RResidents in Japan

People that got Jobs which immediately received PR

  • February 15, 2026

Hi all,

Throughout my time here now I've met 2 people who somehow managed to get PR straight away as soon as they arrived. It was quite interesting to me as well that both these people, who were unaware of each other, both worked the same job pretty much, which was teaching kids aged a couple months old, to 12, sports in English.

Anyone else know of such stories or maybe the reasons why some people manage to get this straight away?

EDIT: Seems that throughout the comments the most likely option is that I was lied to, or they got it after a year. Unfortunately I am not in contact with these people anymore, so I can't look into it further, but many thanks nonetheless to the people who answered!

by Doggisyt

12 comments

  2. Even if you were married to the son/daughter of the Minister for justice, you can’t get PR straight away.

    Maybe you’ve misunderstood what status those people had. You can get a 5 year HSP visa from the start, and be eligible to apply to PR after 1 year (the actual PR process takes a while though, depending on where you live)

  4. Yeah that’s not possible, especially in teaching.

    The fastest I think you can get PR is if you are already married to a Japanese before coming here then enter on a spouse visa. Then I think you can apply after a year, as for PR you need 3 years of marriage and at least 1 year of residence in Japan.

  7. It’s not true. But the fastest ways to PR are being rich or married with kids (or both), and even then the fastest possible way still takes a year.

  8. This is not possible unless they are very special that Japan thinks they need to stay. like elite athletes. then minister of justice can grant it. but likely extremely rare. but the law has provision for this. your case of teacher or sports in english, no way. are they perhaps special permanent residents? if so they have it from start.

  9. Throughout my time here I knew plenty of people that said they lived in Japan with an Artist Visa, both category of people taught dance or did bit parts on TV. Absolutely none of them qualified nor had an Artist Visa. People sometimes just lie about visa staus.

  10. It never ceases to amaze me when I see how confused many foreigners are about their own visa status.  Reddit is full of people who initially claim they’re on a spouse visa while not married to a Japanese person (later, “oops, I checked and it’s actually a dependent visa”).  Recently I replied to a thread where OP said they got PR after one week, later corrected to “oops, student visa”

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