Japan’s Business Manager visa
now asks for ¥30 million.
Most English-language guides still say ¥5 million. Here is what actually applies since 16 October 2025 — and when this is the wrong route for you entirely.
Written correspondence in English · Meetings in Japanese, interpreter on request · Office in Osaka
What changed on 16 October 2025
Five requirements now have to be satisfied at the same time. Four of them did not exist before.
| 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 |
The capital figure is the part that gets reported. It is not the part that decides most applications. The employee, the language and the verified plan are new obligations, and each of them takes time you have to plan for.
The direction of Japanese policy on this is not hard to read. Requirements for people starting a business here have tightened. At the same time, a number of measures now favour highly skilled applicants, and those run the other way. Both things are true at once, and that is exactly why the route you choose matters more than it used to.
There is more than one road
The Business Manager route is the obvious one. It is not always the best one.
A worked example. If reaching permanent residence quickly is what you care about most, the Business Manager route may be the slow road: your director’s remuneration in year one drives your points, and the difference between setting it well and setting it poorly can be the difference between roughly three years and roughly eleven. Set it high and the company may run short of capital by year two, which is then questioned at your first renewal.
Against that, there is a route that reverses the order: enter as a highly skilled employee, obtain permanent residence first, and start the business afterwards. For someone with strong academic and professional credentials this can reach permanent residence in around two years — and once you are a permanent resident, the ¥30 million requirement does not apply to you at all. The trade-off is that it requires an employment contract with a Japanese organisation first.
Which of these is right depends on your credentials, your capital, your timeline and what you actually want at the end. There is no general answer, and a route chosen from a website is chosen blind. Working that out for your circumstances is the first thing I do, and it is the part that changes the outcome most.
What I do
I take the whole route, not a single filing.
- Assess whether you qualify, and design the shortest sound route for your circumstances
- Prepare the startup-visa plan and the municipal application, where that route is used
- Prepare and file the Certificate of Eligibility application
- Build the business plan and arrange the expert verification the law now requires
- Support the company formation
- Secure premises that meet the requirements
- Support hiring the full-time employee and setting up employment compliance
- Prepare and file the change to Business Manager status
- Run the whole thing as a single point of contact from start to finish
I handle this personally. You do not get passed to staff.
One further thing
Moving substantial capital into a country whose language and commercial customs you do not yet read makes you an attractive counterparty — and not only to honest people. Before I qualified as a gyoseishoshi I spent eighteen years investigating fraud and financial crime. When I look at a proposal, an introducer or a prospective partner, that is the lens I am using. It is not a service I bill separately. It is simply how I read a file.
How it runs
Assessment → Plan → Entry → Business Manager status
Assessment and route design
Your credentials, capital and timeline against every route that is open to you. This is where the outcome is decided, and it happens before anything is filed.
The plan, and the verification
The business plan has to satisfy the accountant who signs the verification, the immigration officer who reads it, and your own budget. Those three are not the same document until someone makes them agree.
Entry, company, premises, hiring
The filings that let you enter, then the company, the premises that satisfy the requirements, and the full-time employee the law now requires.
Business Manager status
The change of status, and the continuing obligations that follow it: notifications, renewals, and the record that supports your next application.
What you are actually buying
Three things that are hard to buy separately.
Route design
The decision before the paperwork
Which status, in which order, with what remuneration. Chosen wrong, it costs years. This is the first thing I do and the part that changes the outcome most.
One contact
From assessment to status
The accountant, the judicial scrivener, the labour consultant and the immigration office all have to move in order. I run that sequence, and you deal with me.
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 for this route. The scope genuinely varies — by how far along you already are, how much has to be built from nothing, and how the examination practice is running at the time. I give you a written, itemised quote after the first consultation, before anything begins.
For context: if you are used to US immigration costs, an E-2 filing runs a few thousand to low five figures in dollars, with the business plan often billed separately, and EB-5 higher again. Those figures buy the filing. This engagement covers the route design, the plan, the company, the premises, the hiring and two immigration filings, over fifteen to eighteen months.
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, not Tokyo. Tell me at the first consultation if your plan requires Tokyo, and I will tell you plainly what I can and cannot do from here.
If your capital plan will not reach ¥30 million and no other route fits, I will say so at the first consultation rather than take the work.
Already living in Japan on another status of residence? The route is different.
Changing to Business Manager from inside JapanFrequently asked questions
QCan the ¥30 million be avoided?
QDoes the capital have to be paid in before I enter Japan?
QWhat counts as a full-time employee?
QHow long does the whole thing take?
QDo you work with clients who do not speak Japanese?
QCan you work with my own accountant or lawyer?
QWhat happens if the application is refused?
Before you commit the capital,
find out which road you are on.
The first consultation is free. If the answer is that this will not work, I will say so.
Book a free consultationAsk before you commit
The first consultation is free, and there is no obligation to go further.
If what you are planning will not work, you will hear that first.
Written correspondence is in English. Spoken meetings are in Japanese, with an interpreter on request.