Working in Japan on a Status of Residence
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Germany 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 Germany to Japan · Residency through work
Japan has no general work permit. It has a closed list of twenty-nine statuses of residence set out in two tables attached to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, and each one authorises a named kind of activity and nothing else. The status most people arrive on is Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services, which covers work requiring knowledge in the natural sciences or the humanities, or work requiring a sensibility grounded in a foreign culture. It needs a contract with an organisation in Japan before anything else happens; the Ministerial Ordinance on criteria then asks for a relevant degree, a relevant Japanese vocational qualification or ten years of practice, and - on every employment status without exception - pay no lower than a Japanese national would receive for the same work.
At a glance
- General work permit
- There is none
Appended Tables I and II of the Act list twenty-nine statuses of residence and every one of them is tied to a named activity or a named family position. There is no status for 'employment'.
- Usual status for salaried professional work
- Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services
技術・人文知識・国際業務, Appended Table I(2) of the Act.
- Qualification required
- A related degree, a related Japanese vocational course, or 10 years of practice
The Ministerial Ordinance on criteria under article 7(1)(ii), in force from 1 April 2026. The ten years may include time spent studying the subject.
- Experience required on the foreign-culture limb
- 3 years
Same ordinance. Waived for a university graduate doing translation, interpreting or language teaching.
- Salary floor
- No less than a Japanese national doing the same work
日本人が従事する場合に受ける報酬と同等額以上の報酬を受けること - a comparability test, not a number. The ordinance states no amount for this status.
- Periods of stay granted
- 5 years, 3 years, 1 year or 3 months
Appended Table II of the Regulation for Enforcement.
- Maximum period of stay in law
- 5 years
Article 2-2(3) of the Act caps every status except Diplomat, Official, Highly Skilled Professional (ii) and Permanent Resident at five years.
- Information-processing exception
- No degree needed if you hold a listed IT qualification
The ordinance excuses the educational requirement for someone who has passed an information-processing examination or holds an information-processing qualification named in a public notice by the Minister of Justice.
Requirements
- A contract with a public or private organisation in Japan
- Work that falls inside the activity described for one of the statuses in Appended Table I of the Act
- For Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services on the science or humanities limb: a degree in a related subject, completion of a related specialised course at a Japanese vocational school, or ten years of practical experience
- For the foreign-culture limb: translation, interpreting, language teaching, public relations, advertising, overseas trade, fashion or interior design, product development or similar work, plus three years of related practice - waived for a graduate doing translation, interpreting or language teaching
- Remuneration no less than a Japanese national would receive for comparable work
- In practice, a certificate of eligibility obtained in Japan before the visa is applied for abroad
In detail
There is no work permit, and that is the whole shape of the system
A reader looking for Japan's work permit will not find one, because the permission to be in Japan and the permission to do a particular thing are the same object. Article 2-2(2) says that a person holding a status of residence may carry out the activities written in that status's own row of the table. Change jobs into a different kind of work and you are not varying a permit, you are applying for a different status. The twenty-nine rows are the entire set of things a foreign national may lawfully be doing in Japan, and a job that does not fit any row has no route, however well paid.
The salary floor is a comparison, not a number
Most countries that police the wages of migrant workers publish a figure and index it. Japan does not. The criteria ordinance attaches the same sentence to nearly every employment status - remuneration no less than a Japanese national would receive for comparable work - and names no amount anywhere. That makes the floor local and automatic: it is whatever the employer pays its own staff for that job, so it differs between a Tokyo bank and a rural factory, and it rises with Japanese wages without any instrument being amended. It also makes it unverifiable from outside: there is no published number to check an offer against.
Ten years of practice is an alternative to a degree, and the years can be school years
The science-and-humanities limb accepts ten years of practical experience in place of a degree, and the bracket inside the provision says those ten years may include time spent studying the subject at a university, technical college, senior high school or vocational school. Someone with a related school or college background and several years of work can therefore reach the threshold earlier than a plain reading of 'ten years of experience' suggests.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Germany
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
«別表第一 の上欄の在留資格をもつて在留する者は当該在留資格に応じそれぞれ本邦において同表の下欄に掲げる活動を行うことができ、 別表第二 の上欄の在留資格をもつて在留する者は当該在留資格に応じそれぞれ本邦において同表の下欄に掲げる身分若しくは地位を有する者としての活動を行うことができる。»Our translation - not official
A person residing with a status of residence in the left-hand column of Appended Table I may carry out, in Japan, the activities listed in the right-hand column of that table corresponding to that status, and a person residing with a status of residence in the left-hand column of Appended Table II may carry out, in Japan, activities as a person having the personal status or position listed in the right-hand column corresponding to that status.
