For residents already living in Japan

Can you change to a Business Manager visa
without losing your status?

Usually yes — if the order is planned. The change is available from most work, student, dependent and designated-activities statuses. What it takes changed on 16 October 2025, and several of the moves people make while preparing are hard to undo.

Book a free consultation What it actually takes

Written correspondence in English · Meetings in Japanese, interpreter on request · Office in Osaka

What a Business Manager visa requires in 2026

This is where most conversations stop being comfortable, so I will put it first. Five requirements now have to be satisfied at the same time, and they apply to you exactly as they apply to someone arriving from abroad.

Requirement	Before	From 16 Oct 2025
Capital / business assets	¥5 million	¥30 million in assets devoted to the business
Full-time employees	None required (two or more could substitute for capital)	At least one, required in its own right
Your background	No requirement	Three years' management experience, or a master's-level degree or above
Japanese language	No requirement	Someone in the business at CEFR B2 or above (JLPT N2, BJT 400, or long-term residence)
Business plan	Submit a plan	Plan must be verified by a certified management professional

If you last looked into this before October 2025, the capital figure in your head is probably ¥5 million. It is not that any more.

Living here already does not lower that bar. What living here does change is what is at stake if it goes wrong. You are not deciding whether to move to Japan. You are deciding what happens to a life you have already built here. That is why the order you do things in matters so much.

The order you do things in

Nothing on this page is as important as this section. Several of the moves people make while getting ready are difficult or impossible to undo, and people usually make them before they speak to anyone.

Leaving your job. Your current status exists because of a particular activity. Ending that activity before the change is granted is a decision about your status, not only about your employment.
Moving the capital. Where the money sits, and how it got there, has to be explainable. Moving it early can make that harder to show rather than easier.
Starting to trade. Beginning the business before the status permits the activity is a separate problem from whether the business is a good one.
Signing a lease or hiring someone. Both are needed eventually. Both are expensive to unwind if the plan turns out to need a different shape.

None of these is necessarily wrong. What is wrong is doing them in an order chosen by circumstance rather than on purpose. All of them are free to discuss and expensive to reverse.

There is also a clock, and it is shorter than the calendar suggests. In a recent case there were seventeen calendar days to the filing target, but government offices were open on only eleven of them once the holidays and weekends came out — and the bank, the Legal Affairs Bureau, the ward office, the tax office and the pension office all had to be visited inside those eleven. The accountant who verifies your plan has their own schedule on top of that.

Business Manager may not be your best route

It is the well-known one, so people assume it is the only one. Depending on how long you have already been in Japan, what you hold now and what you want in five years, another order of operations may get you there sooner and cost less — including routes that lead to permanent residence first, after which the ¥30 million requirement no longer applies to you.

Policy here has moved in two directions at once: tighter for people starting businesses, easier in several respects for highly skilled applicants. Which side of that you fall on depends on details of your own record. That is worth half an hour of conversation before you commit to anything.

What I do

I work backwards from your expiry date, and I handle this personally.

Tell you first whether the change is realistic from your current status, and whether another route would serve you better
Support the company formation
Secure premises that meet the requirements
Support hiring the full-time employee, enrolling them in social insurance, and the employment filings
Build the business plan and arrange the expert verification
Prepare and file the change of status
File for your family members at the same time
Stay on afterwards for the renewals, notifications and deadlines, if you want that

One further thing

People who are visibly assembling capital tend to attract offers — introductions, partnerships, shortcuts. Before I qualified as a gyoseishoshi I spent eighteen years investigating fraud and financial crime, and that is the lens I bring to the people around a plan, not only to the paperwork.

How it runs

Feasibility → Build → File → After the permission

Is this realistic, and from where you stand

Your current status, your capital, your record, and the date on your card. If the change will not succeed, this is where I say so — before you have resigned, moved money or signed anything.

The company, the premises, the employee

Three things that have to exist before the application makes sense, and that take longer than people expect. The employee in particular: one full-time employee is required by law.

