“Japan Is No Longer an Option”: Tougher Visa Rules Push Out Hardworking Foreigners While Chinese Capital Slips Through

The ¥30 million barrier could make authentic curry disappear

“With the requirements for status of residence becoming stricter, I think 90% of restaurants run by Nepalese and Indian people will disappear by 2028. There probably won’t be any restaurants left where you can eat authentic curry for around ¥1,000.”

Speaking with evident frustration is Bista (pseudonym, 35), a Nepalese man who had operated a curry restaurant in Tokyo for approximately nine years. He now faces the “¥30 million capital” barrier, a new requirement for obtaining the “Business Manager” status of residence.

The criteria for the “Business Manager” status of residence, which foreign business owners need to operate businesses in Japan, were tightened last October. Following a revision to the relevant ministerial ordinance, the capital requirement was raised sixfold, from ¥5 million to ¥30 million. Applicants are also required to employ a full-time Japanese national or permanent resident, etc., and either the applicant or an employee must have a certain level of Japanese-language ability. A three-year grace period was established following the revision, but in principle, those renewing their status of residence from October 2028 onward must meet the new requirements.

The tightening of the “Business Manager” status is intended to prevent fraud, such as shell companies with no actual business activity. In practice, however, small restaurant and retail business owners who have worked steadily for years are being pushed toward closing their businesses or returning to their home countries against their wishes.

Bista was also forced to close the curry restaurant he had operated at the end of April this year. He is currently involved as an executive in the management of a restaurant operated by an acquaintance who is a permanent resident. His status of residence remains “Business Manager,” but he looks resigned as he says, “If I can’t obtain a three-year period of stay at my next renewal, I’ll have no choice but to return home.”

“If the capital requirement were to increase to about one and a half times ¥5 million, I could still somehow manage. But ¥30 million is impossible. Foreign nationals who aren’t permanent residents can’t easily borrow money from banks, and there’s no way I can come up with another ¥25 million.”

The burden is set to become even heavier because amendments to the Immigration Control and Refugee-Recognition Act will also substantially increase the fees for changing status of residence and renewing periods of stay from October.

Currently, the fee for both changing status of residence and renewing a period of stay is a flat ¥6,000 (¥5,500 for online applications). From October, the fee will vary according to the period of stay: ¥33,000 for one year (¥27,000 online), ¥64,000 for three years or more but less than five years (¥56,000 online), and ¥75,000 for five years or more (¥65,000 online), among others. The fee for permanent residence will also rise from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000.

“If I renew for one year, the fee suddenly becomes more than five times what it was. In my case, including my wife and child, it will be ¥99,000. Including the fee for hiring an administrative scrivener, it will cost nearly ¥200,000.”

According to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, the fees for residence-related permits were set after comprehensively considering the actual costs required for examinations, the costs required for fair management of the entry and residence of foreign nationals, comparable fees in other countries, and responses to future price increases.

“We foreigners also pay ¥800,000 to ¥1 million a year in taxes and social insurance premiums. If hardworking foreign nationals disappear, Japan’s tax revenue will decrease by that amount.”

Bista cannot hide his anger, saying, “It’s the same as being told by the government, ‘Leave Japan now.’”

“My daughter is four years old now. She was born in Japan and knows only life in Japan. She’s looking forward to going to a Japanese elementary school together with her kindergarten friends. I want the government to see foreign children in the same way—as future members of Japan’s workforce. That is what we are saying.”

Chinese capital finds a loophole. Foreign nationals lament

A growing sense of distrust toward Japan is now spreading rapidly among foreign residents.

“The government’s aim is presumably to eliminate unscrupulous foreign nationals. But because the stricter rules are full of loopholes, it is the conscientious business operators who are suffering. The foreign nationals around me are lamenting, ‘What has happened to Japan?’”

So says Ratnayaka (pseudonym, 56), a Sri Lankan restaurant owner who has lived in Japan for 33 years and held Japanese citizenship for 15 years. His restaurant is frequented by many foreign nationals, and he says he hears the earnest concerns of people from various countries living in Japan.

Ratnayaka is particularly concerned about the ironic reality that across-the-board tightening of the rules is actually giving an advantage to shell companies established for immigration purposes.

“Sri Lankans who cannot come up with ¥30 million in capital are being forced to close their businesses, while Chinese nationals with financial resources are slipping through the rules without a care.

“Near my restaurant, Chinese nationals have bought entire buildings and left them sitting empty. In areas with many Chinese restaurants, Chinese capital buys up small establishments at bargain prices, changes the status of residence of Chinese business owners, and employs them as workers.

“In the end, it looks as though the government is actually helping Chinese nationals remain in Japan. That’s how the foreign nationals around me see it.”

Ratnayaka moved to Japan in 1993 to study. “The elderly people in my neighborhood treated me like their own grandchild. I feel that Japan raised me,” he says. That is precisely why he cannot help feeling bewildered by the changes taking place in Japanese society.

“After the phrase ‘Japan First’ began being used in last year’s election, the public mood changed all at once. People who had been warm toward foreign nationals now look at all foreigners with suspicion, as if thinking, ‘I wonder if they’re going to do something.’ Everyone is disappointed, saying, ‘Japan wasn’t a country that treated us like outsiders.’”

