Permanent Residency & Naturalization in Japan

Permanent residency & Naturalization in Japan

- Written by Yogi (Yogendra Puranik), PhD, on January 11, 2020

I have seen people leaving Japan for as simple a reason as being unable to talk on the phone in the Japanese trains. There are many such reasons for which people tend to leave Japan.

The usual reasons for people leaving Japan are

• Education of kids and their future

• Taking care of old or ailing parents

• Discrimination at work or in day-to-day life

• Better work opportunities in India or overseas

• Marriage, in the case of singles

• Health reasons

Usually, after a stay of three years, people tend to decide whether to continue living in Japan, think of a different destination, or go back to India. And after living in Japan for ten plus years, people start thinking about living in Japan permanently. Not many Indians have chosen life-long kind of stays in Japan. However, such a population has been growing in recent years.

Long-term Residency Options

Long-termers can take advantage of the following residency categories.

1. Permanent residence (PR) – for people living in Japan for over 10 years. High-skill professional (HSP) visa owners can apply just after 3 years of stay in Japan after getting the HSP visa. Takes around one year for approval.

2. Citizenship by naturalization – for people living in Japan for more than 5 years (10 years since April 2026). Takes around one year for approval.

3. Long-term residence (LTR) – typically for special cases like a dependent living in Japan for a long time and used to the life in Japan, having lost the visa sponsor (the spouse). Not an easy visa to get.

The key benefit of PR is that you can keep your original nationality. You increase your credibility in terms of receiving loans, etc., by having a PR. However, if you have to move overseas, you have to visit Japan once within a certain duration to keep your PR valid.

With naturalization, you are required to renounce your original nationality. Advantages of naturalization are higher credibility in terms of receiving loans, contracting for rental homes, the possibility of not requiring a guarantor for your transactions, etc. The society, your office colleagues, in general, trust you more. The Japanese passport certainly receives more respect in global airports. I have personally experienced the differential treatment with my Indian and Japanese passports. You do not require a visa to enter hundreds of countries.

Naturalization is easy

What I have found is that naturalization is a much more welcoming process than the PR process, as Japan really wants good people to be their citizens. Also, the country has higher legal control over the naturalized citizens than the PRs.

LTR is a special visa given under special conditions. With this visa type, a person can stay in Japan for a longer or permanent duration. Please read the LTR section for details.

Permanent residency

To be eligible for permanent residency, you must have stayed in Japan for a minimum of 10 years with a normal working visa or 3 years with a high skill visa. The application for permanent residence needs lots of supporting documents. The application is submitted to the immigration for a strict scrutiny thereafter. The application process is the same as applying for a Certificate of Eligibility. The documents required are 

1. Application form

2. Residence card and passport

3. Reason for applying

4. Residence certificate for all family members

5. Employment certificate

6. Tax, health insurance, and pension certificates for certain years

7. Bank balance certificate

8. Documents for property in Japan (optional)

9. Documents proving social participation or awards. 

For dependent families, some more documents are required to be submitted. In addition, documents from the guarantor are required. These include 

1.  Residence certificate

2. Tax certificate

3. Guarantee letter

Usually, it takes around a year until the declaration of the results.

Citizenship by naturalization

The process of citizenship by naturalization is handled by the legal affairs bureau (houmukyoku) in the respective prefectures of Japan. The following is the process.

First interview

Call the legal affairs bureau in your city or prefecture, take an appointment, and meet them for a basic interview. You will be asked to carry some documents, basically your identification documents. At the end of this interview, if they believe that you could be an eligible candidate, they offer you a checklist of documents to be gathered for the next round.

Document collection

You collect the documents. These documents include, but are not limited to,

1. Your letter of intent (behind naturalization)

2. 2 copies of all your passports (current + old)

3. Residence certificate

4. Your detailed resume, along with family details

5. Your academic and work-related certificates

6. Proofs of your birth and marriage

7. Proofs of your parents’ marriage or death

8. Proofs about your siblings, such as birth certificates

9. Documents to prove your relationships, family photographs

10. List of your international travels with the reason for each travel. The bureau will tell you where to get this list from

11. Proof of financial stability of yourself and family overseas, such as letter of service, salary, returns filings, property, bank passbooks, properties overseas, your credit certificate, etc.)

