“I was shocked. Paying 100,000 yen to extend my visa every three years is too much,” said Srijana Sunar, a 29-year-old Nepali woman who has been working in factories in Japan since 2018. She earns 145,000 yen ($900/€790) per month.
In late May, the Japanese government passed a bill raising the maximum fee for changing residence status or length of stay tenfold from the current 10,000 yen to 100,000 yen by the end of March 2027.
Srijana’s husband, Spandan Sunar, who has been working at a transportation company and a Japanese language school in Japan since 2016, told DW that his long-term efforts have been “not rewarded” by Japanese society.
“We are not new. We have proper visa status, we follow the rules and pay taxes, but our freedom to choose jobs and working conditions is very limited,” he said in fluent Japanese.
A young couple marrying in Japan in 2022 are expected to apply for permanent residence – but only if they can afford it.
Under the same bill, the upper limit of the permanent residence permit fee will be increased from 10,000 yen to 300,000 yen. This is another major hurdle for couples, as an annual personal income of more than 3 million yen is generally considered a requirement for permanent residence by most applicants.
demographic decline in japan
According to Japan’s Bureau of Statistics, as of April 2025, the number of Japanese citizens will be about 119.7 million, down 941,000 from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the number of foreign citizens in Japan is growing at a pace that offsets about 40% of that decline. According to the Immigration Services agency, there were approximately 4,125 million foreign nationals in the country at the end of 2025, an increase of more than 356,000 from the previous year.
“Foreign workers are indispensable. Without them, society will not function,” Toshihiro Menju, an expert on Japanese immigration policy, told DW.
“It is impossible to completely overcome the labor shortage through women’s participation or the use of robots alone,” said Menju, a visiting professor at Kansai University of International Studies.
He said, “The reality is that the number of foreign workers is increasing in all sectors, from highly skilled occupations to frontline care sectors. The number of people supporting the infrastructure of society is decreasing.”
Japan has taken steps to tighten immigration policies
In January, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takachi agreed to a package of strict measures regarding foreign nationals.
The package is titled “Comprehensive Measures for Acceptance and Coexistence of Foreign Nationals”. This comes after the government established a “Headquarters Policy for Foreign Nationals” in November 2025.
Stringent measures include doubling the residency requirement for naturalization to 10 consecutive years and adding Japanese language proficiency requirements for permanent residence.
“Many of our systems were not designed with such a large number of foreign visitors and residents in mind,” Takashi Yamashita, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who serves as chairman of one of the project teams under the Foreign Citizens Policy Headquarters, told DW.
Yamashita said, “We draw a clear line; we will firmly support those who use the system correctly while taking a firm stance against misuse, overuse, and abuse. We work to eliminate public sentiment of unfairness.”
“It is also important to create an environment where legal foreign residents who want to contribute to Japanese society can live with peace of mind and develop as members of local communities,” he said.
However, some potential workers in Japan say the new rules have adversely affected their plans.
Yanika Rungpayrose, a 35-year-old Thai researcher who works at Chiba University Hospital near Tokyo, said things have gone smoothly so far in building her career in clinical pharmacy, including visa applications and job searches.
But despite receiving a Ph.D. “These policy changes have somewhat affected my thoughts about my long-term plans in Japan,” he told DW after completing his degree in Japan in 2024.
Growing negative sentiment towards foreigners
Efforts are being made across Japan to tighten policies towards foreign nationals amid growing public concerns about foreigners.
According to a Nikkei mail-in opinion poll conducted between October and December 2025, 37% of respondents said they “do not feel good” that the number of foreigners in Japanese workplaces and communities is increasing, an increase of 10 points from the previous survey conducted in 2024.
A 26-year-old Japanese consultant in Tokyo, who spoke anonymously with DW, said he is concerned that “coexistence with foreigners has been promoted unchecked, without adequate understanding and agreement when it comes to public safety and social norms.”
He said, “For example, in Japan there is a certain degree of consensus around the unwritten rule that one should be considerate of others when in public. However, I see behaviors such as playing music or making phone calls without earphones on trains, which make many people feel uncomfortable. Japanese people avoid directly reporting such behavior and they feel uncomfortable but no one says anything.”
“The reality as an international employee in Japan varies depending on nationality. For people like me, who are from Asia, we are expected to be like the Japanese,” a 34-year-old Chinese woman who works at an IT company in Tokyo told DW.
Koki Yamaguchi, a 27-year-old Japanese graduate student in Osaka, told DW that he thinks “a negative feeling is gradually accumulating among Japanese people that Japanese culture and identity are being threatened by other countries.”
Japan’s far right makes political gains
Japanese far-right party Senseito has taken advantage of this negative public sentiment with its slogan “Japan First” and has seen significant gains in the July 2025 upper house election.
“Sanseito succeeded in setting an agenda on the issue of ‘foreigners,'” Sachi Takaya, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, told DW.
He said, “The Takaichi administration claims to draw a clear line between its policies and xenophobia, but it is enacting xenophobic policies in practice.”
Takaya said the government of former PM Shinzo Abe, in a major effort to avoid public criticism, claimed it did not even have an official “immigration policy”. At the same time, Abe expanded the number of foreign workers through the “specialized skilled workers” system.
It remains to be seen whether the Takachi administration’s tough stance on foreign workers will reduce their numbers.
For Spandan Sunar of Nepal, after living and working in Japan for 10 years, the future is worrying. But despite high costs and strict policies on foreign workers, he and his wife have no choice but to stay.
“There is no other way but to stay in Japan,” he said. He said it would be a “loss” for Japan if the new policies force foreign workers to leave the country.
“Creating an environment where we are encouraged to stay and contribute will ultimately benefit Japan,” he said.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn