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Japan to Hike Business Manager Visa Threshold Sixfold Amid Abuse Allegations

Japan plans to hike the visa's financial requirement to 30 million yen following the recent arrest of a visa holder accused of facilitating fraudulent applications.

Moustafa Daly
Cairo

Japan plans to raise the visa’s financial requirement to 30 million yen following the recent arrest of a visa holder accused of facilitating fraudulent applications.

The Japanese government will tighten the requirements for its business manager visa, which aims to attract foreign entrepreneurs. The Immigration Services Agency says it plans to raise the capital requirement from 5 million yen (US$34,000) to 30 million yen (US$203,000) and mandate that visa holders employ at least one full-time local worker, down from two in the current requirements.

Officials say these changes, which they’re currently discussing with a panel of experts according to a recent report by The Ashai Shimbun, will take effect within the year through an amended ministerial ordinance.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki instructed a thorough revaluation of the current capital requirement in May and said that the financial threshold falls short of peer programs in other markets, such as South Korea’s Immigrant Investor Program.

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Ruling and opposition parties pushed for reform during this year’s legislative session, which concluded in late June, suggesting a growing political consensus to tighten the program’s requirements following recent reports of growing abuse.

Japan’s business manager visa has evolved significantly since its introduction. Authorities rebranded it in 2015 to attract a broader pool of talent. Subsequent regulatory relaxations, such as allowing funds from share sales to count toward the capital requirement, contributed to a sharp rise in visa holders, from 18,100 in 2015 to 41,600 by the end of 2024.

Siren Chen, Group Head of Project R&D at Globevisa Group, notes that even with the sixfold increase, the program will still hold a “competitive advantage” compared to other mainstream developed countries, adding that the program’s lack of language or age requirements are also compelling factors for investors.

Fraudulent Scheme Unraveling

Officials say the program’s relatively lenient requirements led to disappointing outcomes. They say some individuals exploit the system by establishing “paper companies” or launching short-term apartment rental businesses, locally known as minpaku, to qualify for the visa.

This follows the arrest of a 44-year-old Sri Lankan man, Mohamed Irfan, on July 7 for allegedly helping others obtain business manager residency by submitting false corporate documents.

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The police reportedly said he used a fake car dealership to create fraudulent financial statements in 2023, enabling another Sri Lankan man to secure a business manager visa.

Irfan, based in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, denies the allegations, but authorities believe he operated a broader scheme using about 600 dummy companies, arranging for Sri Lankans to first acquire engineer/specialist in humanities/international services visas by pretending they worked for fake firms. He would then later reposition some of them as company “executives” to apply for business manager visas.

Authorities also say that Irfan and other brokers misled victims with promises of high-paying jobs in Japan. As of July 7, authorities had taken nine Sri Lankans into custody, labelling them victims of the scam. Several admitted to paying brokers between 500,000 and 1 million yen ($3,400–$6,800) to gain entry into Japan.

Could a higher threshold help put an end to such abuse of the program? Chen sees that as a possibility, saying a higher threshold would “filter out” candidates who don’t have long-term investment intentions, and would also encourage them to take their business projects seriously given the capital at stake.

Exceptions to the New Changes

Under current requirements, applicants must secure a business office and either possess capital of 5 million yen or employ two full-time staff members. The proposed changes will increase the financial threshold and simplify the employment requirement.

The government will allow exceptions for holders of startup and future creation individual visas, enabling them to transition to the business manager visa under existing criteria.

The startup visa, part of Japan’s foreign entrepreneurial activity promotion program, and the future creation individual visa, which targets graduates from top-tier universities, aim to attract innovative talent. They say these pathways will ensure that stricter business manager visa requirements do not deter highly skilled individuals.

Prospective applicants for the program should “act quickly” while the new changes remain under discussion, Chen advises.

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