12. Map of the area around your house and workplace (could be asked for past houses and workplaces)

If you are doing business in Japan, you will have to submit the company registration document, returns filing documents, BSPL sheets, business or shop license, other licenses as necessary, and so on. Once you have gathered all the documents, call the legal affairs bureau to make an appointment. The officer will check all your documents and issue the naturalization application form. Once you get this form, you will be considered eligible for naturalization. The officer will stamp the documents and return them to you for the final submission later.

Translation of documents

Translate all the documents into Japanese and attest the translation. In my case, I self-attested as I was JLPT N1. So, either you can self-attest or somebody eligible, like your friend, colleague, or teacher, can attest.

Unavailability of documents

If you have a problem in acquiring any document, you can discuss with your officer at the legal affairs bureau, and they will guide you with alternatives. They understand and consider that administrative services in different countries work differently.

Second Interview 

Once you have gathered all the documents, call the bureau for the second appointment. They will check all the documents. If all the documents satisfy the requirements, the officer will give you the application form for naturalization. Duly fill the application form. If possible, get recommendation letters from people you know, possibly one from your office senior, one from your client, and one from your social spheres. It is good to show your social participation.  

Final submission

Once everything is ready, call the legal affairs bureau, make an appointment, and visit them. The officer will check the documents, and if everything is found okay, he/she will accept them for internal processing and issue a receipt with your case number.

Fees

There is no application fee for the naturalization process. My personal experience is that you do not need a lawyer unless you have too much money to waste. The legal affairs bureau officers support you a lot.

Language test

A Japanese language test is required for the application process. The Japanese language test could be exempted in case you possess sufficient language certifications.

Home visit

After a few months, you will receive a call from the legal affairs bureau. They will visit your home to see your living standards. The date will be decided upon discussion with you. Keep your house clean. Talk to them in a friendly manner. You can offer them tea and snacks. They will enquire about your behavior with your building manager and may enquire with your neighbors. So, you must keep healthy relations with your neighbors left, right, up, and down.

Overseas enquiry

An enquiry will also be sent to the local police station around your home in India. Your criminal records will be checked. Any kind of criminal record or driving violations works negatively.

Final approval

Once all these stages are completed, your documents are sent to the home ministry for approval. And once the Minister of Justice signs your documents, you are called to the legal affairs bureau when you are handed over the mibun shoumeisho (naturalization certificate). Please make multiple COLOR copies of this certificate for further use and for your own copy. The final result is received within one year from the time of the final submission of documents.

Registration

Within one month from the receipt of this naturalization certificate, take the original of the certificate and your residence card to your city office. The city office will take this original certificate and the residence card, and register you in their system as a Japanese citizen. They will then issue you a koseki touhon (domicile certificate).

Selection of nationality

Now, translate the naturalization certificate and the koseki certificate and submit them along with the nationality renunciation form to your embassy. The embassy will process the renunciation. The embassy will give you a copy of your application. The processing fee is quite high. When I applied, it was 42,000 yen per person. Japanese law offers you 2 years to renounce your previous nationality from the date of approval of naturalization. Indian citizens can apply for an OCI (Original Citizen of India) card.

OCI card

An OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card offers economic and financial status equivalent to that of Indians, except for two conditions. One, an OCI cannot vote. And two, an OCI cannot buy agricultural land. OCI can otherwise open bank accounts or insurance policies, hold or hire properties and investments in India. An OCI can enter India any number of times and stay in India for any duration.

Long-term residency

Those who are married to a Japanese national or their kids can get a ‘Spouse or child of a Japanese national’ visa. The allowed period of stay can be from six months to five years. The regional immigration bureau will issue a certificate of eligibility (COE). Then the visa is stamped based on this COE. The visa processing fees are not as expensive as those in many European countries or the Americas.

Aggrieved residents in Japan, for example, a wife being harassed by her husband, are subject to deportation. However, teen kids who were born and brought up in Japan, if their duration of stay in Japan was longer than 3 years, the wife in the prior case and the kids in the latter case are eligible to receive an LTR status and live independently in Japan. In such a case, the aggrieved dependents shall contact the city office for help.

All the best!

Yogi (Yogendra Puranik), PhD

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