Can you bring your parents to Japan? The few routes that exist

There is no general visa that lets you bring parents to Japan to live with you. As of October 2026, most parents can only visit for up to 90 days on a short-term stay. Three narrow exceptions exist: parents of highly skilled professionals raising a child under 7, parents who move with certain researchers and IT specialists, and discretionary permits, with no published criteria, for elderly parents with no one to care for them at home.

Can I bring my parents to Japan permanently?

Not through any standard route. Japan’s family-based statuses all stop at spouses and children:

None of them covers parents. This is the same whether you are on a work visa, a spouse visa or permanent residency. The Immigration Services Agency (出入国在留管理庁, ISA) says it directly: parents of foreigners on work statuses are normally not accepted.

Route 1: a short visit of up to 90 days

Parents can come for a short-term stay (短期滞在), which covers visiting relatives. ISA grants 90, 30 or 15 days.

Depending on their nationality, your parents either enter visa-free or apply for a short-stay visa at a Japanese embassy or consulate. Check the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (外務省) visa pages or the embassy in their country for the current document list.

Route 2: parents of a highly skilled professional

If you hold Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職) status, including the J-Skip special highly skilled route, your parents or your spouse’s parents can live with you under Designated Activities (特定活動), notice item 34. See our highly skilled professional visa guide.

ISA’s conditions:

• Purpose: to raise your or your spouse’s child under 7 (adopted children count), or to help a pregnant spouse or a pregnant you.
• Income: your and your spouse’s combined annual pay must be ¥8 million or more at entry. Other people’s income doesn’t count.
• Living together: the parent must live with you.
• One side only: the parents of you or of your spouse, not both sides.

Your parents can join after you have moved, through a certificate of eligibility. You submit proof of income, family registers or birth and marriage certificates, the child’s or your residence cards, or a medical certificate or maternal and child health handbook (母子健康手帳) copy for a pregnancy.

The rule is tied to the child being under 7, or to the pregnancy.

Route 3: parents of some researchers and IT specialists

A smaller rule covers parents of foreigners on Designated Activities for designated research (特定研究等活動) or designated IT work (特定情報処理活動). Their parents, or their spouse’s parents, qualify only if all of these apply:

• they live with you in Japan and you support them
• they already lived with you and depended on you abroad
• they move to Japan together with you

This doesn’t help if your parents live separately in your home country.

Route 4: an elderly parent with no one to care for them

ISA publishes no category and no criteria for elderly parents. What follows comes from immigration specialists (行政書士), not from ISA. Three firms describe a discretionary Designated Activities permit outside the published notice (告示外), granted on humanitarian grounds. From their experience, approvals usually involve:

• a parent around 70 or older; one firm prefers 75 or older, and two say younger parents need a serious, documented illness or disability
• no relatives in the home country who can care for them, and usually a parent living alone
• a medically documented illness or need for care
• a child in Japan with stable status, paid taxes and enough income to support them; the firms give no official figure, and their rough guides differ (one says ¥5 million a year or less makes approval very difficult, another suggests about ¥8 million)

The firms agree you can’t use a certificate of eligibility for this. The parent enters on a short-term stay and then applies to change status; one firm says immigration first holds a preliminary consultation on whether to accept the application. Two firms say permits are usually for up to 1 year and renewed yearly. One calls it among the hardest applications, and bringing both parents is described as much harder unless both need care.

Can wealthy parents come on a long-stay visa?

There is one more option that isn’t about family. ISA’s long-stay tourism status lets people 18 or older stay up to 1 year for sightseeing and recreation if they:

• are nationals of a listed visa-exempt country
• have savings of ¥30 million or more (with a spouse, combined)
• have private insurance covering death, injury and illness in Japan

Parents who meet this can stay longer than 90 days without needing you as sponsor. A spouse can come along on the same status if they are also a national of a listed country and insured, so both parents can apply together; ¥30 million in combined savings then covers both.

What about parents of Japanese citizens?

Becoming Japanese through naturalization (帰化) doesn’t create a parent visa. No status of residence covers parents of Japanese nationals, so the same routes apply. If your parents stay in your home country, see sending money from Japan.

More guides: change of status, dependent visa and long-term resident visa.