Highly Skilled Professional visa in Japan: the 70-point table and what it gives you

The highly skilled professional visa in Japan uses a points test. The status of residence (在留資格) Highly Skilled Professional (高度専門職) is yours if you score 70 points on the Immigration Services Agency’s (出入国在留管理庁, ISA) points table, based on your degree, work experience, salary, age and bonuses. In return you get a 5-year period of stay, work rights for your spouse and a path to permanent residency after 3 years at 70 points or 1 year at 80. This is the position as of October 2026.

What are the three types of Highly Skilled Professional?

ISA splits the status into three activity types. You are scored on the type that matches your job.

The points sit on top of the normal requirements of a work status. You still need a job that fits a work status, and ISA then checks whether your points reach 70.

How does the points table work?

The table below summarizes ISA’s points calculation table (ポイント計算表). Columns are イ / ロ / ハ. “n/a” means the item doesn’t score for that type.

Experience counts only if it relates to the job you will do in Japan. For 1号ハ, an MBA or MOT adds 5 points.

Salary points depend on your age for イ and ロ

For research and specialist work, the same salary scores more when you are younger. Salary means yearly pay from your main employer, including bonuses. If you transfer from an overseas office, pay from that office counts too. “n/a” means that salary scores no points at that age.

For business management (ハ), salary bands are higher and don’t depend on age: ¥30 million: 50, ¥25 million: 40, ¥20 million: 30, ¥15 million: 20, ¥10 million: 10. Specialist (ロ) and management (ハ) applicants must earn at least ¥3 million a year whatever their points.

Bonus points

ISA’s university list includes universities ranked in the top 300 of two of the QS, THE and ARWU world rankings. The current list is based on January 2026 rankings, and ISA asks you to check the latest rankings when you apply.

What do you get as a highly skilled professional?

ISA lists seven benefits for 1号:

1. Several activities at once, such as research plus running a related business.
2. A 5-year period of stay, the legal maximum, granted to everyone. You can renew it.
3. Faster permanent residency: 3 years at 70+ points, or 1 year at 80+.
4. Your spouse can work in jobs such as Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services or Instructor without meeting the usual degree or experience rules.
5. Your parents can join you to care for your or your spouse’s child under 7, or to support a pregnancy. Household income must be ¥8 million or more, they must live with you, and only one side’s parents qualify.
6. A domestic worker can come with you. Among other conditions, you need household income of ¥10 million or more and must pay at least ¥200,000 a month. One worker is the normal limit; finance professionals can have two with household income of ¥30 million or more.
7. Priority processing: ISA aims for 10 days on Certificate of Eligibility applications and 5 days on residence applications, from receipt.

In practice, ISA’s August 2026 statistics show longer averages, for example 43 days for a 1号ロ Certificate of Eligibility and 51.7 days for a change of status to 1号ロ. These averages include time waiting for extra documents and, for changes, the wait until you collect the permit.

How does the permanent residency fast track work?

Under ISA’s permanent residency (永住) guideline, you qualify on residence length if you have held 70 points for 3 years or 80 points for 1 year while living in Japan. The guideline also accepts points counted as of 3 years (or 1 year) before your application date, if you kept that score since. The other permanent residency conditions still apply: see our permanent residency requirements guide.

What is Highly Skilled Professional 2号?

After 3 years on 1号, you can apply to change to 高度専門職2号. It gives an unlimited period of stay and lets you do almost any work-status activity alongside your main job. Benefits 3 to 6 above continue. ISA also checks that your activity is appropriate for Japanese industry and public life.

What are J-Skip and J-Find?

Both started in April 2023.

J-Skip (特別高度人材制度) gives Highly Skilled Professional status without points if you meet a salary and education or experience test:

• research or specialist work: a master’s degree or higher, or 10+ years’ relevant experience, and a salary of ¥20 million or more
• business management: 5+ years’ management experience and ¥40 million or more

J-Skip adds use of priority lanes at major airports. You can move to 2号 after 1 year, and the permanent residency residence period is 1 year.

J-Find (未来創造人材制度) is for recent graduates of top overseas universities. It gives Designated Activities (特定活動) status for up to 2 years to look for a job or prepare a startup. Your university must be in the top 100 of two of the QS, THE and ARWU rankings, your degree must be under 5 years old, and you need ¥200,000 or more in savings.

Related guides

Coming from abroad? See Certificate of Eligibility. For family members, see the dependent visa guide and our guide to bringing parents to Japan covers other routes. When you go home for a visit, read about the re-entry permit.

More guides: visa renewal in Japan, permanent residency vs naturalization.