How to apply for Permanent Residency of Japan

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If you’d like to read the Chinese version of this article, please check this one: 申請日本永住權流程.

I got my permanent residency of Japan recently and this article is to help you prepare all documents required.

Disclaimer

The rule changes slightly year by year, so even though documents mentioned in this article worked for me when I applied in December, 2019, you might need prepare something more (or less) to be qualified. The single source of truth is always the official document 😇.

Prerequisite

If you meet either of the criteria below, you’re qualified to apply for the permanent residency visa of Japan.

Based on this point calculation form: http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_3/pdf/r01_1220_point_table.xls

• If you have more than 70 points for 3 years in a row, you’re eligible to apply
• Or, if you have more than 80 points for over 1 year, you’re also eligible.

(How to get those required documents to reach the desired points is out of scope of this article.)

How to collect all documents

Application form

Print this form and fill in: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/000099653.pdf

(Based on your eligibility, the form may differ. In my case, I got more than 80 points for over 1 year with highly-skilled foreign professional visa.)

Photo (4cm x 3cm)

Residence card

Passport

An essay on why you want to apply for permanent residency of Japan

There is no designated format for this essay, but I’ll provide my outline for your reference:

(The whole contents are in one page of A4 paper.)

1. First paragraph: Briefly introduce yourself and explain why you want to apply for permanent residency of Japan.

2. Second paragraph: Describe the job you do since you came to Japan and how you got qualified (e.g. worked hard to get more salaries or made a lot of efforts to pass JLPT).

3. Third paragraph: Describe how you contribute to the society (e.g. how your work helps the growth of the industry, how you built a community to make certain part of Japan thrive…things like that) and also how you blend in Japanese culture.

4. Fourth paragraph: Describe the relationship between you and your guarantor and show appreciation to his/her support (mainly on the fact that he/she is willing to be your guarantor).

5. Fifth paragraph: You’re willing to abide by Japan’s law and the obligation to pay tax.

6. Conclusion: Put more emphasis on how your work or your existence can contribute to Japan’s society and make it the reason that you want to apply for the permanent residency of Japan.

Certificate of residence

Go the ward office (区役所) near your place to apply for it.

Employment certificate

Apply through your company’s HR.

Proof of paying taxes

You need to apply for two documents listed below in the ward office (区役所) near your place:

• Proof of paying residence tax （5年分の住民稅の課稅（又は非課稅）証明書）
• Proof of paying income tax （1年間の総所得及び納税状況が記載されたもの）

It’s to be noted that if you’ve ever moved and lived in different districts, you have to visit the ward office of your previous district as well in order to get the document. For example, I used to live in Setagaya-ku and moved to Meguro-ku, so I have to go to both ward offices to get required documents as mentioned above 😢.

(If you have hard time explaining to the personnel in the ward office, you can just pass them the description below:

(1) 住民税の納付状況を証明する資料
ア 直近５年分の住民税の課税（又は非課税）証明書及び納税証明書（１年間の総所得及び納税状況が記載されたもの）各１通
※ お住まいの市区町村から発行されるものです。
※ 上記については，１年間の総所得及び納税状況（税金を納めているかどうか）の両方が記載されている証明書であれば，いずれか一方でかまいません。
※ 市区町村において，直近５年分の証明書が発行されない場合は，発行される最長期間分について提出してください。
※ また，上記の証明書が，入国後間もない場合や転居等により，市区町村から発行されない場合は，最寄りの地方出入国在留管理官署にお問い合わせください。
イ 直近５年間において住民税を適正な時期に納めていることを証明する資料（通帳の写し，領収証書等）
※ 直近５年間において，住民税が特別徴収（給与から天引き）されていない期間がある方は，当該期間分について提出してください。

Proof of not owing taxes to the government

It sounds like a duplicate document as the previous point, but it’s listed as a required document. You should pay a visit to the National Taxation Bureau （國稅局）of your place and you can find the one of your district here: https://www.homemate-research-tax.com/13110/. Just pass the below description to the personnel over there and you’ll get what you need:

源泉所得税及び復興特別所得税，申告所得税及び復興特別所得税，消費税及び地方消費税，相続税，贈与税に係る納税証明書（その３）
※ 住所地を管轄する税務署から発行されるものです。税務署の所在地や請求方法など，詳しくは国税庁ホームページを御確認ください。
※ 納税証明書（その３）は，証明を受けようとする税目について，証明日現在において未納がないことを証明するものですので，対象期間の指定は不要です。
※ 上記の税目全てに係る納税証明書を提出してください。

Proof of paying pension

You need these two documents:

• Monthly pension record

You can visit this website: https://www.nenkin.go.jp/n_net/index.html to apply for an account and they’ll send the user id to your place. After logging in, you can print the record accordingly.

• Proof of paying pension

You should go to the Pension office of your district (in my case, it’s 目黑區年金署) and apply for the certificate of 厚生年金, which should be deducted from your salary every month if you work for a company.

Copy of your health insurance card

Proof of asset

I only printed the half-year record of the bank account where my salary goes.

Documents from your guarantor

Here comes the tricky part. You need a guarantor in order to apply for the permanent residency of Japan. This guarantor doesn’t have to be Japanese or somebody with big titles but can be your friend or your colleague. If you misbehave in Japan, the guarantor doesn’t have to be responsible for it (correct me if I’m wrong 🙏). From what I heard, it’s better to ask from people who are Japanese or already have permanent residency of Japan to be your guarantor (although I can’t find this criteria anywhere in the official document) and the whole point I guess is to prove that you blend into Japanese society at the bare minimum. What you need from your guarantor are as below:

• Application form: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/000007381.pdf
• Employment certificate of your guarantor (please refer to the Employment certificate section above)
• Proof of paying taxes of your guarantor (please refer to the Proof of paying taxes section above)
• Certificate of residence of your guarantor (please refer to the Certificate of residence section above)

That’s it! It’s a lot of work and you’ll definitely get a sense of achievement after submitting the application successfully (it’s a false and pathetic sense of achievement though 😂). After the submission, you may still need to wait up to 8 months to an year until you really get it, not the best waiting-in-line experience I’ve had but it definitely worths it if you’d like to buy an apartment in Japan (I’ll write another article for that later when getting a little more time.). Anyway, if you encounter any issue which is not mentioned in this article, feel free to ask in the comments and maybe I can help 😁!