On 4 August 2026, the Immigration Services Agency (Residence Management Division, Residence Planning Office) published a draft revision of the guidelines for examining applications for permanent residence permission, together with a new draft guideline on revoking the status of residence of permanent residents, and opened a public comment (パブリックコメント) period. Submissions are being accepted from 12
on 4 August to 0 on 4 September. At the time of writing (6 August), the comment period is still open, and both documents remain at the draft stage — neither has been formally decided or brought into force. The main points of the draft revised permanent residence guidelines are as follows.- Permanent residence is described as the most stable legal status, in that it carries no restriction on activity or period of stay and is expected to be held for the rest of a person's life in Japan; on this basis, the draft is expected to state for the first time that "particularly careful examination is required"
- Proposed tightening of the independent-livelihood requirement: a proposed move to require that household income continuously exceed the average income of Japanese households of the same household size
- Proposed new pension requirement: a proposal to check whether the expected Employees' Pension benefit, calculated according to income level, reaches the equivalent of 30 years of enrolment, with the possibility that any shortfall could be made up with financial assets
- Proposed stricter application of the national-interest requirement: a proposed move to state explicitly that permanent residence needs to bring a positive and concrete benefit to Japan
- Proposed new Japanese-language requirement: a proposal to require a level "equivalent to CEFR (Japan's Japanese-Language Education Reference Framework, 日本語教育参照枠) B1 (independent user)"
- A proposal to add understanding of Japan's systems and rules as a factor for consideration, and to treat a school-age child not receiving compulsory education as a negative factor
- Proposed tightening of the spousal exception: a proposal to extend the special eligibility requirements for spouses, etc., of Japanese nationals and permanent residents from "three years of marriage and one year of residence" to "five years of marriage and three years of residence". The original text reads: 「原則１０年在留に関する特例：日本人・永住者の配偶者等については、婚姻期間3年かつ本邦在留期間1年で特例的に認めていたところ、それぞれの期間を5年、３年に伸長」("Exception to the general 10-year residence requirement: for spouses, etc., of Japanese nationals and permanent residents, the exception has to date been granted where the marriage has lasted three years and residence in Japan one year; each of these periods is proposed to be extended, to five years and three years respectively.")
This is a draft based on the 2024 amended Immigration Act. Until now, grounds for revocation have been limited to false statements made at the time of application, but the draft guideline on revoking permanent residents' status of residence proposes adding the following three grounds.
- Wilfully failing to pay public charges such as tax or social insurance premiums
- Breaching obligations under the Immigration Act relating to the residence card, such as renewal, carrying it, or presenting it (said to exclude cases with a legitimate reason, such as illness or disaster)
- A custodial sentence (said to include a suspended sentence) for specified offences such as theft, fraud, extortion, murder, or causing death or injury by dangerous driving
As things stand, none of this has been decided or brought into force as a formal guideline: both revisions remain only drafts at the time of writing, and may change depending on the outcome of the public comment period (closing 0
on 4 September) and other factors. With that said, the timing indicated by the draft has the income-related elements applying from October 2026, with the remainder from April 2027.Source: Immigration Services Agency, "Public Comment on the Rationalisation of 'Permanent Residents'"