The plan, the verification, the filing

The business plan, the accountant's verification, and the change of status application — with your family members filed at the same time where that applies.

After the permission

Notifications, renewals and the record that supports your next application, including permanent residence if that is where you are heading.

One small thing that is not small

Your name has to be spelled identically on your passport, your residence card, the company registry and your seal certificate. A single inconsistency creates questions at the counter, and by the time it appears the registry has usually already been filed.

It is trivial to get right at the beginning and tedious to fix afterwards, which is a fair description of most of what I do on these cases.

And if the answer is that the change will not succeed from where you are, I would rather tell you that on the first call than take the work.

What you are actually buying

Your position first

What you already have, protected

You have a status, a household and a date on a card. Every step is planned against those, in an order chosen on purpose rather than by circumstance.

Route check

Including the answer 'not this one'

Business Manager is one route among several. If your record points somewhere better, you will hear that at the first consultation rather than after the money is spent.

A former investigator's eye

On the people, not only the papers

Eighteen years investigating fraud and financial crime before I qualified. I read counterparties and proposals with that background, as a matter of course.

Fees

The first consultation is free, and fees begin only when I start work.

I do not publish a fixed price, because the scope varies — by what already exists, what has to be built, and how much time is left on your card. You get a written, itemised quote after the first consultation, before anything begins.

About me, and what I cannot do

I am a gyoseishoshi — a Japanese administrative scrivener, qualified to prepare and submit applications to government agencies, and registered to file on behalf of applicants at the Immigration Services Agency. I am not an attorney and do not represent clients in litigation.

I am also a former detective: eighteen years with the Osaka Prefectural Police, in the division handling fraud and financial crime. I left the police to qualify as a gyoseishoshi and hold no police role today.

Written correspondence is in English. Spoken meetings are in Japanese, with an interpreter on request.

My office is in Osaka. I can act on applications filed elsewhere in Japan, but tell me where you are at the first consultation so we can plan the visits realistically.

If the change will not succeed from your current position, I will say so at the first consultation rather than take the work.

Applying from outside Japan instead? The route is different.

Starting a business in Japan from overseas

Frequently asked questions

If I start my own company, will I lose my right to stay in Japan?

Not if the change is planned and filed properly, and that is the whole point of getting advice before you act. Your current status exists because of a particular activity, so the risk is not the business itself — it is doing things in an order that leaves you without a basis to be here while the change is still pending. Come and map the order out before you resign or commit money.

I am on a work status now. Can I change to Business Manager?

It is possible, and it is not automatic. The requirements introduced in October 2025 apply to you in the same way they apply to someone arriving from abroad. What matters is whether your capital plan, your premises, your employee and your business plan can all be in place before your current status expires.

I am a student. Can I do this after graduating?

Students do change status to run their own company, but the capital requirement is the practical obstacle, and there are other routes that are worth comparing first. Come and talk it through before you commit to a plan built around this one.

How much time do I need before my status expires?

More than most people assume. The company, the premises and the employee all have to exist before the application makes sense, and the accountant who verifies your plan works to their own schedule. If you have less than a few months left, say so in your first message so we can look at the timing first.

Can my family stay on their current status?

Family members on dependent status generally apply alongside your change, and that is handled at the same time. Bring their residence cards to the first consultation so the expiry dates can be lined up.

Can I keep working for my employer while I set the company up?

Whether you can carry on employment while preparing to change status depends on the status you currently hold and what the company is doing. This is exactly the sort of thing to ask before you act, not after.

Do you work with clients who do not speak Japanese?

Yes. Written correspondence is in English. Spoken meetings are in Japanese, and an interpreter can be arranged on request. I would rather tell you that plainly than describe the office as bilingual.

What happens if the change is refused?

Immigration decisions are not subject to the ordinary administrative appeal procedure, so the realistic options are a fresh application or a different route — and the time left on your card determines whether either is possible. That is why I would rather look at feasibility before you spend anything.