Why Are Japanese Residence Statuses for Professional Athletes So Complicated?
Contracts, competition eligibility, prize money and supporting staff.
READ ARTICLE →SANNO IMMIGRATION NOTESJapan immigration,
Japan immigration,
explained from practice.
Practical notes on Japanese immigration, work visas and foreign hiring, translated for overseas applicants and employers.
Is the Startup Visa’s Designated Activities Route “Dead”? — The New Business Manager Criteria and the Vanishing Exit
The Startup Visa still exists, but the stricter Business Manager exit has made the traditional two-year startup-preparation route much harder. The key question is now what happens after the preparation period.
READ ARTICLE →How to choose the right Entertainer visa standard
“We want to invite a singer to Japan.” “We want to hold live shows.” “We want to bring in a model.” “We want to invite an athlete.” These may all be described broadly as entertainment activities. In practice, however, an
READ ARTICLE →When Permanent Residence Is No Longer the Only Goal — Rethinking Highly Skilled Professional (ii)
The October 2026 revision of Japan's permanent residence guidelines raises an important question: how should highly skilled foreign professionals think about the relationship between permanent residence and Highly Skille
READ ARTICLE →What Administrative Scriveners and Registered Support Organizations Can—and Cannot—Do
In Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) cases, employers often ask: “Can an administrative scrivener introduce foreign workers?” “Can a registered support organization dispatch workers?” or “Can you handle everything from the
READ ARTICLE →New Specified Skilled Worker Fields — Linen Supply, Logistics Warehousing and Resource Recycling
Japan continues to expand the fields covered by the Specified Skilled Worker system. This article reviews three new fields likely to attract employer interest—linen supply, logistics warehousing and resource recycling—an
READ ARTICLE →Thoughts on the New Permanent Residence Guidelines
On 1 October 2026, the Immigration Services Agency published revised Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence. Read as a practitioner, the revision gives a strong impression that permanent residence will be revi
READ ARTICLE →Business Manager New Criteria: 7 Patterns for the Japanese-Language Requirement
Under the Business Manager criteria effective from 16 October 2025, a Japanese-language requirement was introduced. A common source of confusion is that the person who satisfies the full-time employee requirement does no
READ ARTICLE →The “Urban Legend” of the New Business Manager Criteria
Japan’s new Business Manager criteria took effect on 16 October 2025, substantially raising the bar through requirements relating to capital, full-time staff, Japanese ability, management experience/education and profess
READ ARTICLE →Customer-Facing Work under the Engineer / Humanities / International Services Status — Including the 2026 Language-Ability Review
The Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services status is not a visa for every “white-collar” job. Customer service, sales, hotel front desk, interpreting and store work must be assessed by the actual mi
READ ARTICLE →How Closely Must Education Match the Job? — Universities, Junior Colleges and Vocational Schools
Under the Engineer / Humanities / International Services status, the way education and job duties are compared differs by type of school. Treating university, junior college and vocational school graduates the same can l
READ ARTICLE →The Most Important Part of a Work Visa: The Job Description
Writing only “sales,” “interpreter,” “IT” or “marketing” does not tell immigration what the person will actually do. Under Engineer / Humanities / International Services, the central issue is whether the duties require p
READ ARTICLE →Changing Jobs: Why We Do Not Automatically Recommend a Certificate of Authorized Employment
After a foreign national under the Engineer / Humanities / International Services status changes jobs, people often say “get a Certificate of Authorized Employment first.” It can be useful, but we do not recommend it mec
READ ARTICLE →Hiring 5 or 10 Foreign Professionals at Once — What Immigration Looks at on the Employer Side
Hiring one foreign professional and hiring five or ten at the same time are not the same exercise. As numbers increase, the employer must increasingly explain whether there is really that much professional work, who will
READ ARTICLE →Hiring International Students as New Graduates — From Offer to Joining Date and the “Condition Precedent”
For a new graduate, receiving a job offer does not mean the person can automatically start full-time professional work on 1 April. A student cannot begin full-time Engineer / Humanities / International Services duties af
READ ARTICLE →How Japan’s work visas differ from “skilled migration” — Comparing Japan with Canada, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom
“I have a degree and professional experience. Can I obtain a Japanese work visa first, move to Japan, and then find a job?” This is a common question from overseas applicants.
READ ARTICLE →“This Work Visa Covers Anything” Is Wrong — Five Checks Before Hiring a Foreign National
The worst timing to discover that a job does not fit the Engineer / Humanities / International Services status is after the offer, resignation and relocation have already happened. We usually divide the pre-hire review i
READ ARTICLE →After a Work Visa Refusal — From Reason Interview to Reapplication
After receiving a refusal, the first step should not be to slightly edit the same documents and refile. Identify as precisely as possible what went wrong, and separate issues that can be supplemented from structural prob
READ ARTICLE →Can a New, Small or Loss-Making Company Hire a Foreign Professional?
There is no blanket rule that a newly incorporated company cannot sponsor this status or that a loss automatically means refusal. But the application does not examine only the worker’s education. Immigration also looks a
READ ARTICLE →Engineer / Humanities, Specified Skilled Worker or Intra-company Transferee — How to Choose
Do not decide “we will get an Engineer / Humanities visa” first and then reshape the duties afterwards. Decide what the person will actually do, then choose the status that fits. Broadly, professional white-collar work m
READ ARTICLE →Prepare Before Incorporation for a Business Manager Visa
A Business Manager visa is easier to structure when status of residence, business activities, licenses, office, and funding are reviewed before the company is incorporated, rather than trying to repair the structure afte
READ ARTICLE →What to Organize Before an Entertainer Visa Consultation
For an Entertainer visa, the performer’s career is only one part of the picture. What matters is the overall structure: what will be done in Japan, where, when, under whose invitation, and under what contract.
READ ARTICLE →How to Think About SSW Applications and Support
Specified Skilled Worker procedures require two separate lines of work: immigration filing and the legally required support for SSW (i) workers. They should be designed together, but their functions are different.
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