The residence routes we hold for Japan, each requirement as its rule states it, and what a month costs in its cities. This page assesses no one.
This page describes the destination for nobody in particular. Answer a few questions and each requirement is set against your own answers, with a monthly budget for your household. Your answers stay in the address bar of your browser; nothing is stored.
Safety, order, cleanliness and reliable infrastructure.
Excellent healthcare and public transport.
Business Manager visa with a published capital threshold.
Fukuoka is affordable, compact and start-up friendly.
Weak yen makes life cheaper in euro terms.
Cons
Language: Japanese is essential for business and daily administration.
Business culture is formal and slow to trust outsiders; acquisitions are rare for foreigners.
High living costs in Tokyo; small housing.
Earthquakes, typhoons; humid summers.
Ageing, shrinking population; a rigid labour market.
Emigrator’s assessment, 6 October 2026. Where a point names a figure, the sourced data above governs.
Routes we hold for Japan
What each rule states, as we encoded it from the source. A money threshold that grows with the size of the household is shown for the reference household named under the costs.
Business Manager status of residence
Draft — not checked by us yet
We built these rules from the country’s own sources and have not finished checking them line by line.
· within the limit
Requirement
Rule says
Type
Savings of at least the capital this status requires*
At least €167,513.4030,000,000 JPY, converted at the ECB euro reference rate for the Japanese yen (0.005584 EUR/JPY, effective 10 September 2026) = €167,513.40
Mandatory
What the authority states and we cannot test
Quoted in the authority’s own words rather than summarised. No rule of ours tests these.
申請者が営む会社等において、１人以上の常勤職員を雇用することが必要になります
Our translation: The company the applicant runs must employ at least one full-time member of staff. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by 出入国在留管理庁 (Immigration Services Agency of Japan) — 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について
申請者又は常勤職員のいずれかが相当程度の日本語能力を有することが必要になります
Our translation: Either the applicant or a full-time member of staff must have a substantial command of Japanese. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by 出入国在留管理庁 (Immigration Services Agency of Japan) — 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について
Our translation: The applicant must hold a doctoral, master’s or professional degree in a field relevant to business management or to the technology or knowledge the business needs, or have at least three years’ experience in running or managing a business. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by 出入国在留管理庁 (Immigration Services Agency of Japan) — 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について
Our translation: The business plan is required to be confirmed, by a person with specialist knowledge of management, as concrete, well-founded and achievable. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by 出入国在留管理庁 (Immigration Services Agency of Japan) — 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について
Our translation: Because premises appropriate to the scale of the business must be secured, using the applicant’s home as the business premises is, as a rule, not accepted. — Emigrator, machine-assisted and reviewed against the source
Stated by 出入国在留管理庁 (Immigration Services Agency of Japan) — 在留資格「経営・管理」に係る上陸基準省令等の改正について
A month here, for a reference household
Reference household: two adults aged 38 and 37, a one-bedroom home, no children.
Residence fees and health cover are those of Business Manager status of residence. The low, middle and high figures are the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles where a publisher states them; each line says who published it.
illustrative Money figures on this page are illustrative unless the figure names its publisher. The illustrative ones are arranged so the shape is right — a larger flat costs more than a smaller one, and the expensive cities are the expensive ones — and they are accurate in nothing. Do not plan on them.
City
P25
P50
P75
FukuokaThis total does not include Building or service charge, Statutory levies and licences, Residence permit renewals and Domestic help, which nobody publishes for this city. It is the sum of what we hold, not of what the household will pay.
not published
€1,530
not published
TokyoThis total does not include Building or service charge, Statutory levies and licences, Residence permit renewals and Domestic help, which nobody publishes for this city. It is the sum of what we hold, not of what the household will pay.
Each cell: average daily high, monthly mean, average daily low, in °C. These are averages of daily values over 2001–2020, not records — the hottest day is higher and is not shown.
Each cell: average daily high, monthly mean, average daily low, in °C. These are averages of daily values over 2001–2020, not records — the hottest day is higher and is not shown.
How this country is governed
World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2024, on a 0–100 scale the Bank publishes itself. They describe the country, not any city in it.
Political stability and absence of violence
85the World Bank governance score for political stability
Rule of law
83the World Bank governance score for rule of law
Control of corruption
75the World Bank governance score for control of corruption
Rule set 1.58.0-2026-10-11 · read on 26 October 2026. Every figure on this page was computed by the engine from versioned rule files. No language model produced any number here, and translation happens only after the calculation.
