Three Fast Routes to Permanent Residency in Japan

If you want to live in Japan long term and get residency status, there are currently three main routes.

Whichever one you take, once you meet the relevant conditions you can apply for naturalization or permanent residency. The three main routes are:

1. Japan's Highly Skilled Professional visa: Japan introduced a points-based system for highly skilled professionals, which uses a relatively objective points system to identify recognized highly skilled foreign professionals and gives them preferential treatment for visas, entry and exit, and more. This means applicants who want to immigrate to Japan can get Japanese permanent residency (a "green card") in as little as one year. The visa scores you on education, income, years of work experience, professional qualifications, Japanese ability and other criteria. Applicants who score 70 points or more can apply to Japan's Immigration Bureau under the highly skilled professional points system. The first Highly Skilled Professional visa is valid for five years. Applicants with 70 points or more can apply for permanent residency after three years, and those with 80 points or more can apply after as little as one year.

2. Japanese work visa: Whether you start by studying in Japan or go straight to working for a suitable company there, you can eventually stay in Japan on a work visa. After paying taxes for three years within five years, you can apply for Japanese naturalization (citizenship) in your fifth year. After paying taxes for five years within ten years, you can apply for Japanese permanent residency (a "green card") in your tenth year. Applicants need enough Japanese to work at the company and communicate in Japanese.

3. Japan's Business Manager visa: You need to set up a company in Japan (a kabushiki kaisha or a godo kaisha). Registered capital of at least 5 million yen is recommended. There's no restriction on business scope, and you can run several kinds of business. With the Business Manager visa, the first visa is valid for one year, after which it can be renewed for one, three or five years depending on how the company is doing. You must pay taxes while you hold the visa. After paying taxes for three years within five years, you can apply for Japanese naturalization (citizenship) in your fifth year. After paying taxes for five years within ten years, you can apply for Japanese permanent residency (a "green card") in your tenth year. This assumes you spend no more than half of each year outside Japan, and no more than three months outside Japan at a time; otherwise you won't be treated as a Japanese tax resident and those years won't count.

I put this together when I was researching studying in Japan

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment～