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The story
Starting October 1st, the screening criteria for foreigners seeking permanent residency in Japan have been tightened. The Ministry of Justice revised its guidelines to add a new requirement: applicants’ annual income must consistently exceed the average for Japanese households. The move comes against a backdrop of a string of cases in which foreigners who obtained permanent residency ended up receiving welfare benefits, and is meant to push toward future self-sufficiency. On 5ch, opinions split, with threads debating what the average income threshold actually is, questioning whether this squares with the government’s push to expand acceptance of foreign workers, and asking how this differs from “special permanent residency” status.
As of the 1st, the “income” screening standard for foreigners applying for permanent residency has gotten stricter.
The Ministry of Justice has revised its permanent residency guidelines, and starting the 1st, screening will require that applicants’ income consistently exceed the average income of Japanese households.
This responds to a string of cases in which foreigners who obtained permanent residency ended up on welfare, raising the bar in hopes of ensuring they can support themselves going forward.
Source: fnn.jp / Original article here
What people said
is she gonna be okay?
Ah, probably not.
Back to your home country.
Former Japanese citizens get preferential treatment over regular foreigners whether it's re-naturalization or permanent residency, so no need to worry.
>a string of cases where foreigners who got permanent residency end up on welfare
But they're not stripping the welfare ("namapo," slang for seikatsu hogo/welfare) from the ones already on it, or revoking their permanent residency and deporting them, huh.
Still at the part where Temujin's working as a slave (a Fist of the North Star character).
He's apparently sick right now, so maybe he can't go back?
It just means he won't be granted permanent residency, so there should be a grace period until the visa expires.
A foreigner capable of easily earning above the average income isn't going to bother coming to Japan in the first place 🤭🤭🤭
Use your head ☺
How much is it right now, I wonder?
In developed countries the benchmark is apparently around $30,000 a year, so it should be at least that.
If you limit it to just the working-age population, the number changes quite a bit.
Since retirees are included too, it comes out lower.
NHK was explaining this on the morning news — apparently the old Technical Intern Training Program was designed to send people back home, while the new Employment for Skill Development starting in April is designed to have them settle in Japan.
I want to leave.
Apparently a lot of people are fleeing.
Once a country declines, war is pretty much the only option left.
But there's nowhere easier to live than Japan, right?
Maybe Poland, since it has no immigrants.
do we really have the luxury of tightening the rules like this?
Just adjust our lifestyle to match.
No need to help other countries or copy the developed nations — Japan's a poor country now, so we should just put our own citizens first.
https://bbs68.meiwasuisan.com/news/img/17906897240005.jpg
What a sad country this is becoming.
Foreigners who aren't useful aren't needed.
Foreigners who are useful are welcome to stay in Japan.
Over the next 10 years, the trajectory toward 35 million in 60 years will basically be locked in.
Still way better off than China, which faces an even more extreme ultra-ultra-low birthrate and aging crisis than Japan.
Are you an idiot?
Even so, it's still way bigger than Japan.
Sure, the population size differs,
but every country called a 'developed nation' has that same low-birthrate, aging-population pyramid.
I think they'll change it in stages.
Either way, more than half of the 430,000 Zainichi Koreans (ethnic Koreans long resident in Japan) covered by special permanent residency are elderly.
Once they pass away the number will drop to around 180,000,
but until then I don't think they'll do anything drastic.
It's already under 300,000.
Most young Zainichi Koreans are half-Japanese, half-Korean, so they're born with Japanese citizenship and don't need permanent residency.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Worth noting — something not raised in the thread itself — is that this tightening of permanent residency screening is an operational change to the Ministry of Justice’s guidelines, not a change in law. It applies to ordinary “permanent residents” under the Immigration Control Act; “special permanent residents,” a status held by many Zainichi Koreans, fall under a separate system based on different legislation. That distinction helps explain the thread’s “aren’t these two different things?” question. The debate split over whether raising the bar for permanent residency contradicts the government’s broader push to expand acceptance of foreign workers amid Japan’s labor shortage. Commenters also pointed out that the new standard likely applies only to new applications, not retroactively to people who already hold permanent residency or are already receiving welfare — meaning it probably won’t affect current recipients. Neither the reporting nor the thread specified the exact average income figure or how it’s calculated.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Permanent residency screening for foreigners tightens today… new requirement to ‘consistently exceed average Japanese household income’ added.”
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