Japan Changed the Specified Skilled Worker Rules: Longer Visas, a Six-Year Exception, and a Harder PR Path
General information, not legal advice — see the note at the end.
Almost every page you'll read about Japan's Specified Skilled Worker visa tells you the same thing: five years, then you go home unless you pass the Type 2 exam. That sentence has been out of date for nearly a year, and over the next seven months it stops being true in four different directions at once.
Here's what actually happened. In September 2025 Japan quietly tripled how long a single SSW-1 visa can run, created a six-year route for people who narrowly miss the Type 2 exam, and stopped the five-year clock during maternity and illness leave. In February 2026 it rewrote the permanent-residence guideline in a way that treats your SSW-1 years as not counting toward the work-status requirement for PR. In August 2026 it published a draft ordinance adding a five-year period of stay for Type 2 holders from January 2027 — which sounds generous, and is also the thing that stops a door closing on 31 March 2027.
This article reads all four documents and tells you what they mean if you're an Indian looking at the SSW route and quietly wondering: does this actually go anywhere?
🪜 Key takeaway
The SSW ladder is now genuinely longer at both ends — up to six years on Type 1 in some cases, and a five-year period of stay coming for Type 2. But Japan's own data shows only 11.4% of the first SSW-1 cohort ever reached Type 2. Type 1 years don't count toward the five-year work-status test for permanent residency; only Type 2 years do. If long-term settlement is your goal, the Type 2 exam is not a nice-to-have at the end — it's the whole plan, and it needs to be the plan from year one.
First, the number that should shape your expectations
Japan's Immigration Services Agency tracked what happened to the people who were first granted SSW-1 status in 2019 and 2020, and checked their status as at 23 January 2026.
| First granted SSW-1 in | Reached Type 2 | Still on Type 1 | Moved to another status | Left Japan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 (1,625 people) | 185 — 11.4% | 6 — 0.4% | 253 — 15.6% | 1,177 — 72.4% |
| 2020 (14,366 people) | 2,056 — 14.3% | 463 — 3.2% | 2,431 — 16.9% | 9,328 — 64.9% |
Source: Immigration Services Agency, programme overview, updated 1 July 2026, p.25
Somewhere between one in nine and one in seven climbed to the second rung. Two-thirds to three-quarters went home.
That is not a reason to write off the route. Those cohorts were tiny, they hit the pandemic head-on, and Type 2 only opened to most fields in 2023 — the people who left in 2024 often had no second rung to climb to. The picture is already changing fast: Type 2 holders went from 7,955 at the end of 2025 to 12,420 by the end of March 2026, a jump of more than half in three months (ISA, provisional figures).
But it is a reason to stop treating Type 2 as something you'll sort out later. Here's the thing: the people who made it planned for it from the start. The rest ran out of clock.
Change 1: One SSW-1 visa can now run three years, not one
Until 30 September 2025, an SSW-1 residence period was granted "within a range not exceeding one year." The Immigration Services Agency's amendment to the operational guidelines changed that to "within a range not exceeding three years" (ISA, partial amendment to the SSW operational guidelines, 30 September 2025).
Type 2 periods changed too, gaining a two-year option: Type 2 is now granted in periods of 3 years, 2 years, 1 year or 6 months, with no limit on the number of renewals.
Why this matters more than it sounds:
- Fewer renewal cycles. One application every three years instead of three applications. That is less paperwork, less cost, and fewer moments where a delay at your employer's end becomes your problem.
- You look different to a landlord or a lender. A residence card that expires in 2029 reads very differently from one that expires next spring. If you've read our guide to renting an apartment in Japan, you'll know how much the expiry date on that card does.
- It is not automatic. The three-year grant is discretionary. Immigration weighs your record — conduct, tax, notifications — and your employer's stability, contract and support system. Applicants with a clean record at a stable employer have a real shot at it. Nobody is entitled to it.
The total cap has not moved for most people. The five-year lifetime total on SSW-1 still stands. What changed is how that five years is counted, and when it can stretch.
Change 2: The clock now stops for maternity, childcare and illness
This is the change that will matter most to the people it matters to.
Under the amended rules, periods when you could not work as an SSW-1 worker because of pregnancy and childbirth leave, childcare leave, or illness and injury (including work-related injury) are excluded from the five-year total, if you apply and immigration accepts the evidence.
