Statuses of Residence in Japan: The Complete Map

Japan's statuses of residence list every legal reason a foreign national may stay, from diplomacy and factory craft to marriage and permanent settlement.¹ This map puts all of them in one plain-English table so you can find your row before reading any detail article.

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency's official status table. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed gyoseishoshi for an eligibility read, or an immigration lawyer for a contested case.

Last verified: 2026-09.

Overview

The Act types residence permission into activity-based statuses (Appended Table 1: what you may do) and standing-based statuses (Appended Table 2: who you are).¹ ISA's Q&A counts 38 status types once sub-splits are counted; the commonly cited 29 counts the headline rows before splits such as Highly Skilled Professional categories 1 and 2 or Specified Skilled Worker categories 1 and 2.¹

How to use this map: find the group matching your situation, read your row's activity and period band, then follow the routing notes. Detail articles now cover most major statuses; the one live work-status guide to start with is Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa.

How the Act organizes statuses

Table 1 covers activity statuses in five sub-tables. Table 1(i) holds work statuses with no landing criteria (Diplomat through Journalist). Table 1(ii) holds work statuses gated by landing criteria in ministerial ordinance (Highly Skilled Professional through Technical Intern Training).¹

Tables 1(iii) and 1(iv) hold non-work statuses (Cultural Activities and Temporary Visitor; Student, Trainee, and Dependent). Table 1(v) holds the single flexible row, Designated Activities.¹

Table 2 covers standing-based statuses: Permanent Resident, Spouse or Child of Japanese National, Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident, and Long-Term Resident.¹ These rows state a position, not an activity, which is why they carry no work restriction.

Work-permitted activity statuses

Each row authorizes only its listed activity. Representative rows with ISA period bands:¹

Status	Permitted activity in brief	Period bands
Professor	Research, guidance, or teaching at a university or equivalent	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Artist	Paid artistic activity (excluding Entertainer-scope work)	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Religious	Missionary and religious work dispatched by a foreign body	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Journalist	Reporting under contract with a foreign press organization	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Highly Skilled Professional (1)	Points-based advanced specialist activity	5yr
Highly Skilled Professional (2)	Post-category-1 advanced activity	Unlimited
Business Manager	Operating or managing a business	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 6mo, 4mo, 3mo
Legal/Accounting	Licensed legal or accounting practice	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Medical	Licensed medical practice	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Research	Contract research at a Japanese organization	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Education	Language and other teaching at schools	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Engineer/Humanities/International Services	Specialist technical, humanities, or culture-grounded duties	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Intra-company Transferee	Fixed-term transfer within the same corporate group	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Nursing Care	Certified care work under contract	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Entertainer	Performance and entertainment activity	3yr, 1yr, 6mo, 3mo, 30 days
Skilled Labor	Industrial craft work requiring seasoned skill	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 3mo
Specified Skilled Worker (1)	Designated-sector skilled work	Individually designated (up to 3yr)
Specified Skilled Worker (2)	Designated-sector advanced skilled work	3yr, 2yr, 1yr, 6mo
Technical Intern Training (1-3)	Plan-based training and skilled work phases	Individually designated per phase

The table above follows the ISA table's row order and period bands.¹ Table 1(ii) rows additionally require meeting the landing criteria in ministerial ordinance, so a row's existence never means a given applicant qualifies.¹

Work-restricted statuses

These rows authorize no paid work as of right; paid work needs the separate activity permission.²

Status	Position in brief	Period bands
Cultural Activities	Unpaid academic or artistic activity, or study of Japanese culture	3yr, 1yr, 6mo, 3mo
Temporary Visitor	Tourism, family visits, meetings, and similar short stays	90, 30, or 15 days
Student	Education at a university, college, or school	Individually designated (up to 4yr3mo)
Trainee	Skill acquisition accepted by a Japanese organization	1yr, 6mo, 3mo
Dependent	Daily activity as the supported spouse or child of listed work-status, Student, or Cultural Activities holders	Individually designated (up to 5yr)

ISA groups these rows as statuses under which holders may not work in principle.² Student and Dependent holders most commonly bridge the gap with the blanket activity permission described in the work-permission guide.

Status-based residencies with no work restriction

Status	Standing in brief	Period bands
Permanent Resident	Granted permanent settlement	Unlimited
Spouse or Child of Japanese National	Spouse, special adoptee, or birth child of a Japanese national	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 6mo
Spouse or Child of Permanent Resident	Spouse or Japan-born continuing child of a permanent resident	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 6mo
Long-Term Resident	Minister-designated settlement for special reasons	5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 6mo, or designated up to 5yr

ISA groups these four as statuses with no work restriction, and Table 2 holders need no activity permission.²³ Period bands follow the ISA table.¹

Designated Activities: the flexible category

Designated Activities covers individually designated cases such as diplomatic household staff, working-holiday makers, and EPA nurse and care-worker candidates.¹ Periods run 5yr, 3yr, 1yr, 6mo, 3mo, or an individually designated span up to 5 years.¹

The row's flexibility is also its opacity: each designation carries its own conditions, so holders should read their individual designation letter rather than any general summary. Where a designation allows paid work (working holiday) or restricts it (some job-seeking designations pair with hour-capped activity permission), the letter governs.

Always check the row against the current ISA table

Status names and sector coverage move by amendment, so treat any third-party list, including this map, as an index into the ISA table rather than a substitute for it.¹

How to use this map

Work eligibility follows ISA's three groupings, not the status name alone: activity-limited holders work only inside the listed activity, restricted holders need the separate grant, and Table 2 holders face no activity restriction.²³ An activity-limited holder taking paid work outside the listed activity needs permission first.³

Route yourself by question. "Which job may I take" is a work-permission question answered row by row. "How long will my grant last" is a period question answered by the bands above plus ISA discretion.²³

"Who decides my case" is an agency question. Detail articles cover most major rows; where none exists yet, the ISA table row plus the governing ordinance remain the authority.¹

Good to know

Holding a status is not permission to do any work

Activity-limited statuses authorize only the listed activity, and other paid work needs permission under Act Article 19.³ The status name on the card never implies blanket work rights by itself.

Status names change; check the ISA table date

Categories move by amendment, so always verify a third-party list against the current ISA table (as of 2026-09).¹ A blog list written before a revision can name rows that no longer exist or miss rows added since.

Some rows on the ISA table have almost no new grants

Landing criteria gate Table 1(ii) and 1(iv) rows, so a row's presence on the table says nothing about any individual's odds.¹ Eligibility for gated rows turns on ordinance criteria judged case by case, exactly where a gyoseishoshi's read earns its fee.

See also

• Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa
• Work Permission by Status of Residence
• Period of Stay in Japan: How ISA Sets It
• Working While on a Student Visa
• Can You Freelance on Your Visa?

References

Footnotes

1. 出入国在留管理庁. 「在留資格一覧表」. https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/qaq5.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

2. 出入国在留管理庁. Guidebook on the residency system (three work-possibility groupings: specified-scope work, no work in principle, unrestricted work). https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001450885.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. 出入国在留管理庁. 「資格外活動許可について」 (Table 2 statuses including Permanent Resident and Long-Term Resident need no work permission). https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/nyuukokukanri07_00045.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