Studying in Japan on the Student Status
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Switzerland on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
195 exceptions recorded across 74 countries · none match Switzerland to Japan · Residency as a student
One status of residence, Student, covers every level of Japanese education from primary school to a doctorate, and the criteria ordinance sorts applicants by the kind of institution rather than by the level of the course. Admission to a recognised institution is the first condition; the second is money - enough assets, a scholarship or other means to live on, unless somebody else is paying. Since the institution has to maintain a system for managing attendance and compliance, the school carries part of the immigration burden. The period of stay is set by the Minister within a ceiling of four years and three months, which is the only status in the table measured that way.
At a glance
- Status of residence
- Student (留学)
Appended Table I(4) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which runs from universities down to primary schools.
- Maximum period of stay
- 4 years 3 months
四年三月を超えない範囲内で法務大臣が個々の外国人について指定する期間 in Appended Table II of the Regulation for Enforcement. No fixed options, unlike every working status.
- Money test
- Enough assets, scholarship or other means for living costs
The criteria ordinance states no amount. The test falls away entirely where a third party is paying.
- Evening and correspondence courses
- Excluded from the main limb
The ordinance excludes study carried out exclusively in evening classes or by correspondence, except for an evening graduate research course at a university.
- Obligation on the school
- It must manage attendance and compliance
Item (ii)-2 of the ordinance makes the institution's own monitoring system a condition of the student's status.
- Working while studying
- Needs permission under article 19 of the Act
The Student status authorises receiving an education. The ordinance refers to compliance with article 19(1), which is the provision restricting activities outside the status.
Requirements
- Admission to a Japanese university, technical college, vocational school, upper or lower secondary school, primary school, special-needs school or equivalent institution
- Sufficient assets, a scholarship or other means to meet living costs, unless someone else is meeting them
- An institution that maintains a system for properly managing attendance, compliance with article 19(1) of the Act and academic progress
- For a research student or auditor: admission through the institution's own selection process
- Daytime or full-time study: evening-only and correspondence study are excluded from the main limb
In detail
The school is part of the test
The criteria ordinance does not only ask whether the applicant has been admitted and can pay. It asks whether the institution has a system for managing attendance, compliance and progress. A student admitted to a school that does not keep that system does not meet the criteria, however good their own case. That makes the school's standing a condition of the visa, and it is why the status of a Japanese language school matters so much more to its students than an equivalent school's standing would elsewhere.
Four years and three months, and nothing else is measured that way
Every working status in the Regulation offers a fixed menu - five years, three years, one year, three months. Student alone is written as any period the Minister chooses up to four years and three months. The shape fits the thing: a course has a length, and the permission is cut to it.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Switzerland
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«| 留学 | 本邦の大学、高等専門学校、高等学校（中等教育学校の後期課程を含む。）若しくは特別支援学校の高等部、中学校（義務教育学校の後期課程及び中等教育学校の前期課程を含む。）若しくは特別支援学校の中学部、小学校（義務教育学校の前期課程を含む。）若しくは特別支援学校の小学部、専修学校若しくは各種学校又は設備及び編制に関してこれらに準ずる機関において教育を受ける活動 |»Our translation - not official
Student: activities of receiving an education at a university, technical college, upper secondary school (including the later course of a secondary school) or the upper secondary department of a special-needs school, a lower secondary school (including the later course of a compulsory education school and the earlier course of a secondary school) or the lower secondary department of a special-needs school, a primary school (including the earlier course of a compulsory education school) or the primary department of a special-needs school, a vocational school or a miscellaneous school, or an educational institution equivalent to these in facilities and organisation, in Japan.
Ours. One status for every level of schooling, which is why the criteria ordinance has to do the sorting.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«二 申請人がその本邦に在留する期間中の生活に要する費用を支弁する十分な資産、奨学金その他の手段を有すること。ただし、申請人以外の者が申請人の生活費用を支弁する場合は、この限りでない。»Our translation - not official
(ii) The applicant has sufficient assets, a scholarship or other means to defray the expenses necessary for living during the period of stay in Japan; provided, however, that this does not apply where a person other than the applicant defrays the applicant's living expenses.
Ours. No figure anywhere, and a proviso that removes the test altogether for a sponsored student.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«二の二 申請人が教育を受けようとする教育機関が、当該教育機関において教育を受ける外国人の出席状況、 法第十九条第一項 の規定の遵守状況、学習の状況等を適正に管理する体制を整備していること。»Our translation - not official
(ii)-2 The educational institution at which the applicant seeks to receive an education has in place a system for properly managing the attendance of the foreign nationals receiving an education there, their compliance with article 19(1) of the Act, their academic progress and the like.
Ours. A condition on the applicant that only the school can satisfy, which is how Japan polices student immigration without policing students.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«| 留学 | 四年三月を超えない範囲内で法務大臣が個々の外国人について指定する期間 | | 研修 | 一 外国において医師、看護師又は診療放射線技師に相当する資格を有する外国人であつて、 外国医師等が行う臨床修練等に係る医師法第十七条等の特例等に関する法律（昭和六十二年法律第二十九号）第三条第一項 の規定により厚生労働大臣の許可を受けて診療の用に供する陽子線又は重イオン線を照射する装置（以下「診療用粒子線照射装置」という。）に係る知識及び技能の修得をしようとするもの（以下「診療用粒子線照射装置臨床修練外国医師等」という。）並びに医療で用いる放射線に係る物理工学の専門的知識を有する外国人であつて»Our translation - not official
Student: a period designated by the Minister of Justice for the individual foreign national, within a range not exceeding four years and three months.
Ours. The three months on the end are what lets a four-year degree plus the spring before it fit inside one grant.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The criteria read here are the e-Gov text in force from 1 April 2026. The ordinance's reference to the Act on the accreditation of Japanese language education institutions (Act No. 41 of 2023) shows the row has been updated for that regime; that Act was not read.
Permission to work part-time is granted under article 19 of the Act, which was not read for this record. The ordinance only refers to it.
The Immigration Services Agency's list of documents for a Student application was not read.
- consolidates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 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-04-01
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidates出入国管理及び難民認定法施行規則 - e-Gov 法令検索
e-Gov 法令検索 (e-Gov Law Search) · consolidated to 2026-10-01
About this source
The Japanese government's own consolidated statute book, run by the Digital Agency. It is the only place that publishes Japanese law as it currently stands: each law page states the date the displayed text came into force, the amending instrument that produced it, and a Law RevisionID of the form <lawid>_<yyyymmdd>_<amending-id> which identifies that exact version. A page also warns 未施行あり where amendments are enacted but not yet in force. The text is Japanese and there is no English anywhere on it; each page links out to the Ministry of Justice translation where one exists, which is how the two publishers are related. Renders through Firecrawl without difficulty despite being a single-page application.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: Japanese only. It publishes the consolidated law and not the amending acts, so an article number here is the article of the resulting law and the instrument that put it there has to be read from the header. It carries no commentary, no notification (告示) and no ministerial guidance, and a great deal of Japanese immigration practice lives in 告示 made by the Minister of Justice which this site does not hold. It must not be cited for anything the Immigration Services Agency decides administratively, and it must not be cited for English: the English on the law pages is a link, not a text.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source