Article is in Japanese but basically the Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁) finalized their drafted changes to tighten requirements of the business manager visa and are now opening it up to a public comment period from now until September 25. It’s likely to be implemented in October 2025 right after.
The new requirements are:
– 30 million yen capital requirement (6x more than original 5 million yen)
– one full time employee (must be Japanese, on spouse visa, or permanent resident)
– 3 years of management experience or master’s degree in business/management
According to Sankei Shimbun (in the attached link), of the 41,600 people who already have business manager visas, only 4% of them meet the new 30 million yen requirement. This information is from the ISA directly an it is unknown what the statistics are for holders that satisfy ALL requirements. There is concern that renewals will be held to these new requirements as well.
I am personally affected. I left my job this year after getting approved for business management visa to start a solo software company. I’m currently developing a SaaS product for farm labor management to help struggling farmers in Japan but will probably need to pack my bags and move to another country if the ISA doesn’t grandfather in current visa holders. There is still a public comment period but I’m starting plan my exit in case it does become a renewal requirement. It’s sad because I love this country and just got my business up and running and corporate bank account set up.
If you are a new founder, don’t make the mistake I did by applying for the business manager visa. Apply for the startup visa, you’ll have much more lax requirements and more time to get your company set up.
If anyone is an administrative scrivener and knows more information than the article tells, please let us know as well.
by chaolayluu
24 comments
I’m affected too. I had to send in a public opinion. You can see the draft here and do the same : [https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&Mode=0&id=315000115](https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&Mode=0&id=315000115)
This change makes the J-Find visa which they established 2 years ago pointless.
J-Find visa is similar to startup visa, the point is to come to Japan, do “Start-up preparation activities” for up to 2 years to establish your company and then switch to business manager visa.
To get J-Find visa, you must have graduated from a top 100 university **in the last 5 years.** But now, to switch to BM visa you need **3 years of experience** as a company director. How can someone who’s graduated less than 5 years ago been a company director **for 3 years**?
> will probably need to pack my bags and move to another country if the ISA doesn’t grandfather in current visa holders.
I’ll stay till my J-Find runs out, and not extend it. Then move to one of other countries in Asia which have lower requirements (10M yen in Korea, 0 if you have patents or get in through startup visa, 0 in Singapore with correct setup and so on), significantly lower corporate tax and much more lax requirements on renewals. Mostly considering South Korea.
> I’m currently developing a SaaS product for farm labor management to help struggling farmers in Japan
Look at [OASIS program](https://www.oasisvisa.com/about.html) in South Korea. I’m pretty sure you’d get in through it without any capital requirement. Overall much simpler and less bureaucracy than Japan and afaik it goes quite a bit faster too.
Part of Sanseitou’s drive to make Japan last again.
From what I heard/ read, this only affects new BM applicants, not people that already have the visa. The objective is to prevent the opening of new companies that are used for the sole purpose of bogus transactions or for raising loans from the banks
This change really doesn’t make sense. Japan is not a good place to start a large scale business as a foreigner due to the high taxes and this change kills small businesses. With these changes the only people who will get it are the rich Chinese they were trying to stop.
Earlier this year they made the startup visa 2 years instead of 1 and now they are doing this… I wonder if the startup visa transition has to meet these requirements or if its still under the old?
What’s the point of even having a business manager visa? Seems like they has been lost
This change is very silly. I’m not even faulting Sanseito because they aren’t in power. The fault lies with the LDP because they implement every change in the worst possible way every time. They need to be voted out of power.
So as a result, people will (probably) end up setting up LLCs overseas and using an EOR company to sponsor them instead or leave Japan altogether. So much for “innovation” or “welcoming foreign investors”.
Also LOL at the MBA requirement. Most people with MBAs can’t run a business alone, that’s not something you can teach and is ridiculous. The most Japanese requirement of them all.
Good.
Well this is going to negatively impact the international schools as well and result in higher tuitions most likely.
Lots of chinese and other forigners who are here in japan specifically to send their kids to international schools in japan.
I’d be affected, too. I employ 6 people at the moment, and took a minimal salary as I wanted to grow the business. I’d need to pay myself ¥50m this year to have another ¥25m to put into the business, and that’s just not happening.
/u/AlfalfaAgitated472 : Thanks for the link – I’m going to submit a strongly worded objection.
>I’m currently developing a SaaS product for farm labor management to help struggling farmers in Japan
Bit off topic but do you need a farmer in Japan to do some testing for you ?
Does the 3 years of management experience requires you to work in like big, established companies or 3 years experience of managing your own SME business in your home country counts?
this visa is being grossly abused by south asians who were able to sneak into japan by investing just 5M yen into bogus companies. Read the full article in today’s Japan Times. That’s what triggered this change. Obviously some genuine investors will get hit too, but that’s the price to pay when there are bad apples in our midst
Ugh. Seems like it applies to renewals as well.
It’s not clear if there might be a grace period for those who already have visas, and are coming up for renewal.
It would be nice to give at least a year or two meet the drastic change for existing visa holders. This is a massive change.
If some assholes didn’t abuse this visa (shell company), nothing of this would happen. I hope this gov will never, ever, freaking ever, complain about lack of entrepreneurs (legit activity) or innovations. Such stupidness bafles me.
