Immigration Agency Unveils 'Second Basic Plan for Immigration Control,' Moving to Tighten Permanent Residency Rules
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The Immigration Services Agency published its "Second Basic Plan for Immigration Control" on July 31, 2026. The plan sets out a new policy requiring a certain level of Japanese language proficiency and completion of a program on Japan's institutions as conditions for permanent residency, and also states that the agency will consider revising the independent-livelihood and national-interest requirements as well as introducing a minimum income requirement.
The agency explained that, given the substantial increase in the number of registered foreign residents, "the importance of proper residency management is growing further." It also referred to plans to introduce "JESTA," a pre-screening system for inbound foreign tourists, sometime during fiscal year 2028.
Current status: The plan has only been announced at this stage, and the specific implementation timeline for tightening permanent residency rules, as well as whether legal amendments will be required, remain unclear as of this writing. This article will be updated as further details emerge.
This plan is positioned as an overarching framework that ties together a series of immigration policy reinforcement measures, including the emergency addition of 226 immigration staff (related coverage), the "Zero Illegal Overstayers Plan – Intensive Promotion Package" (related coverage), and increases in residency-related fees (related coverage). Against the backdrop of the Internal Affairs Ministry statistics showing a record-high number of foreign residents (related coverage), the government's approach appears to be pursuing simultaneous quantitative expansion of acceptance and qualitative tightening of management.