Specified Skilled Worker Visa
The Specified Skilled Worker visa is Japan's status of residence for job-ready foreign workers in designated labor-shortage sectors, from nursing care and construction to food service and accommodation.1 Picking the wrong subtype, the wrong sector, or the wrong job-change path can cost you years of residence, so the Type 1 vs Type 2 distinction and the in-sector mobility rule matter before you sign anything.
This article serves two readers: a worker abroad or in Japan weighing entry through the skill and language tests, and a Technical Intern Training participant planning conversion into this status.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency's Specified Skilled Worker portal and support site. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed gyoseishoshi (administrative scrivener) for an eligibility read, or an immigration lawyer for a contested renewal or appeal.
Last verified: 2026-09.
Overview
The Specified Skilled Worker status, or 特定技能 (tokutei ginō, "specified skilled [worker]"), was created on April 1, 2019 to bring in workers who can do the job from day one in fields where Japan cannot secure enough domestic staff.1 It sits between the training-oriented Technical Intern Training status and the degree-gated office-work statuses: no university degree is required, but proven skill is.
There are two subtypes. SSW Type 1 covers workers with considerable knowledge or experience in a designated field, confirmed by exams. SSW Type 2 covers workers with proficient, supervisory-level skills in that field.1 About 404,527 Type 1 holders and 12,420 Type 2 holders resided in Japan at the end of March 2026 (as of 2026-03; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
Eligibility is decided nationally by ISA under the Immigration Control Act. No ward office or municipality sets its own version of these rules; only test-seat availability abroad varies by country, so confirm sittings for your field and country early.3
Unlike the Engineer/Humanities/International Services status, this status requires no degree and no 10-year experience history; the field exams are the gate instead.1
Type 1 vs Type 2
The subtype decides your ceiling: how long you can stay, whether family can join, and which fields are open.
What Type 1 allows and caps
Type 1 grants are issued in periods designated by the Minister of Justice, each not exceeding 1 year, up to a 5-year total stay (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1 When the 5 years run out, the status ends; there is no Type 1 extension beyond the cap.
Family accompaniment is basically not permitted on Type 1. Spouses and children cannot ride along on this subtype.1 Accepting organizations must pay Type 1 holders the same salary as Japanese workers doing the same work, and must provide life and work support directly or through a 登録支援機関 (tōroku shien kikan, "registered support organization").31
Applicants must be 18 or older.1
What Type 2 adds
Type 2 removes the ceiling. Extensions renew indefinitely, and a spouse and children can accompany the holder on Family Stay status.1 Each extension grants 3 years, 1 year, or 6 months (as of 2026-09).4
The catch is field coverage. Type 2 is open in 11 fields only. Nursing care, automobile transportation business, railway, forestry, and wood industry accept Type 1 holders but have no Type 2 route, so workers in those fields cannot climb to indefinite stay through this status (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
If your long-term plan is settlement, entering a field with no Type 2 route caps your horizon at 5 years on this status. Confirm the current Type 2 field list on the ISA portal before you choose, since field coverage is the part of this system that moves most often.
The sectors and the entry tests
The 16 industrial fields
Type 1 covers 16 established industrial fields (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency): nursing care; building cleaning management; manufacture of industrial products (renamed in April 2024 from machine parts and tooling); construction; shipbuilding and ship machinery; automobile repair and maintenance; aviation; accommodation; agriculture; fishery and aquaculture; manufacture of food and beverages; food service; automobile transportation business; railway; forestry; and wood industry.12
Verify this list against current ISA pages before you rely on it. Automobile transportation, railway, forestry, and wood industry joined in March 2024, and ISA's 2026 briefing notes a further field addition from January 2026 in resource circulation, with details still being arranged at publication.2 ISA's SSW support site additionally lists resource recycling, linen services, and logistics warehouse fields whose detail pages it marks as under construction (as of 2026-09).3 Several expansions have landed since 2019, and more are in the pipeline, so a static list quoted from memory is exactly how applicants pick a dead sector.
The skill test and Japanese test path
Each field runs its own skill proficiency exam, and applicants also pass a Japanese test at the JFT-Basic level or JLPT N4 or higher as the working baseline (as of 2026-09).31 Passing both, plus signing an employment contract with an accepting organization, opens the Type 1 door.
Foreign nationals who completed Technical Intern Training (ii) skip both exams. The exemption is automatic on completion, which is why TITP-to-SSW is the most traveled road into this status.1
Test sittings abroad differ by country and field. Confirm the current schedule for your combination on the ISA support site before booking travel around an exam date (as of 2026-09).3
The Technical Intern Training conversion path
TITP completers convert into SSW Type 1 where their training maps onto the target field. The required relevance between the TITP(ii) job category and the SSW activity is set field by field in ISA's application guidelines, so a match in one pairing does not guarantee a match in another.1
The training system itself is mid-reform. The June 21, 2024 promulgated amendments replace Technical Intern Training with the Employment for Skill Development program, or 育成就労 (ikusei shūrō, "employment for skill development"), commencing April 1, 2027. Trainees already in place at enforcement continue under TITP rules through transitional measures.5 ESD is designed to raise workers to Type 1 skill level over about three years of employment, which preserves the conversion bridge today's TITP holders use.56
Moving from TITP to SSW is not automatic with time served. The field relevance rules decide whether your training history counts, so check the guideline pairing for your exact job category before assuming the exams are waived.
