If your residence card expires this winter, the next three weeks are worth money to you.
On 28 August 2026, Japan's Immigration Services Agency confirmed that from 1 October 2026 the fees for renewing your period of stay, changing your status of residence, and applying for permanent residence all go up — in the case of PR, from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000. That is twenty times the old figure. Renewals, which cost a flat ¥6,000 for decades, now run on a sliding scale up to ¥75,000.
Here is the part almost nobody has noticed: applications received on or before 30 September 2026 pay the old fee, even if your permission comes through in November or December. And Japan lets you file a renewal up to three months before your card expires.
Put those two rules together and there is a real, closing window. This article gives you the full fee table in yen and rupees, the exact test for whether you can still use that window, the arithmetic on what this does to the ten-year path to PR, and a fraud warning that the agency itself has issued. If you are applying from India for your first job in Japan, there is also some good news, and we will start there.
🔑 Key takeaway
From 1 October 2026, renewing your status in Japan costs ¥10,000 to ¥75,000 depending on the period you are granted (online is cheaper), and permanent residence costs ¥200,000. Applications received by 30 September 2026 still pay the old ¥5,500–¥6,000 and ¥10,000. Because renewals can be filed from three months before expiry, our reading is that if your period of stay ends on or before 30 December 2026, you can still file at the old fee — if you file by 30 September. Nothing changes for people applying from India for a first visa.
First, the reassuring part: coming to Japan from India is not affected
The revision covers exactly three things: permission to change your status of residence, permission to extend your period of stay, and permanent residence (ISA).
It does not touch the Certificate of Eligibility — the document your Japanese employer or school files in Japan before you apply for your visa — which carries no application fee (ISA). It does not touch the visa fee you pay at the Japanese embassy or VFS in India, and it does not touch landing permission at the airport.
So if you are in Chennai or Pune right now with an offer letter, waiting on a CoE: your costs are unchanged. This is not a "Japan just got more expensive to move to" story. It is a "Japan just got more expensive to stay in" story — and the difference matters, because the people it hits are the ones already here, already working, already building something. If you are still at the planning stage, our guide to what it actually costs to move to Japan is the more relevant read.
The new fee table
Two things changed at once. The amount now depends on the period of stay you are granted (not the one you asked for), and online filing is deliberately cheaper than the counter — ISA says openly that it priced online lower to push people out of its waiting rooms (Q&A, question 4).
Change of status, or renewal of period of stay:
| Period of stay granted | At the counter | Online | Online, all-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months or less | ¥10,000 | ¥10,000 | ¥10,330 |
| Over 3 to 6 months | ¥18,000 | ¥15,000 | ¥15,330 |
| Over 6 months, under 1 year | ¥25,000 | ¥21,000 | ¥21,330 |
| 1 year | ¥33,000 | ¥27,000 | ¥27,330 |
| Over 1 year, under 3 years | ¥48,000 | ¥42,000 | ¥42,330 |
| 3 years to under 5 years | ¥64,000 | ¥56,000 | ¥56,550 |
| 5 years or more | ¥75,000 | ¥65,000 | ¥65,550 |
| Until 30 Sep 2026 | ¥6,000 | ¥5,500 | ¥5,500 |
Permanent residence: ¥200,000 at the counter, up from ¥10,000.
Sources: ISA's official English leaflet and ISA's online-payment page.
The "all-in" column matters and is easy to miss. Online payments now go through a designated payment agent that charges its own transaction fee — ¥330 on the lower bands, ¥550 on the two highest. Even with that added, online still saves you ¥9,450 on a five-year renewal.
In rupees, at roughly ₹0.60 to the yen in early September 2026 (the rate moves — check it on the day):
- A 1-year renewal online: ¥27,330, or about ₹16,400
- A 3-year renewal online: ¥56,550, or about ₹33,900
- A 5-year renewal online: ¥65,550, or about ₹39,300
- Permanent residence: ¥200,000, or about ₹1,20,000
That last number deserves a moment. One hundred and twenty thousand rupees, payable on approval, for a document that until this month cost ¥10,000.
The window: can you still pay the old fee?
Yes, if you can get your application received by 30 September.