Ours. This is the sentence that makes the list closed: what you may do is what your own row says, and nothing else.
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
«この場合において、外交、公用、高度専門職及び永住者の在留資格（高度専門職の在留資格にあつては、 別表第一 の二の表の高度専門職の項の下欄第二号に係るものに限る。）以外の在留資格に伴う在留期間は、五年を超えることができない。»Our translation - not official
In this case, a period of stay attaching to a status of residence other than Diplomat, Official, Highly Skilled Professional and Permanent Resident (as regards Highly Skilled Professional, limited to one under item (ii) of the right-hand column of the Highly Skilled Professional row in Table (2) of Appended Table I) may not exceed five years.
Ours. Five years is the statutory ceiling on a period of stay; the Regulation then chooses the actual lengths.
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
«本邦の公私の機関との契約に基づいて行う理学、工学その他の自然科学の分野若しくは法律学、経済学、社会学その他の人文科学の分野に属する技術若しくは知識を要する業務又は外国の文化に基盤を有する思考若しくは感受性を必要とする業務に従事する活動»Two limbs in one sentence, joined by 又は: work needing technical or academic knowledge, or work needing a way of thinking or a sensibility grounded in a foreign culture. The second is how a translator or a language teacher qualifies without a degree in anything technical.
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
«Activities to engage in duties which require skills or knowledge in the field of physical science, engineering, or other natural science fields, or in the field of jurisprudence, economics, sociology or other humanities fields, or to engage in duties which require the ways of thinking or sensitivity founded on foreign culture (except for the activities listed in the right-hand column of the "Professor," "Artist," and "Journalist" sections in Table (1), and the activities listed in the right-hand column of the "Business Manager" through "Instructor" sections, "Intra-Company Transferee" and "Entertainer" sections in this Table), based on a contract entered into with a public or private organization in Japan.»Known to be out of date. The exclusion in brackets is shorter here than in the text in force. The current Japanese excludes the rows from Business Manager to Instructor and from Intra-Company Transferee to Entertainer, which takes in Nursing Care; this 2019 translation names Intra-Company Transferee and Entertainer only.
The Ministry of Justice's unofficial English, which its own notice says has no legal effect.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«一 申請人が自然科学又は人文科学の分野に属する技術又は知識を必要とする業務に従事しようとする場合は、従事しようとする業務について、次のいずれかに該当し、これに必要な技術又は知識を修得していること。ただし、申請人が情報処理に関する技術又は知識を要する業務に従事しようとする場合で、法務大臣が告示をもって定める情報処理技術に関する試験に合格し又は法務大臣が告示をもって定める情報処理技術に関する資格を有しているときは、この限りでない。 イ 当該技術若しくは知識に関連する科目を専攻して大学を卒業し、又はこれと同等以上の教育を受けたこと。 ロ 当該技術又は知識に関連する科目を専攻して本邦の専修学校の専門課程又は専攻科を修了（当該修了に関し法務大臣が告示をもって定める要件に該当する場合に限る。）したこと。 ハ 十年以上の実務経験（大学、高等専門学校、高等学校、中等教育学校の後期課程又は専修学校の専門課程若しくは専攻科において当該技術又は知識に関連する科目を専攻した期間を含む。）を有すること。»Our translation - not official
(i) Where the applicant seeks to engage in work requiring technology or knowledge in the field of the natural sciences or the humanities, the applicant must fall under one of the following as regards the work to be engaged in and must have acquired the technology or knowledge necessary for it; provided that this does not apply where the applicant seeks to engage in work requiring technology or knowledge concerning information processing and has passed an examination in information-processing technology designated by public notice of the Minister of Justice or holds a qualification in information-processing technology so designated: (a) having majored in a subject related to that technology or knowledge and graduated from a university, or received education equivalent to or above that; (b) having completed a specialised course or an advanced course at a vocational school in Japan, majoring in a subject related to that technology or knowledge (limited to a completion that meets the requirements designated by public notice of the Minister of Justice); (c) having ten or more years of practical experience (including any period spent majoring in a subject related to that technology or knowledge at a university, a technical college, a senior high school, the later course of a secondary school, or a specialised or advanced course at a vocational school).
Ours. The information-processing exception is inside the proviso, not a separate rule: an IT qualification from the Minister's list replaces the degree entirely.
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 申請人が外国の文化に基盤を有する思考又は感受性を必要とする業務に従事しようとする場合は、次のいずれにも該当していること。 イ 翻訳、通訳、語学の指導、広報、宣伝又は海外取引業務、服飾若しくは室内装飾に係るデザイン、商品開発その他これらに類似する業務に従事すること。 ロ 従事しようとする業務に関連する業務について三年以上の実務経験を有すること。ただし、大学を卒業した者が翻訳、通訳又は語学の指導に係る業務に従事する場合は、この限りでない。»Our translation - not official
(ii) Where the applicant seeks to engage in work requiring a way of thinking or a sensibility grounded in a foreign culture, the applicant must fall under all of the following: (a) engaging in translation, interpreting, language instruction, public relations, advertising or overseas trading work, design relating to clothing or interiors, product development or other similar work; (b) having three or more years of practical experience in work related to the work to be engaged in; provided that this does not apply where a university graduate engages in work relating to translation, interpreting or language instruction.
Ours. The closed list in (a) is what decides whether this limb is open at all: a job that is not on it cannot use the foreign-culture route however international it feels.
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
«三 日本人が従事する場合に受ける報酬と同等額以上の報酬を受けること»Our translation - not official
(iii) Receiving remuneration no less than the amount a Japanese national would receive for comparable work.
Ours. The same sentence closes almost every employment status in the ordinance. It fixes no figure, which is the point: the floor is whatever the employer pays its Japanese staff, so it is high in Tokyo and low elsewhere and it moves without anything being amended.
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
«| 技術・人文知識・国際業務 | 五年、三年、一年又は三月 | | 企業内転勤 | 五年、三年、一年又は三月 | | 介護 | 五年、三年、一年又は三月 | | 興行 | 三年、一年、六月、三月又は三十日 | | 技能 | 五年、三年、一年又は三月 | | 特定技能 | 一 法別表第一の二 の表の特定技能の項の下欄第一号に掲げる活動を行う者にあつては、三年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 二 法別表第一の二 の表の特定技能の項の下欄第二号に掲げる活動を行う者にあつては、三年、二年、一年又は六月 | | 技能実習 | 一 法別表第一の二 の表の技能実習の項の下欄第一号»Our translation - not official
Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services: five years, three years, one year or three months.
Ours. Which of the four you get is not stated anywhere in the instruments; it is the immigration officer's judgement.
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 ordinance read here is the text in force from 1 April 2026. The Ministry of Justice's English translation of the same ordinance is the version at Ordinance No. 35 of 2014 and differs from it materially in several places, so it is quoted here only as a translation and never as the rule.
Nothing read here is the Immigration Services Agency's document list or its practice guidance. The certificate of eligibility is mentioned because article 7-2 of the Act creates it; the paperwork for obtaining one has not been read for this record.
The criteria ordinance governs landing permission. A change of status from inside Japan is decided under article 20 of the Act, which was not read for this record, and the ordinance's criteria are applied to it by a separate route.
Japan has other employment statuses this record does not describe: Highly Skilled Professional, Specified Skilled Worker, Technical Intern Training, Skilled Labour, Nursing Care, Entertainer, Intra-Company Transferee, Professor, Researcher, Instructor, Legal/Accounting Services, Medical Services, Artist, Religious Activities and Journalist. All of them are in Appended Table I and each has its own row in the criteria ordinance.
- 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 - 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
- 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
- publishesMinisterial Order to Provide for Criteria Pursuant to Article 7, paragraph (1), item (ii) - Japanese/English
Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice) · consolidated to 2014
About this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- publishesImmigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act - Japanese/English
Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice) · consolidated to 2019
About this source
The Ministry of Justice's database of English translations of Japanese law. Its law pages carry the Japanese and the English interleaved paragraph by paragraph, which makes one reading serve for both languages, and each page states the amendment the translation was made from - 'Last Version: Act No. 63 of 2019' for the Immigration Act, 'Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice No. 35 of 2014' for the criteria ordinance, 'Act No. 88 of 2008' for the Nationality Act.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: It says of itself, on its own front page: the translations are not official texts, not all of them are finalised, only the original Japanese has legal effect, and they are to be used solely as reference material. So it may never be cited as the law. It must be cited only as a translation, beside the Japanese, and the Japanese must come from e-Gov where the question is what the law says today - because the second limitation compounds the first: the snapshots are years behind. Its Nationality Act still prints the naturalisation age as twenty, which Act No. 24 of 2022 lowered to eighteen; its criteria ordinance still prints 5 million yen for the Business Manager status, which has been 30 million since the 2026 ordinance; its Immigration Act still cites article 61-2-12 where the current text says 61-2-15. A title marked 'tentative translation' has not been proofread at all.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source