“Japan Is Out of the Question” Due to Stricter Visa Policies… The “Injustice” of Driving Out Sincere Foreigners While Allowing Chinese Capital to Slip Through
Authentic Curry Disappears Due to the 30 Million Barrier
“With the stricter requirements for residency status, I think 90 percent of the restaurants run by people from Nepal and India will disappear by 2028. Places where you can eat authentic curry for around 1,000 yen will probably vanish.”
Speaking with a sense of regret is Mr. Vista (pseudonym, 35), a native of Nepal who has run a curry restaurant in Tokyo for about nine years. He is now facing the “30 million yen in capital” barrier—a new requirement for obtaining the “Management and Administration” residence status.
The eligibility criteria for the “Management and Administration” status—required for foreign business owners operating in Japan—were tightened last October. Due to a revision in ministerial ordinances, the capital requirement was raised sixfold in one fell swoop, from the previous 5 million yen to 30 million yen.Applicants are also required to employ a full-time Japanese national or permanent resident, and both the applicant and employees must demonstrate a certain level of Japanese language proficiency. Although a three-year grace period has been established following the amendment, in principle, applicants must meet the new requirements for residence status renewals beginning in October 2028.
The tightening of the “Management and Administration” status is intended to prevent fraud, typified by “paper companies” with no actual business operations. However, as things stand, owners of small-scale restaurants and retail stores—who have worked diligently up to this point—are being forced to close their businesses or return to their home countries against their will.
Mr. Vista was also forced to close the curry restaurant he ran at the end of April this year. He is currently involved as an executive in the management of a restaurant run by a permanent resident he knows. Although his status of residence remains “Management and Administration,” he looks resigned, saying, “If I can’t secure a three-year period of stay at my next renewal, I’ll have no choice but to return home.”
“If the capital requirement were about 1.5 times the current 5 million yen, I might still be able to manage. But 30 million yen is impossible. Foreigners 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 yen.”
Due to amendments to the Immigration Control Act, fees for changing residence status and renewing periods will also increase significantly starting in October, making the financial burden even heavier.
Currently, the fee for changing or renewing a status of residence is a flat rate of 6,000 yen (5,500 yen for online applications). Starting in October, fees will be based on the length of stay: 33,000 yen (27,000 yen online) for a one-year stay,64,000 yen for stays of three to less than five years (27,000 yen for online applications), and 75,000 yen for stays of five years or more (65,000 yen for online applications). The fee for permanent residency will rise from 10,000 yen to as much as 200,000 yen.
“If I try to renew for one year, the fee suddenly becomes more than five times as much. In my case, it’s 99,000 yen for my wife and child combined. Including the fee for the administrative scrivener, it comes to nearly 200,000 yen.”
According to the Immigration Services Agency, the amount of residence permit fees was “determined by comprehensively taking into account the actual costs required for screening, the costs necessary for the fair management of foreign nationals’ entry, exit, and residence, the levels of similar fees in other countries, and measures to address future inflation.”
“ We foreign residents also pay between 800,000 and 1,000,000 yen annually in taxes and social insurance premiums. If hardworking foreign residents leave, Japan’s tax revenue will decrease accordingly.”
Ms. Vista makes no secret of her outrage, saying, “It’s as if the government is telling us, ‘It’s time to leave Japan.’”
“ My daughter is four years old now. She was born in Japan and knows nothing but life here. She’s looking forward to attending a Japanese elementary school with her friends from kindergarten. We want the government to view foreign children as future members of the Japanese workforce, just like everyone else. That is our message.”
Foreigners lament that Chinese capital is exploiting loopholes…
Right now, distrust toward Japan is rapidly spreading among foreign residents.
“The government’s goal is supposedly to exclude unscrupulous foreigners. But with these stricter regulations full of loopholes, it’s only the honest business owners who are bearing the brunt of it. The foreigners around me are lamenting, ‘What has happened to Japan?’”
Mr. Ratnayaka (pseudonym, 56), a restaurant owner from Sri Lanka who has lived in Japan for 33 years and obtained Japanese citizenship 15 years ago, speaks with growing intensity. His restaurant attracts many foreign customers, and he says he hears the heartfelt concerns of people from various countries residing in Japan.
Mr. Ratnayaka is particularly concerned about the ironic reality that these blanket, stricter regulations are “actually benefiting shell companies set up for the purpose of immigration.”
“Sri Lankans who cannot come up with 30 million yen in capital are being forced out of business, while well-funded Chinese and others are slipping through the cracks as if nothing is wrong.
Near my shop, a Chinese person bought an entire building and is leaving it empty and unused. In areas with many Chinese restaurants, Chinese capital is buying up small shops at rock-bottom prices and having Chinese owners change their residency status so they can be hired as employees.”
As a result, it appears as though the government is effectively encouraging the continued stay of Chinese nationals. That’s how the foreigners around me see it.”
Mr. Ratnayaka moved to Japan in 1993 to study. “The elderly people in the neighborhood treated me like their own grandson. I feel like Japan raised me,” he says. That is precisely why he cannot help but feel bewildered by the changes in Japanese society.