I don’t understand how this will apply to renewals. Having 5 million now is not a requirement of renewal. You can have almost no money in your company as long as you’re getting paid sufficiently. The capital requirement is mostly for the initial visa, once you’re making money it doesn’t matter as long as you can show personal savings enough to last you a year or so
This is going to do fuck all to stop the demographic who abuse this visa. Its going to ruin the genuine people.
Wealthy Chinese people will not bat an eyelid at this change and continue with their bs minpaku “business” to slowly obtain PR, driving up real estate at the same time.
Genuine business are screwed.
Japan is already struggling to find employees and has to rely on foreigners in may sectors. How is a new BM Visa holder expected to employ a Japanese citizen or PR holder? And wouldn’t a new visa holder try to keep costs as low as possible initially?
Japan needs hardworking middle-class people who pay taxes and health insurance on time, and who will hopefully settle down and keep contributing to their communities.
The best thing you can do is submit a public comment on the site people are posting here to get our opinions on the matter.
1. this doesnt help japan and just helps the CCP
2. they just need more oversight on visa holders to ensure they are doing the thing
3. a college degree doesnt = business adeptness
4. not every business needs to hire someone and this only will hurt businesses
5. This change will cause thousands of BM visa holders to pack up and leave. Very stupid move by JP
I just arrived here and received my startup visa for a video game studio business plan. I have 15 million yen in capital. I’m utterly disgusted by the comments I read in that article – stupid me for getting scammed by the Fukuoka city startup website. I truly believed it. In those comments, I’m being described like an illegal immigrant who came on a boat, rather than being welcomed. I truly believed in change in Japan. I wanted to give something back to Japan, considering how important Japanese video games were for my growth. If anyone got scammed, it’s me – I got scammed when they changed the rules two days after I received my visa. I just want to leave, and I’ve only just started. I have customers in Canada and the UK. I could go anywhere, but instead I believed the bullshit they advertised. Also, I would like to understand where they will find a self-funded tech company with that capital. Given that we are two co-founders, we should also probably reach 60 million yen.
Also, I cannot move forward with the things needed to achieve for the renewal because we don’t know the new official rules, so I’m just stuck. FGN told us that they don’t know either, and nobody knows yet what to suggest. I just had to fill out a survey to say “NO, OBVIOUSLY I DON’T HAVE MORE MONEY,” and I don’t think I can get this money in 6 months.
I’ll just say this: the idea that only 4% of current visa holders can meet the new requirements is stupid.
Only 4% of the people meeting the current visa requirements showed they had way more money than they needed to.
I think they should allow at least 6 months-1 year. I just changed my zairyu card to startup visa so i have 6 months to open the company. now what, i need to raise 6x in 5 months and a bit?
Also the comments really disgusted me. I understand that lots of people don’t pay taxes and literally scam the s*it out of Japan, but you can’t put everyone in the same bowl. If you see that something is wrong, fix it. How will this rule change the already existing companies? Also the chinese that buy properties are already rich so they won’t care if it’s 5 or 50 million. As a person who genuinely wanted to make my life in Japan and give back all the good that i receive, i feel discouraged.
Aslo, they are proud of having a lot of young investors, but how many people in their 20s or 30s have 30million yen to [maybe] burn? It’s a risk that you take in any country, but you need to spend time to learn japanese, to get used to their culture, to move here. Just the time spent learning japanese is already worth another few millions. The risk is a lot higher in a country that’s not yours [especially if you’re from the Western countries]
Why don’t they make other things mandatory. Meetings every few months, proof of ongoing business, japanese level [even if you start from 0, you can show improvement], money flow, all the things that are already mandatory for the BM visa.
Honestly, at this point i m considering packing my bags and go back before i even start and that’s sad.
> I’m currently developing a SaaS product for farm labor management to help struggling farmers in Japan but will probably need to pack my bags and move to another country if the ISA doesn’t grandfather in current visa holders.
I would be very surprised if they DON’T grandfather in existing visa holders. Really, really surprised. In the very least I would expect them to give a 5+ year window to meet the new capital requirements.
I heard today from my immigration lawyer that there is a change in the works to raise the GK capital requirement for sponsorship to 30m from 5m, in October this year. I moved from BM to HSP2 this year, finally getting permanent status and sponsorship ability. The the visa doesn’t expire just so long as you keep your expected salary above 40m. I’m sure this group knows that keeping your salary at that level is super easy and totally not a problem. Having recently being retired against my will, my only way to stay in the country is to take my retirement savings to capitalise a GK to pay myself an expected salary of 40m, thus paying an incremental tax rate around 60%. I’m lucky enough to meet the criteria for citizenship so that’s my path to avoid leaving my half-Japanese kids behind. This is all political, foreigners are responsible for all possible woes apparently, and so much easier to do that than to take a hard look at what’s actually wrong. My apologies, the people blaming foreigners actually mean Chinese people, but they can’t say that because it’s racist. English gentleman are ok apparently, so long as
I don’t mention anything about the invasion of HK two weeks after Pearl Harbour. Whoops, did I mention it?
> This visa was being abused and causing real estate appreciation
I guess I misread this as you thinking it was causing real estate appreciation, my bad that was on my bad reading
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