ISA is unusually clear about this, stating it on the announcement page, in the English leaflet, and again in its Q&A: an application received by 30 September pays the pre-revision fee even if the permission itself is granted on or after 1 October (Q&A, question 11). This is not a novel promise — the agency handled its April 2025 fee change exactly the same way, and that carve-out is still printed on its renewal page today.
Now the second rule. A renewal application is accepted from three months before your period of stay expires, for anyone holding a period of six months or more (ISA).
Combining the two gives you a simple test. This is Komichi's reading of two separate ISA rules — the agency does not publish it as a single statement, so treat it as our arithmetic and confirm your own dates:
If your period of stay expires on or before 30 December 2026, you can file now and pay the old fee. If it expires on 31 December 2026 or later, the earliest you can file is 1 October — and you will pay the new fee.
Why 30 December? Because three months before 30 December is 30 September, the last day of the old fees. Three months before 31 December is 1 October, one day too late. The window really is that tight at the edge.
What you would save by filing in the next three weeks, online:
| Renewal length | Save |
|---|---|
| 1 year | ¥21,830 (about ₹13,100) |
| Over 1 to 3 years | ¥36,830 (about ₹22,100) |
| 3 to under 5 years | ¥51,050 (about ₹30,600) |
| 5 years | ¥60,050 (about ₹36,000) |
For a five-year renewal that is roughly a month's rent in outer Tokyo, for filling in the same form three weeks earlier.
Three practical cautions. You cannot file online on the final day of your period of stay — the online system blocks it and you must go to the counter (ISA). Filing early does not mean deciding early: ISA judges your circumstances at the time it examines the case, so if your job, employer or salary is about to change, talk to your company's HR or a registered immigration lawyer (行政書士) before you rush. And keep the application receipt number email — ISA says the receipt date on that email is what determines which fee you pay (ISA, question 2).
A lever for families. Every person pays their own fee. A family of four all renewing three-year status after 1 October pays 4 × ¥56,550 = ¥226,200, roughly ₹1,35,700, where the same family used to pay ¥22,000. But ISA's own renewal page lists "when family members are applying at the same time" among the special circumstances under which it may accept an application more than three months early. So if your expiry dates are staggered across the family, there is a documented basis to ask your regional bureau whether you can file together now. It is a request, not a right — the bureau decides case by case, and you should call and ask rather than turn up hoping. Our guide to dependent visas and family life in Japan covers the surrounding paperwork.
The bit that should change how you think about your career here
Read the table again, but per year.
Online, a 1-year renewal costs ¥27,330 — for one year of security. A 5-year renewal costs ¥65,550, which works out to ¥13,110 a year. The person on the one-year status pays about 2.1 times as much per year of residence as the person on the five-year status. At the counter the gap is 2.2 times.
(That per-year comparison is Komichi's arithmetic on ISA's published figures, not something the agency states as a rate.)
ISA does not hide the logic. Asked directly why long-stay holders pay less per year, it answered that people granted longer periods "generally have good residence status," and that the benefit derived from immigration administration differs by the length of stay (Q&A, question 5).
Here is why that should worry a particular group of Indian engineers.
In March 2026 ISA changed how it handles the 技術・人文知識・国際業務 status for people working under dispatch (派遣, often sold as SES) contracts: the period of stay granted is set to match the dispatch contract period. We wrote that up in Japan's 2026 dispatch rules for SES engineers.
Now stack the two rules. A short client contract produces a short period of stay. A short period of stay now produces the highest per-year fee in the system. Two unrelated changes, landing on the same person, in the same year. If you are choosing between offers and one of them puts you on a longer, more stable contract, that stability just acquired a price tag you can actually calculate.
Which is not an argument against dispatch work — it is lawful, it is how a large share of Indian engineers enter Japan, and plenty of people build good careers through it. It is an argument for asking about contract length before you sign, which is a good idea anyway. Our checklist on how to verify a Japan job offer from India covers the questions worth asking.
What the road to PR now costs
Permanent residence is the goal for a lot of people who come here. It is worth seeing what it costs in fees alone, end to end.
These are two illustrative ladders, not predictions. ISA guarantees nobody a particular period of stay, and your path depends on your status, employer and record. We assume online filing for renewals, use ISA's published counter figure for PR, and ignore residence-card reissues, re-entry permits and any change of status along the way. The arithmetic is ours; the fee figures are ISA's.
Path A — you climb the ladder. You arrive on a 1-year status, renew into another year, then a 3-year, then a 5-year, and apply for PR at the ten-year mark:
¥27,330 + ¥56,550 + ¥65,550 + ¥200,000 = ¥349,430, about ₹2.1 lakh.
Under the old fees, that same ladder cost three renewals at ¥5,500 plus ¥10,000 for PR — ¥26,500, about ₹15,900. The path to PR just got roughly thirteen times more expensive.
Path B — you stay on one-year renewals. Nine renewals at ¥27,330, then PR:
¥245,970 + ¥200,000 = ¥445,970, about ₹2.7 lakh.
The difference between the two paths is ¥96,540 — roughly ₹58,000 — to arrive at exactly the same permanent residence card. Getting off short renewals is now worth real money, on top of everything else it is worth.
Before you act on any of this, two honest warnings. First, do not rush an unready PR application to beat 30 September. If it is refused you will refile later and pay ¥200,000 anyway, and you will have spent the ¥10,000 for nothing. PR is judged on your record, not your timing. Second, the PR criteria themselves are moving. ISA ran a public consultation that closed on 4 September 2026 on tightening the permanent residence guideline — the draft raises the income test, adds a pension test, and would require B1-level Japanese (ISA). That is a draft: the final version has not been published, and nothing in it is settled. We track it in Japan's new PR rules for 2026, and our PR rules checker reflects the rules as they currently stand.
If PR is your goal, our guide to permanent residency for Indians and the honest three years or forever piece on whether to commit to Japan long-term are the two to read next.
⚠️ A new scam is coming with this change — the agency said so itself
This one is not our warning. It is ISA's, printed at the top of its own page in bold.
From 1 October, when you file online, ISA will email you a payment link after your application is approved. The agency states that this email comes only from the address ending @service-dgft.com, its designated payment agent, and that any email from any other address asking you to pay a residence permission fee is fraudulent — do not click the link, do not pay (ISA).
Four things worth burning into memory, all from the same page:
- Credit cards and QR-code payments are not accepted. Only convenience-store payment or bank transfer. Anyone asking for your card number for a visa fee is not immigration.
- No paper payment notice is ever posted to you for an online application.
- Counter applications never involve an email at all — you pay in revenue stamps, in person, and are told the amount on a postcard.
- The fee is paid after approval, not to submit.
You can see why this is a phishing designer's dream: a brand-new payment flow, a legitimate email that really does arrive out of the blue with a link in it, five-figure sums, and hundreds of thousands of anxious foreign residents who have never done it before. Treat any unexpected "your visa fee is due" message the way you would treat a bank message — go to the source, do not use the link. Our piece on how fake agents and job scams target Indians covers the wider pattern.
If money is genuinely the problem
There is a reduction scheme, and you should know honestly that it will not reach most readers of this article.
From 1 October, fees can be reduced for people who are both (a) in financial hardship comparable to someone requiring protection under the Public Assistance Act, and (b) in need of humanitarian consideration. ISA's guideline sets out four categories for the first test and twelve for the second, and states plainly that meeting only one of the two is not enough (ISA; guideline PDF). The humanitarian categories are things like recognised refugees, victims of human trafficking, people caring for a child with a serious disability, and foreign parents raising a Japanese citizen child alone.
Where it does apply, the reduced fee is ¥10,000 for a change or renewal and ¥20,000 for PR — and for PR the reduction is limited to spouses and children of Japanese nationals, permanent residents and special permanent residents.
For an Indian engineer, caregiver, or student on a normal working or study status, this is realistically out of reach, and ISA explains why in a way worth understanding rather than resenting: it reasons that if you cannot pay the fee for economic reasons, you would generally not be able to continue the activity your status is based on, so hardship alone is not a ground for reduction (Q&A, question 7).
Two operational notes if you think you might qualify. The online system does not support the reduction at all — you must apply at the counter to submit the supporting evidence. And ISA has not yet published the list of documents it wants; that page currently says the evidence requirements will be announced later. If this is you, call your regional immigration bureau or the Foreign Residents Support Center (FRESC) on 0570-011000 before 1 October rather than guessing.
The narrow exemption list — full waiver — covers diplomatic and official status holders and a couple of specific designated-activities categories. It will not apply to you unless you already know it does.
What to do this week
- Look at your residence card. Find the expiry date of your period of stay.
- If it falls on or before 30 December 2026, you can file now at the old fee. Do it before 30 September.
- File online if you can — it is cheaper, and it stays cheaper after October. Individuals can register and file for themselves, though not if you hold a period of stay of three months or less, and not on your expiry date itself.
- If your employer files on your behalf, tell them about the deadline this week. Company HR teams handling dozens of renewals may not have read the Japanese-language announcement, and the saving is theirs or yours depending on who pays.
- If you are close to the ten-year PR mark and genuinely ready — documents in order, tax and pension records clean — the ¥190,000 difference is worth a conversation with a 行政書士 in the next few days. If you are not ready, wait. A refusal costs more than the fee.
- Save the receipt email. It is your proof of the filing date.
And if none of this applies because you are still in India planning the move: nothing has changed for you. Your first entry costs what it always did. Start with how to work in Japan from India or, if you are coming to study, the student visa and CoE process. Just build these renewal fees into your five-year budget now that you know they exist — our salary calculator and cost-of-living guide will help you see where they land.
Frequently asked questions
I already filed my renewal in August. Which fee do I pay? The old one. ISA states that applications received before 1 October are charged at the pre-revision rate even if the permission is granted later. Your receipt number email confirms the date your application was received.
My card expires in February 2027. Can I file early to avoid the increase? In most cases, no. Renewals are accepted from three months before expiry, which for a February 2027 expiry means November 2026 at the earliest — after the change. ISA does accept earlier filing in specific "genuinely unavoidable" situations that it lists, including long overseas assignments, hospital treatment, childbirth and family members applying together. Wanting to avoid the fee is not on that list. If one of the listed circumstances genuinely applies to you, contact your regional bureau with your evidence.
Is permanent residence really ¥200,000 now? Yes, from 1 October 2026, up from ¥10,000. A reduced ¥20,000 rate exists but only for spouses and children of Japanese nationals, permanent residents and special permanent residents who also meet both the hardship and humanitarian tests.
Does this affect my re-entry permit or my work eligibility certificate? Those fees are unchanged — ¥3,500 for a single re-entry permit, ¥6,500 for multiple, ¥1,600 for a certificate of authorised employment. If you pay for them online after 1 October, a ¥220 transaction fee is added.
I am applying from India for my first job in Japan. Do I pay more? No. The revision covers changes of status, renewals and PR — all procedures for people already in Japan. The Certificate of Eligibility carries no fee, and your embassy visa fee is separate and unaffected.
Why is Japan doing this? ISA says the increase funds digitising immigration administration, refugee protection, its plan to reduce overstaying, and new programmes to help foreign residents learn Japanese and understand local rules. It also says it considered fees charged by comparable countries and wanted room to absorb future inflation (Q&A, questions 1, 2 and 12).
This article is general information, not legal, immigration, tax, financial, or medical advice. Rules, fees, and figures change and vary by individual circumstances — verify the latest details with official sources (e.g. the Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the relevant embassy or test body) and consult a qualified professional before making decisions.
Yen-to-rupee figures use approximately ₹0.60 to ¥1, the rate in early September 2026. Exchange rates move; check the current rate before budgeting.
Sources
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 令和８年１０月１日付け在留許可手数料の額の改定等について — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, Regarding the Revision of Residence Permission Fee Amounts (official English leaflet, PDF) — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, オンライン申請における手数料額及び手数料納付方法について — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 令和８年１０月１日付け在留許可手数料の額の改定等に関するQ&A — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 在留許可手数料の減額措置又は免除措置について and the reduction guideline (PDF, August 2026) — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 在留期間更新許可申請 — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 在留申請のオンライン手続 — accessed 9 September 2026
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan, 「永住者」の適正化に係るパブリック・コメントの実施について — accessed 9 September 2026
The per-year cost comparison, the two ten-year PR ladders, the family-of-four total and the "expires on or before 30 December 2026" test are Komichi's own arithmetic on the agency's published figures and rules, and are labelled as such in the text above. They are illustrations, not forecasts — ISA does not guarantee any particular period of stay.