Japan to raise income criteria for highly skilled foreigners

The move comes amid rising wages in recent years, with experts calling for stricter requirements to ensure the appropriate acceptance of highly skilled foreign workers.

The agency aims to revise the relevant ministerial ordinance by the end of March next year, the sources said.

The highly skilled professional residence status covers three fields--academic research, specialized and technical activities, and business management.

The minimum annual salary requirement is 3 million yen for the latter two fields, while no minimum is set for academic research.

Applications for the residence status are screened under a points-based system for highly skilled foreign professionals.

Applicants who score at least 70 points based on factors such as annual income, age, academic background and work experience are granted the No. 1 status, which allows them to stay in Japan for five years.

Those who engage in qualifying activities for at least three years can obtain the No. 2 status, which allows them to stay indefinitely.

In principle, foreign nationals must have resided in Japan for at least 10 years to obtain permanent residency. However, those who score at least 70 points can apply for permanent residency after three years, while those scoring at least 80 points can apply after one year.

The agency also plans to revise the allocation of points according to annual salary in line with the higher salary requirement. It will streamline the assessment criteria to speed up the screening process.

As of the end of June 2026, a total of 34,474 foreign nationals held the highly skilled professional residence status.