Business Manager Visa Requirements for Founders
The Business Manager visa requirements for founders in Japan set the scale, office, paperwork, and personal tests a foreign incorporator must meet before ISA grants the status.12 The current standard reflects the October 2025 reform, with a three-year transition for people already resident under the status.
Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at the Immigration Services Agency site. This article is general information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed immigration lawyer or gyōseishoshi (行政書士, immigration procedures specialist).
Overview
This article is for foreign founders incorporating in Japan, whether still abroad or already in Japan on another status.1 It covers the scale test, the office rule, the business plan file, founder background and Japanese ability, the 4-month pre-incorporation route, and the apply-and-renew sequence.
The visa standard itself is national. ISA decides it for all of Japan, so there is no ward or city variance in the legal test.12 Two points still turn on nationality and status of residence: who counts toward the full-time staff test, and which degree, career, or Japanese-ability proof fits the founder. Those caveats appear where the claim appears below.
Who this status is for
The 経営・管理 (keiei kanri, "business management") status covers managing a trade or other business in Japan, or working in its management.1 ISA gives company officers and managers as the examples.
Founders file as officers of their own company. Hired managers use the same ISA document lists, but the founder file additionally needs the incorporation record, the office lease file, and the evaluated business plan.12 Readers weighing freelance work instead should first read Can You Freelance on Your Visa?, since freelance activity and company management follow different status logic.
How this article handles the October 2025 reform
The ministerial ordinance and enforcement regulation for this status were amended with enforcement on 2025-10-16.2 The amended points are a mandatory full-time staff rule, a 30M JPY scale figure, Japanese ability, degree-or-experience, and an expert-evaluated business plan (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
People already resident as Business Manager at enforcement have a three-year transition to 2028-10-16 (as of 2026-06).2 During that window, missing only the new standard does not by itself cause a renewal denial; ISA weighs management condition, tax compliance, and the prospect of meeting the new standard. Applications received and still pending the day before enforcement were examined under the pre-amendment standard.2
The scale test: capital and full-time staff
The scale test is the core eligibility gate. Since the reform it has two mandatory limbs, capital scale and full-time staff, not an either-or choice (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
The capital figure
For a corporation, the test looks at paid-in capital for a KK or total contributions for a gomei, goshi, or GK, totaling 30M JPY or more (as of 2025-10).2 The registry certificate is the confirmation document.
Capital reserves, capital surplus, and retained earnings are not included in that total.2 Staff salary and office maintenance costs also cannot be added to the capital figure to reach the threshold; the corporation test looks at capital or contributions only.2
| Business form | Scale test | As of | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation (KK, GK, gomei, goshi) | 30M JPY or more in capital or contributions2 | 2025-10 | Shown on the registry certificate; reserves excluded |
| Sole proprietor | 30M JPY or more total invested for the business2 | 2025-10 | Office, one year of staff salary, equipment, and similar outlays |
The table as a whole reflects the amended standard (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2 For a sole proprietor, ISA confirms the total through settlement documents and, as needed, receipts for business outlays (as of 2025-10).2
Where a founder manages several companies, at least one company must itself meet the 30M JPY scale; figures across companies cannot be summed.2 The manager track, where the founder acts as a hired manager rather than an officer, must still satisfy this scale test.2
The full-time staff rule
The amended standard requires employing one or more 常勤職員 (jōkin shokuin, "full-time staff member") in the operated company or entity (as of 2025-10).2 Only Japanese nationals, special permanent residents, and Table 2 status holders (permanent resident, spouse of Japanese national, spouse of permanent resident, and long-term resident) count toward this test. Table 1 work-status holders do not count.2
Full-time status is judged on substance. Work must follow a fixed schedule on all required days for prescribed hours with role-based pay.2 Against part-time comparators, the ISA Q&A points to five or more days with 217 or more days per year and 30 or more hours per week, ten or more days of annual paid leave after six months with 80 percent attendance, and employment-insurance coverage with 30 or more prescribed weekly hours.2
Seconded, dispatched, and contracted workers at the site do not count as that site's full-time staff.2 Where several full-time staff exist, ISA does not require documents for all of them; confirmation for at least one qualifying person is enough.2
A real office in Japan
ISA requires documents showing the existence of office facilities, including the real-estate registry extract, the lease contract, and other materials.1 After the reform, the office must support management activity at the amended scale (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
What counts as an office
The lease should be in the company name with registry and lease documents to show it. ISA does not publish a uniform minimum floor area; sufficiency is judged against the scale of the business.2
Using one's home doubling as the office is generally not accepted after the reform.2 The reason is the need for an office that supports amended-scale activity, not a paper address.
A home doubling as the office is generally not accepted under the amended standard, even with a dedicated room.2 Secure a separate commercial lease in the company name before filing, or expect ISA to question the substance of the office.
Coworking, shared, and virtual offices
A coworking hot desk without a company-name lease and real substance risks denial. ISA requires office existence shown by registry and lease documents, and post-reform review looks at whether real management activity exists rather than paper form.12
Practitioner sources describe virtual offices as narrowly accepted in some cases but risky. The ISA HTML pages fetched do not publish a virtual-office sentence, so treat any virtual-office route as high risk and confirm the current handling with ISA or a gyōseishoshi before relying on it (limitation noted in research; practitioner scope, figures inconsistently reported).12
The business plan file
At status determination, the submitted business plan must be found concrete, rational, and feasible.2 ISA now requires that evaluation to be confirmed by an outside expert, described next.
What the plan must show
The plan needs revenue, customer, and cost detail with enough concreteness that ISA can judge feasibility. Practitioner scope commonly frames this as a three-year projection, but the ISA HTML pages state only the concreteness, rationality, and feasibility test, so founders should build the plan to that test and confirm line-item expectations against the current guideline before filing (practitioner sources describe a three-year shape, but figures are inconsistently reported).2
The expert evaluation step
The business plan must carry confirmation by a person with expert knowledge of business management (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2 At enforcement the qualifying persons are 中小企業診断士 (chūshō kigyō shindanshi, "SME management consultant"), 公認会計士 (kōnin kaikeishi, "certified public accountant"), and 税理士 (zeirishi, "tax accountant").2
A person holding only an overseas equivalent without the Japanese qualification does not qualify.2 An officer or employee of the applicant's own company also does not qualify on objectivity grounds. An outside advisory CPA or tax accountant is acceptable.2
An officer or employee of the founder's own company cannot serve as the plan evaluator.2 Engage an outside SME diagnostician, CPA, or tax accountant with no officer or employment link to the company.
Founder background and Japanese ability
The reform added personal tests for the founder and the team. They apply alongside the scale, office, and plan tests, not instead of them (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2
Degree or management experience
The founder must hold a doctoral, master's, or professional degree in management or in the technical or knowledge field needed for the business, or have three or more years of experience managing or administering a business (as of 2025-10).2 Foreign equivalents of the degrees are included.
The three-year experience count may include preparation-activity time under Specified Activity for start-up preparation.2 Founders relying on the career path should document the institution, role contents, and period in a resume plus employment certificates.
Japanese ability
The founder or a full-time staff member must have business-level Japanese at B2 or higher on the CEFR-based reference frame (as of 2025-10).2 For non-Japanese and non-special-permanent-resident persons, proof is one of five paths.
| Proof path | What to submit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| JLPT N2 or higher | Certificate and transcript | Via the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services and Japan Foundation exam |
| BJT Business Japanese 400+ points | Score certificate | Via the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation test |
| 20+ years as mid- to long-term resident | Residence history record | Continuous qualifying residence |
| Graduation from a Japanese university or higher education institution | Graduation certificate and residence record | Includes qualifying technical college and vocational school; excludes programs taught constantly in a foreign language or by correspondence |
| Completion of Japanese compulsory education plus high-school graduation | School records and residence record | Both limbs required |
The table as a whole reflects the amended standard (as of 2025-10; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).2 The application form records who holds the ability and how, with entries such as employing a Japanese national or holding N2 certification.2
The Japanese-ability staff member for this test may include Table 1 status holders, unlike the scale-test staff count.2 A Table 1 staffer with N2 can satisfy the language test but cannot satisfy the one-person scale test alone; a Table 2 staffer without language proof satisfies scale but not language without a second person.
The 4-month pre-incorporation route
Periods of stay for this status include five years, three years, one year, six months, four months, and three months (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1 The four-month stay is the bridge for founders who must enter Japan first to complete incorporation paperwork.
When the 4-month stay fits
Where corporate registration is not yet complete at filing, ISA accepts the articles of incorporation or other documents showing the corporation is about to start the business, instead of the registry certificate.1 The 定款 (teikan, "articles of incorporation") plus the office and capital file carry the application in that window.
The ISA startup pages position the Startup visa (Specified Activity 44, up to two years under designated local-government or private-operator management) and J-Find (up to two years for job hunting or start-up preparation) as longer preparation routes leading toward Business Manager.3 JETRO's setting-up-business guidance maps the same establishment-to-visa sequence for foreign companies entering Japan.4
Limits of the 4-month stay
The four-month period is short by design. Founders should plan the registry filing, office lease, and full-status renewal or change inside that window, since ongoing cases are examined on substance, tax and insurance compliance, and real management activity.2
How to apply and renew
First-time entry uses the certificate of eligibility (COE) application with category-based document sets (Categories 1 to 4 by organization size and withholding record).1 Founder COE documents include the activity-content document, the expert-evaluated business plan copy, business-content documents, recent settlement documents, office documents, scale documents, Japanese-ability documents, and background documents.1
Certificates issued in Japan must be within three months of issue. Foreign-language documents need Japanese translations, with narrow English-document exceptions for career and degree certificates.1 Submitted materials are generally not returned, and ISA may request additional materials beyond the listed set during examination.1
First-time entry from abroad
File the 在留資格認定証明書 (zairyū shikaku nintei shōmeisho, "certificate of eligibility") application for the founder. Officer cases show officer pay through the articles or shareholder minutes; branch-transfer cases show the assignment letter; hired-manager cases show the statutory employment-terms document.1
Readers entering on an Engineer, Humanities, or manager-adjacent track before incorporating should compare with Engineer/Humanities/International Services Visa, since the activity test differs even where the paperwork looks similar.
Switching from another status inside Japan
Persons already in Japan on another status who will start Business Manager activity should promptly apply for change of permission; operating outside the current status can lead to revocation.1 Change-of-status documents mirror the COE set with passport and residence card presentation.1
Startup-visa (Specified Activity 44) holders whose confirmation predates the 2025-10-15 METI notice amendment change to Business Manager under the pre-amendment standard; confirmations from the amended notice onward change under the amended standard.2 J-Find and start-up-preparation (Specified Activity 51) holders follow the same timing split: filings or stays in place before enforcement change under the old standard, filings after enforcement under the new standard.2
Renewal and ongoing compliance
Renewal examines the recent settlement documents, the registry certificate for corporations, license and permit status, at least one full-time staff member's pay and residence documents, Japanese-ability materials, a concrete activity report for the last period with reasons for changes, residence-tax certificates, and business-level public-dues compliance (as of 2026-09; confirm current figures with the Immigration Services Agency).1
Public-dues compliance covers labor insurance (employment and workers accident), health and pension enrollment and payment, and national and local taxes: for corporations, withholding, corporate, consumption, corporate residence, and enterprise taxes; for sole proprietors, the corresponding individual tax set.2 Labor-law compliance, insurance enrollment and payment, and license status with problems can weigh negatively even where sales and tax filings look fine.2
Healthy sales do not carry a renewal where labor insurance, health and pension enrollment, tax payment, or required licenses have gaps.2 Keep withholding, corporate and residence taxes, and insurance filings current from the first year.
Where the founder outsources most work and performs no day-to-day management, or does not grasp the business contents and finances as a manager should, ISA treats the activity as not qualifying.2 Long absence without just cause during the period of stay is treated as lack of Japan-based activity; as general guidance, cumulative re-entry absence exceeding half the granted period weighs negatively absent just cause.2
Good to know
A coworking hot desk will not carry the office requirement
Relying on a hot-desk address without a company-name lease and real substance risks denial. ISA requires office existence shown by registry and lease documents, and post-reform the office must support amended-scale activity.12
The old 5 million yen figure still appears in third-party guides
Pre-reform guides cite 5M JPY or two staff. Current ISA pages require 30M JPY scale plus one or more qualifying full-time staff, with a three-year transition for existing holders to 2028-10-16 (as of 2025-10).2 Check the publication date of any guide before relying on its figure.
Home as office is generally not accepted after the reform
ISA states that a home doubling as the office is generally not accepted given the need for an office supporting amended-scale activity.2 No uniform minimum area is published. Budget for a separate commercial lease from the start.
Renewal checks taxes and insurance, not just sales
Renewal checks labor insurance, health and pension enrollment and payment, and the full business tax set.12 Gaps can weigh negatively even with good sales. Founders who handle incorporation themselves often under-budget the monthly social-insurance and tax-accountant load in year one.
Long absences from Japan count against renewal
Cumulative re-entry absence exceeding about half the granted period without just cause is general guidance for a negative renewal factor.2 Founders splitting time across countries should keep a Japan-based management record and a clear reason for travel.
See also
- Hiring Your First Employee
- Registering as a Sole Proprietor (Kojin Jigyounushi)
- The Freelance-vs-Employee Test
- KK vs. GK: Choosing a Corporate Entity
- The Incorporation Process
- When Certified Translation Is Required in Japan