Ratnayaka now fears that Sri Lankans who return home feeling that they have been driven out of Japan may come to resent the country. If that happens, he worries that the pro-Japan sentiments that Sri Lankans have held for many years could be lost.

“I think the same applies not only to Sri Lanka but to other Southeast Asian countries as well. I want to ask Japanese society: Is it really okay for Japan to lose the trust of the world because of its policies toward foreign nationals?”

The end result of exclusionary policies: The collapse of the nursing care system

While foreign nationals grow increasingly disappointed and frustrated, the Japanese government is rapidly pushing ahead with stricter requirements as part of its “Comprehensive Measures for the Acceptance of Foreign Nationals and Orderly Coexistence.” Kenji Nishiyama, an administrative scrivener who supports foreign nationals with procedures related to their status of residence, criticizes the current administration’s policies as far too simplistic and lacking in sophistication. They are nothing more than an attempt to win popularity.

“Regarding the ‘Business Manager’ status of residence, Japan has consistently taken a welcome stance toward foreign entrepreneurs. The requirements were relaxed to make it easier for people to start businesses, including by providing grace periods. To suddenly reverse course 180 degrees and uniformly require even those already residing in Japan to have ¥30 million in capital makes no sense.

In the first place, it is difficult enough to prepare ¥5 million in capital, so there were certainly people who established companies using show money. Even if you raise the amount to ¥30 million, can you really eliminate such abuses? I have serious doubts about the effectiveness of this measure.”

Nishiyama also points out the unreasonableness of the revisions to fees for residence procedures.

“For example, the fee for a one-year renewal of a period of stay is set at ¥33,000, but dividing the fee according to the length of the period makes no sense. It should be divided according to the status of residence.

Many foreign nationals with ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ and ‘Technical Intern Training’ status work for the minimum wage. For example, a ¥64,000 fee for a three-year renewal is a significant amount for them. Even if the company initially covers the cost, it will reflect that expense in their wages, so ultimately the individual will suffer the disadvantage.

There is a status of residence called ‘Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services’ (Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services), which is obtained by foreign nationals with specialized knowledge and skills. Yet the residence-procedure fees are the same. Isn’t it unreasonable, no matter how you look at it, to force someone working for the minimum wage to bear the same burden as a so-called white-collar worker?”

In fact, even among foreign nationals working under the “Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services” status, there are people struggling with the increased fees.

“The ‘Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services’ status is originally intended for specialized personnel, such as university graduates, to perform work that makes use of their intellectual skills. In reality, however, a considerable number of foreign nationals enter Japan under the guise of technical work but end up doing grueling manual labor or simple labor, which has become an issue known as fake Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services. In many cases, responsibility lies not with the foreign nationals themselves, but with Japanese employers who hire them without telling them that the work they are being assigned does not qualify under their status of residence.

Before making the requirements stricter on the surface, the government should make an effort to understand what is actually happening in the workplace.”

An even greater problem is the distortion of a system that cannot adequately protect foreign workers.

“In the case of ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ and ‘Technical Intern Training,’ there are many foreign nationals who quit their jobs because they can no longer tolerate abusive employers, or who lose their jobs due to bankruptcy and other circumstances. Even though they entered Japan under a status of residence that allows them to work, if three months pass without them finding a new job, they may become subject to having their status of residence revoked. If they secretly take part-time jobs or engage in other work simply to survive, that becomes unauthorized activity outside the scope of their status, and if it is discovered when they renew their status, they can end up being pushed into illegal overstaying.

Leaving deficiencies in the system for accepting foreign workers and problems with employers and working conditions unaddressed, while tightening restrictions on foreign nationals through measures such as raising fees—the most problematic thing, I believe, is the government’s undignified stance, which makes foreign nationals feel that it is standing on the same side as abusive employers.”

Whenever the tightening of foreign-national policies is reported, voices of support appear online, saying, “Well done” and “It’s only natural.”

But the reality is that workplaces facing labor shortages, such as nursing care facilities and the food-service industry, are already unable to function without foreign workers. If foreign workers are driven out while ignoring the reality on the ground, the nursing care system could collapse in the not-too-distant future, and it may even become impossible to eat a bowl of gyudon for ¥1,000.

Nishiyama sharply criticizes the government, saying, “The government itself is fueling anti-foreigner sentiment among the public and using it as a policy tool.”

“Once the nursing care and food-service industries can no longer function because of labor shortages, are they planning to reverse these tightened policies and say, ‘Let’s bring in foreign workers again’? Unless Japan implements measures based on a medium- to long-term perspective grounded in reality, it may end up being abandoned by the rest of the world.”

▼Kenji Nishiyama (にしやま・けんじ), administrative scrivener. Graduated from the Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Sophia University, in 1991. After working at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), he became president and representative director of Nishiyama Chizai Co., Ltd. in 1998. In 2020, he became head of Nishiyama Administrative Scrivener Office. He shares information on topics related to residence status and immigration procedures on his blog (https://www.ngj.jp/blog_manager.php).