The detail, from the primary text:
- Maternity leave means the statutory 6 weeks before birth (14 for a multiple pregnancy) and 8 weeks after.
- Childcare leave runs to the child's first birthday, extendable to 18 months or 24 months where a daycare place isn't available.
- Illness or injury leave is normally capped at 1 year — or 3 years where the cause is a work-related injury.
- The leave must be a continuous period of more than one month. A few days at home with a fever, or scattered hospital visits, do not count.
- You must apply before the five years run out — roughly three months ahead — with evidence, using the prescribed declaration form.
- Crucially, you must have filed the "difficulty in continued acceptance" notification promptly when the situation arose. Miss that, and the exclusion can be refused.
And the sting in the tail: unemployment still counts toward your five years. So does time spent outside Japan on a re-entry permit, unless the absence itself was caused by one of the excluded events or by an unavoidable circumstance.
What to do about it: if you take extended leave for any of these reasons, treat the paperwork as urgent, not as something to sort out when you get back. The exclusion is not applied automatically — immigration says so directly. Nobody at your company is going to file it for you.
Change 3: The six-year exception for people who nearly passed
This is the genuinely new door, and its conditions are narrower than the headlines suggest.
If you fail the Specified Skilled Worker (ii) evaluation test, you may be granted a total residence period of six years instead of five — in one-year extensions — where all of the following hold (ISA, 30 September 2025 amendment):
On your side:
- You scored at least 80% of the pass mark on every test required for the move to Type 2 in your field. Not the ones you passed — the ones you failed, too. It doesn't matter whether you sat them before or after 30 September 2025, as long as the evidence is clear.
- During the extension you keep studying for and actually sitting the test.
- You pledge to apply to change to Type 2 promptly if you pass — and to return home promptly if you don't.
On your employer's side:
- They intend to keep employing you.
- They have a system in place for guidance, training and support toward the exam.
Where it doesn't apply: the exception is excluded for the automobile maintenance technician certification (grade 2) and the aviation engineer certification routes. And it applies "for the time being" — this is an operational measure, not a permanent statutory right.
Qualifying tests are broader than you'd think. Depending on the field, the route to Type 2 can run through a trade skill test at grade 1 (building cleaning, industrial product manufacturing, construction, shipbuilding), the Business Career Test grade 3 (industrial product manufacturing), or the JLPT at N3 or above (fishery, food service) — not only the Type 2 evaluation test. Our guide to what Japanese level each visa needs maps the rungs.
Read plainly, this is Japan saying: if you're close, and your employer backs you, we'd rather you stayed and passed. That's a meaningful shift in tone from a system that used to be a hard wall.
Change 4: Type 2 is getting a Japanese requirement — and a five-year visa
Two things are coming for Type 2 holders, and they pull in opposite directions.
The five-year period of stay. On 4 August 2026 the Immigration Services Agency published a draft ministerial ordinance adding a five-year period of stay for Type 2 holders, planned to take effect in early January 2027 (Jiji Press via Nippon.com, 4 August 2026). Longer periods carry stricter screening — employment record, tax payment history and so on — and the agency has said the detailed criteria will be finalised later. It's out for public comment alongside the permanent-residence draft (BAL, 7 August 2026); the window closes in early September 2026, and the e-Gov case pages are the place to confirm the exact closing date before you rely on it.
The B1 language requirement. The ISA's own programme explainer now states that the Japanese standard for Type 2 is confirmed by test at B1 or above, with the enabling ordinance scheduled to come into force on 1 April 2027 (ISA, updated 1 July 2026, p.6).
That second one deserves a moment. A lot of guidance in circulation — including, until today, ours — describes Type 2 as having no language test. On current plans, that changes in April 2027. B1 is a serious step up from the A2-level Japanese that gets you into Type 1: comfortable conversation about familiar topics, not survival phrases. If Type 2 is your plan, your Japanese study plan needs to start now, not the year before the exam. Start with the JFT-Basic in India for the entry rung, and treat N3 as the realistic staging post on the way up.
The part almost nobody has connected: what this does to permanent residency
Here is where the four documents stop being separate stories.
Your SSW-1 years don't count toward the five-year work-status test
Japan's permanent-residence guideline, as revised on 24 February 2026, requires — as a general rule — 10 continuous years of residence, of which at least 5 must be on a work status of residence or a residence status, excluding "Technical Intern Training" and "Specified Skilled Worker (i)" (ISA, permanent-residence guideline, revised 24 February 2026).
Read that again, because it's easy to skim past. Your SSW-1 years count toward the 10-year residence clock. They do not count toward the 5-year work-status clock. Type 2 years do.
So the practical shape of a PR plan built on the SSW route is: get to Type 2, then spend five years there. Not: spend five years on Type 1 and expect it to have banked anything toward that test.
And Type 2's "longest period of stay" is about to change meaning
The same guideline requires that you hold the longest period of stay available for your current status. Note 1 adds a transitional measure: until 31 March 2027, holding a "3-year" period counts as holding the longest. For someone holding "3 years" on that date, the treatment applies to their first decision within that period of stay.
Type 2's longest period is currently three years. So today, a Type 2 holder with three years satisfies the test. From 1 April 2027, once the grace expires, they would need the actual longest available — which is exactly what the January 2027 ordinance is creating at five years.
Put the two documents side by side and the five-year band stops looking like a gift and starts looking like plumbing. It isn't making PR easier for Type 2 holders. It's keeping PR possible for them. And because the five-year band will carry stricter screening on employment record, income and tax history, the effect is to move the PR bar for SSW workers from "hold a 3-year visa" to "qualify for a 5-year visa" — a higher, and as yet undefined, standard.
That's before you add the separate draft rewrite of the PR requirements published the same day — income above the average household, a pension projection, B1 Japanese, and a ¥200,000 application fee from 1 October 2026 (around ₹1.18 lakh at ₹0.59 to the yen). We read all 13 pages of that in Japan's new permanent residency rules: what the draft actually says, and the underlying rules are in our permanent residency guide for Indians. You can sanity-check where you'd stand with the PR rules checker.
The honest caveat: nursing care is not a Type 2 field
If you're a nurse or carer from Kerala or Punjab looking at Japan — and a great many of our readers are — this section is the one that matters most to you.
Type 2 covers 11 of the sectors, and nursing care is not one of them. As at the September 2025 amendment, the Type-2-eligible fields exclude nursing care, road transport, railways, forestry and the timber industry — and the three sectors added in January 2026 (linen supply, logistics warehousing and resource circulation) were opened for Type 1 only. As at end-March 2026, the Type 2 population sat almost entirely in food and beverage manufacturing (3,402), construction (3,148), agriculture (1,798), industrial product manufacturing (1,529) and food service (1,495) — with no nursing care row at all (ISA, updated 1 July 2026, p.22).
That is not Japan closing a door on carers. It's a different door. Nursing care has its own dedicated "Nursing Care" status of residence, reached by qualifying as a kaigo fukushishi (certified care worker) — indefinitely renewable, and it allows family. The ISA's own cohort tracking shows this actually happening: of the 2020 SSW-1 entrants who moved to another status, 269 had moved onto the Nursing Care status by January 2026.
So for care workers the long-term plan isn't "pass the Type 2 exam." It's "qualify as a certified care worker." Different exam, different timeline, same destination. Our caregiver and nursing jobs guide walks that route, and it's worth reading before anyone tells you the SSW care lane is a dead end. It isn't — it's just a different ladder.
Where Indians actually sit in this system
It's worth being blunt about the scale, because it changes how you should read the opportunity.
At the end of 2025 there were 390,296 SSW holders in Japan. The nationality split (ISA, provisional figures):
| Country | SSW holders | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | 164,352 | 42.1% |
| Indonesia | 86,955 | 22.3% |
| Myanmar | 44,523 | 11.4% |
| Philippines | 35,862 | 9.2% |
| China | 22,105 | 5.7% |
| Nepal | 12,387 | 3.2% |
| Cambodia | 8,500 | 2.2% |
| Thailand | 6,817 | 1.7% |
| All other countries combined | 8,795 | 2.3% |
India is inside that last row. Every country outside the top eight — India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and the rest — shares 8,795 places between them. At Type 2, the concentration is sharper still: Vietnam alone accounted for about 74% of Type 2 holders at the end of 2025.
Two ways to read that, and both are true. The pessimistic reading: the pipelines from Vietnam and Indonesia are built, staffed and funded, and India's is not. The optimistic reading: India signed its bilateral memorandum of cooperation on the SSW system on 18 January 2021, the 500,000-person exchange framework sits on top of it, and Japan has now set a receiving ceiling of 805,700 SSW-1 workers through March 2029, alongside 426,200 under the new Employment for Skill Development programme — 1,231,900 places in total. The room exists. The queue from India is short. For context on how big the underlying shortage is, see where Indians fit in Japan's labour gap and the statistics on Indians in Japan.
A worked timeline: what a serious SSW plan looks like now
Say you're 24, in India, and you're taking the SSW route in a Type-2-eligible field with settlement as the goal. Under the rules as they stand and as they're currently planned, here's the honest shape of it. Treat it as a planning sketch, not a promise — every step is a discretionary decision by immigration.
| Stage | Roughly when | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Pass JFT-Basic (200+) and your field's skills test | Year 0 | Both bookable in India for several fields |
| Arrive on SSW-1 | Year 1 | Employer, contract, support plan |
| First renewal — aim for a 3-year grant | Year 2–3 | Clean tax and conduct record, stable employer |
| Sit the Type 2 evaluation test | Year 3–4 | Don't leave this to year 5 |
| Move to Type 2 (family can now join you) | Year 4–5 | Plus B1 Japanese, from April 2027 |
| Hold Type 2 with the longest period of stay | Year 5 onward | The 5-year band, from January 2027 |
| Five years on Type 2 → PR eligibility test met | Year 9–10 | Plus 10 years' total residence, income, pension, conduct |
Two things jump out of that table.
The Type 2 exam belongs in year three, not year five. If you fail it in year five you are relying on the six-year exception — which requires you to have scored 80% of the pass mark, and to have an employer willing to sponsor another year. If you fail it in year three, you have two more attempts and no drama.
Ten years is the realistic PR horizon, not five. Anyone selling you "SSW then PR in five years" is selling you something. If you want the faster routes, they exist but they're different routes — the Highly Skilled Professional points system can compress PR to one or three years for people who qualify, and you can test yourself on the HSP points calculator.
And if the answer to all this is "actually, I want to earn and go home" — that's a completely legitimate plan, and it has its own maths. Read three years or forever and check what you'd get back with the pension refund guide and the pension calculator. There is no wrong answer here. There is only the version where you decided, and the version where the clock decided for you.
Three myths worth killing
"Five years on SSW and then I can apply for PR." No. SSW-1 years are explicitly excluded from the five-year work-status requirement in the permanent-residence guideline. They count toward the 10-year residence total, and nothing more.
"The five-year Type 2 visa means Japan is loosening up." Partly. It's also the mechanism that stops Type 2 holders failing the "longest period of stay" test when the 3-year transitional treatment ends on 31 March 2027 — and it will carry stricter screening than the shorter periods do.
"Type 2 has no Japanese test, so I don't need to study." On current plans this stops being true on 1 April 2027, when the B1 standard is scheduled to take effect. B1 is a real level. It takes years, not months.
What to do this month
- If you're already on SSW-1: find out today whether your field is Type-2-eligible, and when the evaluation test is next held. Put a date on it. If you've had extended maternity, childcare or medical leave, check whether you can have that time excluded — and file early, roughly three months before your five years are up.
- If you're still in India: pick a Type-2-eligible field if long-term settlement is the goal, and check which skills tests are actually held in India before you commit to anything. Our SSW guide for Indians and the step-by-step application process both list them.
- If you're a nurse or carer: ignore the Type 2 conversation and look at the certified care worker route instead. It's the better ladder for you.
- If you're considering the new Employment for Skill Development programme starting 1 April 2027, read our Ikusei Shuro guide — it feeds directly into SSW-1, and the clock we've described here starts the moment you make that transfer.
- If you want to comment on the drafts: the public comment window on both the ordinance and the permanent-residence guideline closes in early September 2026. Anyone can submit, including people outside Japan. Check the e-Gov case pages for the exact deadline and the submission form.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really stay six years on Specified Skilled Worker (i)?
In defined circumstances, yes. You need to have failed the Type 2 evaluation test while scoring at least 80% of the pass mark on every required test, to keep sitting the exam, to commit to switching status if you pass and leaving if you don't, and to have an employer who will keep you and support your preparation. It's granted in one-year extensions and doesn't apply to the automobile maintenance or aviation certification routes. This is a discretionary operational measure — treat it as a safety net, not a plan.
Do my SSW years count toward permanent residency?
Toward the 10-year residence requirement, yes. Toward the separate requirement to have spent 5 continuous years on a work status, Specified Skilled Worker (i) is explicitly excluded, alongside Technical Intern Training. Type 2 years do count. This is stated in the permanent-residence guideline as revised on 24 February 2026.
Does maternity leave still eat my five years?
Not if you file for it. Statutory maternity leave, childcare leave and illness or injury leave can be excluded from the five-year total, provided the leave ran for a continuous period of more than one month, you notified immigration promptly when the situation arose, and you apply with evidence before your five years expire. Unemployment, by contrast, still counts.
Will Specified Skilled Worker (ii) really need B1 Japanese?
That is the current plan. The Immigration Services Agency's programme explainer states the Type 2 Japanese standard is confirmed by test at B1 or above, with the ordinance scheduled to take effect on 1 April 2027. Requirements can change before then, so verify against the agency directly — but if you're building a plan, build it assuming B1.
Why isn't nursing care a Type 2 field?
Because nursing care has its own dedicated status of residence, reached through the certified care worker (kaigo fukushishi) qualification. That status is indefinitely renewable and allows family, so a separate Type 2 route was not created for the field. It's a parallel ladder, not a missing one.
Is the five-year Type 2 visa confirmed?
Not yet. It was published as a draft ministerial ordinance on 4 August 2026 and put out for public comment, with entry into force planned for early January 2027. The detailed criteria for who qualifies for the five-year band — employment record, income, tax history — have not been finalised. Check the agency's announcements before making decisions that depend on it.
I'm on a dependent visa and my spouse is on SSW. Does any of this affect me?
Indirectly. Type 1 doesn't generally allow family to join you; Type 2 does, subject to requirements. So a move up the ladder is often what makes family reunification possible in the first place. Our dependent visa and family guide covers what that involves.
The one thing to remember
The SSW route now runs longer than it used to, and further than it used to. But it stops being a route to settlement the moment you treat Type 2 as a problem for later. Find your field's Type 2 exam date this week and work backwards from it. Everything else in this article is downstream of that one decision.
If you're still working out whether the numbers make sense for you at all, run your offer through the salary calculator first. The visa strategy only matters if the job is worth having.
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.
Sources
All accessed 28 August 2026.
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan — "Partial amendment to the Operational Guidelines for the Acceptance of Specified Skilled Foreign Nationals," 30 September 2025 (PDF, Japanese) — the three-year period of stay, the Type 2 two-year band, the maternity/childcare/illness exclusions and the six-year exception with its full conditions.
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan — "Guideline on Permission for Permanent Residence," revised 24 February 2026 (Japanese) — the exclusion of Technical Intern Training and Specified Skilled Worker (i) from the five-year work-status requirement, and note 1 on the 31 March 2027 treatment of a three-year period of stay.
- Immigration Services Agency of Japan — "Overview of the System for Foreign Workers," updated 1 July 2026 (PDF, Japanese) — SSW-1 and SSW-2 populations at end-March 2026, the Type 2 field breakdown, nationality shares at end-2025, the B1 language standard and its 1 April 2027 ordinance date, the receiving ceilings, the India memorandum date, and the cohort follow-up on 2019 and 2020 SSW-1 entrants.
- Jiji Press via Nippon.com — "Japan to Add 5-Year Stay Period for Type 2 Foreign Workers," 4 August 2026 — the draft ordinance, the January 2027 target, and the link to the permanent-residence "longest period of stay" requirement.
- Berry Appleman & Leiden — "Japan: Updates to permanent residency requirements and Specified Skilled Worker Visa residency limit open for public comment," 7 August 2026 — the e-Gov case references and the comment window.
Figures are drawn from provisional official statistics and draft instruments that may be revised before they take effect. Where this article describes a planned change, it says so — please confirm current rules with the Immigration Services Agency before acting on them.