Staying long term, or going home

Japan has no retirement visa. Permanent residents, spouses and long-term residents can stay after work. Long Stay needs 30M yen and lasts one year. Checked October 2026.

A denied visa renewal in Japan means the Minister of Justice found no reasonable grounds to extend. The Immigration Services Agency's guidelines review eight factors: the activity fits the status, landing criteria, actually doing the activity, conduct, livelihood, employment conditions, tax paid and notifications filed. Its nine published denial cases are criminal punishment (5), a false statement about the notified address (1), not carrying out the status's activity (2) and no settledness (1). If no decision arrives by your expiry date, you may stay on your current status until the decision or two months after expiry, whichever is earlier, with the application noted on the back of your residence card. After a denial: ask the counter for the reason, re-apply or change status within your period of stay, and otherwise prepare to leave, asking the counter how many days you have. No fee is charged on a denial.

Naturalization makes you a Japanese citizen with the Minister of Justice's permission. The law sets six conditions, including five years' residence, but since 1 April 2026 applicants are expected in principle to have lived in Japan for 10 years or more. Spouses of Japanese nationals have shorter periods. You apply at the Legal Affairs Bureau by appointment, there is no fee, and a decision takes about 18 months at the shortest. You normally give up your old nationality.

Japan revoked 1,446 statuses of residence in 2025, a record; 67% were technical intern trainees and 24% students. Nine in ten were for doing nothing: three months or more without the status's activity (69%) or doing something else instead (24%). Every one of those grounds says except where there is good reason, and Immigration gives concrete job-hunting and a hospital-forced leave of absence as examples that may not lead to revocation. You are always heard before a revocation and may state your case, submit evidence and see the file. Even after revocation, everyone except those who entered by deceit gets up to 30 days to leave voluntarily; failing to leave in that period means deportation and criminal penalties.

From April 2027 permanent residence in Japan can be revoked on three grounds: unpaid public dues, Immigration Act breaches, and certain crimes.

You can file from roughly three months before your period of stay ends. Since 1 October 2026 the fee depends on the period granted: 33,000 yen at the counter or 27,000 yen online for one year.

Ten years is the standard, but from April 2027 your residence card must show a 5-year period of stay, and permanent residence becomes revocable.

Leaving Japan permanently? The moving-out notice unlocks your pension refund and stops your bills.