The Digital Nomad visa and the other ways to stay

Read across for how long you can stay, what work is allowed, and what the money rule is. The notes under the table are the parts that do not fit in a cell. The short-stay row uses the visa-exemption page. The digital-nomad row uses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Immigration Services Agency.

A working holiday is a holiday first. The work tops up the travel money, and it can be work in Japan, which the Digital Nomad visa does not allow. The Digital Nomad visa is the other way round: the work is the point, and it has to be for people outside Japan, with an income of at least ¥10 million already earned.

You are 18 to 30, inclusive, when you apply. For Australia, Canada, South Korea and Ireland the published band is 18 to 25, unless that country and Japan extend it to 30. Dependents and children cannot come with you. You need a passport of that country or region, and you have to be in good health. For most partner countries you also have to be living there when you apply. As of 1 April 2026 the programmes run with 32 countries and regions. Some of them, named on the ministry's page, can be taken twice in a lifetime, and those notes describe the stays as one year.

Participants visit the municipal office where they live and notify their address within 14 days of settling. The digital-nomad questions say that moving from town to town needs no special procedure.

Business Manager is for a business you run or manage in Japan. From 16 October 2025 a new application also needs either three years of management experience, including a business-preparation designated activity, or a master's-level degree in management or in the field of the business. The applicant or the full-time employee needs a substantial level of Japanese. The notice has CEFR B2 in mind. A person with expert knowledge of management has to review a new business plan, with an exception at listed-company scale. The full-time employee is a Japanese national, a special permanent resident, or a person on a Table II status: permanent resident, spouse of a Japanese national, spouse of a permanent resident, or long-term resident. Someone already on Business Manager when the criteria changed is not refused a renewal for three years only because the new criteria are missed, and after that the decision looks at the business as a whole. The periods of stay are on the status table.

Highly Skilled Professional is a points status for work with an organization in Japan: academic research, specialist and technical work, or business management. Seventy points, from education, career, annual income and the other published items, is the line. Type 1 is granted for five years. Type 2, with no fixed period, is for someone who has done the Type 1 activity for three years or more. Preferential treatment includes a spouse who can work, parents in some cases, and a faster landing process. It is not a status for remote work paid from abroad. The application page is separate from the digital-nomad one.

How to apply for the Digital Nomad visa

The documents and the fee, if this is the status you want.

Eligible countries

The Digital Nomad chart. The other statuses use their own rules.