Japan's Cabinet adopted a fee ordinance on Tuesday, 25 August 2026. The Immigration Services Agency will charge 200,000 yen for a permanent residence application from 1 October 2026, up from 10,000 yen. Renewal and status-change fees leave the old flat rate of 6,000 yen at a counter and 5,500 yen online, then climb on a length-based scale, reaching 75,000 yen for a stay of five years or longer.
The 2026 revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act set legal ceilings of 100,000 yen for temporary residence procedures and 300,000 yen for permanent residence. Tuesday's ordinance locks the published amounts inside those ceilings.
Justice Minister Hiraguchi Hiroshi told reporters the higher fees fund policy for an orderly society coexisting with foreign nationals. Your charge follows the date the Agency receives your file, not the date of the decision. Applications received on or before 30 September 2026 stay on the old 6,000 yen or 5,500 yen rates. Fragomen recorded the filing-date rule on 26 August 2026. A decision issued in October or later still uses the old rate if your file arrived in September.
Permanent residence now costs 200,000 yen
Permanent residence applications proceed in person only. No online discount exists for the 200,000 yen fee. NHK World reported the twenty-fold rise on 25 August 2026, and the Japan Times published the same figure the same day.
Move a late-2026 permanent residence submission into September if you want to keep the 10,000 yen rate. Work status, spouse status, dependant status, and student status all fall under the new scale when you change status or extend your period of stay. Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, Specified skilled worker, Instructor, and Business Manager filings sit on the same table. The Agency prices the fee by the period of stay granted on the permission.
Counter and online rates from 1 October
NHK World and Jiji Press published the main bands on 25 August 2026.
- Up to three months: 10,000 yen at a counter and 10,000 yen online, up from 6,000 yen and 5,500 yen.
- One year: 33,000 yen at a counter and 27,000 yen online.
- Three years to under five years: 64,000 yen at a counter, as published by the Japan Times and Jiji Press.
- Five years or longer: 75,000 yen at a counter and 65,000 yen online.
- Permanent residence: 200,000 yen, in person only.
Online filing through the Agency Online Application System costs 6,000 yen less on a one-year grant and 10,000 yen less on a five-year grant. A stay of three months or less has no online saving. Prepare a My Number Card with an IC chip and a phone able to read the chip before you try the online route.
A family of three on five-year grants pays 225,000 yen at a counter after 1 October, versus 18,000 yen under the current flat rate. One worker on a one-year grant pays 33,000 yen at a counter, versus 6,000 yen now.
Do not confuse the 1 October residence-procedure scale with the short-term visa fee rise of 1 July 2026. The July change hit single-entry and multiple-entry visas at overseas missions. Tuesday's ordinance hits people already living in Japan who renew, change status, or seek permanent residence.
Reduced fees cover a narrow group
The Agency released fee-reduction guidelines on 25 August 2026. Eligible applicants pay 10,000 yen for a renewal or status change and 20,000 yen for permanent residence. Two tests apply together. First, financial hardship equivalent to welfare levels under the Public Assistance Act. Second, a need for humanitarian consideration.
Public comments widened the humanitarian list. The Agency now includes foreign nationals who single-handedly raise biological children of Japanese nationals or special permanent residents, and cases where a residency refusal would be inhumane. Kyodo listed 12 humanitarian categories in total, among them recognised refugees, asylum seekers, spouses of Japanese nationals, and single parents. Full fee waivers apply only to diplomatic status and official status. Hardship alone does not produce a waiver.
Kyodo, via Japan Today on 25 August 2026, reported 11,298 asylum applications in 2025 and 518 people receiving living-expense assistance in fiscal 2025. Refugee support groups called the reduction tests too narrow because assistance receipt is a common gate. Most working residents will pay the full new scale. Bring documents showing welfare-equivalent hardship and your humanitarian category. The Agency decides reductions case by case. Do not assume a refugee application or a low salary alone meets both tests.
Move your file before 30 September
Japan accepts an extension application up to three months before your residence card expires. Cards ending in October, November, or December 2026 remain eligible for a September filing at the old 6,000 yen or 5,500 yen fee. Check the expiry date printed on the front of your card tonight.
Prepare the usual extension set: passport, residence card, the most recent tax payment certificate, income certificate, and an employment letter or school enrollment certificate. Buy the revenue stamp only after the officer confirms the fee in force on the receipt date. Post offices near regional bureaus sell the stamps, and some bureau windows sell them too.
Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau in Shinagawa, plus the Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Sapporo bureaus, see heavy autumn traffic. Arrive at opening time. Employers sponsoring several staff should file each worker as soon as the three-month window opens, not in a single late-September batch. Students whose permission ends after 1 October face the same scale. A one-year student extension costs 33,000 yen at a counter from 1 October. Dependants follow the same calendar and the same yen amounts as the principal applicant for a matching period of stay.
Write 30 September 2026 on a calendar next to your card expiry date. Treat every file received from 1 October as a new-scale file. Pay the matching revenue stamp on the day the Agency accepts your papers, then keep the receipt with your residence card copy.
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