1 (b)”
3) Advanced business/management field (iii) Advanced management/administration field: Activities to engage in management or administration of a business (company manager, etc.) ⇒ “highly skilled professionals 1 (c)

In order to be certified as a highly skilled worker, it is necessary to obtain a certain number of points, calculated according to the point calculation table stipulated by the Immigration and Residence Management Agency. The method of point accumulation differs according to each field.

What is a “Gi-Jin-Koku”?

”Gi-Jin-Koku“ refers to the status of residence ”Engineer/Humanities/International Services. About 90% of foreign nationals employed by companies in Japan are eligible for this status. Therefore, it is the most common work-related visa status.

In addition, “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/Int’l Services” used to have two statuses of residence, ‘Engineer’ and “Specialist in Humanities/Int’l Services”. In other words, there were two types of status of residence, one for science-related work and the other for humanities-related work.

However, as the company’s operations gradually became more complex and sophisticated, it became difficult to divide them into science-related and humanities-related categories. Therefore, the law was revised and the category of “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/Int’l Services” was introduced.

What is the difference between the two?

There are three major differences between the two categories.

First, with regard to the period of stay, the “highly skilled professional 1” category is for 5 years and the “highly skilled professional 2” category is unlimited. On the other hand, in the case of a technical national, the initial period of stay is usually one year, with a maximum of five years for the second and subsequent periods.

Next, regarding the level of annual income, the annual income of a high-level professional is at least 3 million yen. On the other hand, in the case of a technician country, there is no definite amount, and the amount is the same as that of a Japanese national.

Finally, the period of stay required to obtain permanent residence is 3 years (70 points or more for highly skilled personnel) or 1 year (80 points or more for highly skilled personnel) for highly skilled personnel. On the other hand, for technical personnel, a stay of 10 years or more is required.

Summary

Highly skilled personnel are, as the name suggests, those with advanced expertise. On the other hand, “Technijin-goku” is the most common status of residence. The biggest difference between the two is the number of points required to obtain permanent residence. This also shows the difference in status within Japan.