Required documents and employer support duties
The core set has three pillars: the employment contract with an accepting organization, exam passes (or TITP(ii) completion evidence standing in for them), and the accepting organization's support plan, delivered directly or delegated to a registered support organization.43
Accepting organizations owe real duties, not paperwork: life orientation on arrival plus ongoing support through the stay. ISA points employers to its foreign-national life-support portal and guidebook for the content.4 An employer unwilling to discuss its support plan is telling you something about how the next years will go.
Application process
The route splits on where you are, exactly as with other work statuses.
From overseas, a proxy in Japan files the Certificate of Eligibility application at the regional immigration bureau. There is no application fee, and since March 2023 ISA can issue the COE electronically by email.7 In-Japan applicants, most often TITP holders converting, file a change-of-status application directly instead; no COE is involved.8
Costs and timelines
Fees and processing times below reflect ISA's published figures. Confirm current fees and timelines with the Immigration Services Agency before filing, since both can change (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).
Fee schedule
| Item | Amount | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility application | No fee | 2026-09 | 7 |
| Status change grant (in person or paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 9 |
| Status change grant (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 9 |
| Period-of-stay extension grant (in person or paper) | ¥6,000 | 2025-04-01 | 9 |
| Period-of-stay extension grant (online) | ¥5,500 | 2025-04-01 | 9 |
Fees are paid via revenue stamp (収入印紙). The April 1, 2025 revision set the current grant fees (as of 2025-04-01).9
The online channel runs ¥500 cheaper per grant than paper filing under the current schedule. Either way the fee rides on a revenue stamp, so have it ready before your bureau visit.9
Processing times
| Application | Standard published range |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Eligibility | 1 to 3 months |
| Status change | 1 to 2 months |
| Period-of-stay extension | 2 weeks to 1 month |
These are ISA's standard published ranges, not guarantees (as of 2026-09).7810
Period of stay and renewal
Type 1 grants arrive in ISA-designated slices of up to 1 year each, renewable until the 5-year total is reached. Type 2 grants arrive as 3 years, 1 year, or 6 months and renew without a total cap (as of 2026-09).41
File renewal before the current period expires. ISA's general guidance for stays of 6 months or more is to apply about 3 months ahead, which leaves room for document requests without brushing expiry.10
Changing jobs: in-sector vs cross-sector
This is the mobility rule that defines life on this status. A Type 1 holder may change employers within the same industrial field, signing with a new accepting organization and completing the notification and examination steps for the move.4 A cross-sector move is not a job change at all in ISA's eyes: the holder must satisfy the new field's skill-test requirement and be re-examined for that field, effectively a fresh qualification.43
Leaving a food-service job for a construction offer does not transfer your SSW permission with you. Without the new field's skill pass and a fresh examination, the new work is unauthorized, which puts both your status and the employer's liability at risk.
Any affiliated-organization change also triggers the 14-day notification duty described under Good to know below.11
Good to know
The items below are the ones most likely to end a renewal, revoke a status, or stall an application.
Tax and pension arrears sink renewals
Extension examination weighs whether you have actually paid what you owe: national and residence taxes plus pension and health-insurance contributions. Arrears are an adverse factor at renewal, and the multi-year lookback means a skipped year follows you. The Residence-Tax Year-Two Surprise explains why year two bills ambush newcomers; the Shakai Hoken Overview maps what enrollment should look like while employed. Clear arrears before filing, not after a denial.
The 14-day employer-change notification still applies
Under Immigration Control Act Article 19-16, affiliated-organization changes must reach the regional immigration bureau within 14 days: the organization changing its name or address, ceasing to exist, or your relationship with it starting or ending.11 File through Notifying Immigration of the Employer Change channels; each SSW job move generates one of these filings.
Job loss and the 3-month inactivity rule
Under Article 22-4, ISA can revoke a status where the holder continuously fails for 3 months or more to do the authorized activity without legitimate reason.12 Unemployment between SSW jobs therefore has a clock on it, and the 3-Month-Unemployment Renewal Risk article traces how examiners read gaps. Line up the next accepting organization fast, and keep evidence of active job seeking in the same field.
Criminal penalties end this status fast
Convictions that trigger deportation grounds or undermine the good-conduct element of examination can end residence outright, with no sector-specific leniency for SSW holders. Anyone charged should consult an immigration lawyer before answering examiners, and the Bengoshi, Gyoseishoshi, Shiho-shoshi, and Zeirishi: Who Does What guide sorts which professional fits which problem.
Dispatch and secondment limits most guides skip
Worker dispatch under SSW is permitted only in agriculture and fisheries/aquaculture; intra-company secondment only in aviation and railway (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2 An offer structured as dispatch in any other field does not fit this status, however attractive the headline pay.
See also
- Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
- Technical Intern Training Program
- ISA Online Procedures
- Inter-Employer Movements: Same Industry, Cross Industry, Cross Status
- Tenshoku Procedure: The Job-Change Sequence
- The Gyoseishoshi for Visa and Immigration