“ Ever since the phrase ‘Japanese First’ started being used in last year’s election, public perception has changed drastically. A society that used to be warm toward foreigners now views all foreigners with suspicion, wondering, ‘Aren’t they going to cause trouble?’ Everyone is disappointed, thinking, ‘Japan wasn’t the kind of country that treated us like outsiders.’”
Now, Mr. Ratnayaka fears that Sri Lankans who have returned home feeling as though they were driven out will harbor resentment toward Japan. If that happens, the pro-Japanese sentiments that the Sri Lankan people have held for so many years could be lost.
“I think this applies not only to Sri Lanka but to other countries in Southeast Asia as well. I want to ask Japanese society: Is it really right for Japan to lose the world’s trust because of its policies toward foreigners? ”
The End Result of Anti-Immigration Policies: “The Collapse of Long-Term Care”
While foreign residents’ disappointment and anger continue to mount, the Japanese government is rapidly pushing forward with “stricter measures” as part of its “Comprehensive Measures for Accepting Foreigners and Promoting Orderly Coexistence.”Kenji Nishiyama, an administrative scrivener who assists with procedures related to foreign residents’ status, criticizes the current administration’s policies as “far too short-sighted and tasteless. It’s nothing more than a ploy to win popularity.”
“Regarding the ‘Business Management’ residence status, Japan has consistently taken a ‘welcome’ stance toward foreign entrepreneurs. Requirements were relaxed—such as by establishing grace periods—to make it easier to start a business. To make a 180-degree turnaround and uniformly require a capital of 30 million yen even from those already residing in the country makes no sense.
To begin with, even raising 5 million yen in capital is a major challenge, so there has always been a certain number of people who set up companies with ‘show money.’ Will raising the amount to 30 million yen really eliminate these bad practices? I have serious doubts about the effectiveness of this measure.”
Mr. Nishiyama also points out the “unreasonableness” of the revisions to residence status application fees.
“For example, the fee for a one-year renewal of residency status is set at 33,000 yen, but it makes no sense to categorize fees by duration. They should be categorized by residency status.
Many foreign nationals under the ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ and ‘Technical Intern Training’ programs work for minimum wage. For example, a 64,000-yen fee for a three-year renewal is a significant amount for them. Even if the company covers it initially, that amount will be deducted from their wages, so ultimately, the workers themselves will suffer the loss.”
There is a residence status called “Engineer, Specialist in Humanities, and International Services” (Gijinkokku) for foreign nationals with specialized knowledge or skills, but the fees for residence procedures are the same. Isn’t it unreasonable, no matter how you look at it, that people working at minimum wage are forced to bear the same burden as so-called white-collar workers? ”
However, in reality, even among foreigners working under the “Technical, Humanistic Knowledge, and International Business” status of residence, there are those who are struggling with the fee increase.
“ The ‘Technical, Humanistic Knowledge, and International Business’ status is, in principle, intended for specialized professionals—such as college graduates—who use their intellectual abilities in their work. However, in reality, there are a significant number of foreign nationals who enter the country under the guise of technical work but end up performing grueling on-site labor or unskilled manual labor, which has become a problem known as ‘fake Gijinkokku.’The responsibility often lies not with the foreign nationals themselves, but with Japanese employers who hire them without informing them that the work does not meet the requirements of their residency status.
Before tightening the superficial requirements, the government should make an effort to understand the actual conditions on the ground.”
An even bigger problem is the systemic distortion that fails to adequately protect foreign workers.
“In the case of ‘Specified Skilled Worker’ or ‘Technical Intern Training’ programs, it is not uncommon for foreign workers to quit their jobs because they are fed up with unscrupulous employers or to lose their jobs due to bankruptcy or similar circumstances.Even though they entered the country on a residence status that permits employment, if three months pass without them securing a job, they may become subject to revocation of their residence status. If they take on part-time work under the table just to make ends meet, it constitutes illegal activities outside the scope of their status; if this is discovered during renewal, they are forced into illegal stay.
“The government’s tacky attitude—leaving the flaws in the foreign worker acceptance system and problems with employers and working conditions unaddressed, while cracking down solely on foreign nationals through measures like raising fees—is the biggest problem. It makes foreign nationals feel as though the government is siding with unscrupulous employers.”
Whenever stricter immigration policies are reported, voices of approval appear online, saying, “
However, the reality is that in sectors facing labor shortages—such as long-term care and the restaurant industry—
Mr. Nishiyama sharply criticizes the government, stating, “The government itself is stoking anti-foreigner sentiment in public opinion and
“Once labor shortages bring the long-term care and restaurant industries to a standstill, do they intend to say, ‘
▼Kenji Nishiyama, Administrative Scrivener. Graduated from the Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Sophia University in 1991.After working at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), he became Representative Director of Nishiyama Chisai Co., Ltd. in 1998. In 2020, he became the head of the Nishiyama Administrative Scrivener Office. He writes about topics related to residency and immigration on his blog (https://www.ngj.jp/blog_manager.php).
Reporting and Text： Sayuri Saito PHOTO： Afro