How to Move to Japan: Every Route, the Real Cost, the Timeline

How to move to Japan: the short answer

Japan is not a country you choose, it is a country you qualify for. Unlike Portugal or Thailand, it issues no residence permit in exchange for a property purchase, no retirement visa, no status for people living off investments. Any stay over three months requires a zairyū shikaku (zairyū shikaku, residence status) tied to an activity: a job, studies, a marriage, a real company, or being the dependent of someone who holds one of those.

In practice, a successful move comes down to five decisions:

1. Status first. Seven routes genuinely exist (detailed below). The one you pick decides everything else: the timeline, the budget, your right to work, and whether a Japanese bank will ever lend to you.
2. Cash second. