To attract more foreign professionals to work or conduct business in Japan for encouraging the development of Japan economics‧labour market, Japanese government has implemented 2 visa systems from April 2023: Japan System for Future Creation Individual (J-FIND) and Japan System for Special Highly Skilled Professionals (J-SKIP).

1. Japan System for Future Creation Individual (J-FIND)
   
   Graduates from overseas well-known universities who plan to conduct "job hunting activities" or "business founding activities" can grant residence status "Designated Activities" (Future Creation Individual) with maximum 2 years of period of stay.
   
   Applicants of J-FIND must fulfill the following requirements:
   (1) Graduated from eligible university and be awarded qualification at the same level of bachelor’s degree or above;
   (2) Graduated within 5 years;
   (3) At the time of application, applicant’s personal savings must have at least 200,000 yen as the initial living expenses.
   
   
2. Japan System for Special Highly Skilled Professionals (J-SKIP)
   
   Different from the existing highly-skilled professionals visa, foreign high skilled professionals who reach certain standards in "academic background" or "professional career", and "annual salary" can grant the residence status "Highly-Skilled Professional (i)" and more preferential treatments through the J-SKIP, a newly implemented visa system by Japanese government,
   
   Applicants of J-SKIP must fulfill one of the following requirements:
   
   

   (1)	Applicants fall under "advanced academic research activities" or "advanced specialized / technical activities" of highly-skilled professional visa: Master's degree or above and annual income of at least 20 million yen At least 10 years of work experience and an annual income of at least 20 million yen
   (2)	Applicants fall under "Advanced business management activities" of highly-skilled professional visa: At least 5 years of experience in business management or administration and annual income of at least 40 million yen

   
   Apart from the current preferential treatments for highly-skilled professional visa, special highly skilled professionals can also grant the following additional preferential treatments:
   

   (1)	Maximum 2 foreign domestic workers can be employed if the annual income of the family is 30 million yen or above (no need to fulfill the family status requirements)
   (2)	The spouse could engage in the activities under "Professor", "Artist", "Religious Activities", "Journalist" and "Skilled Labour" in addition to the current permitted activities "Researcher", "Instructor", " Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services " and "Entertainer". Also, working 28 hours or above per week is permitted even if the spouse does not fulfill the requirements of working experiences, etc.
   (3)	Use of priority lanes at large airports, etc.

   
   Note: The above family status requirements are having a child under 13 years old, or having a spouse which is unable to do the daily housekeeping works due to sickness, or that foreign domestic worker must work for the applicant’s family for more than 1 year continuously before entry Japan.
   

Kaizen can assist clients in the application of the abovementioned visas, please contact our professional consultants for more information.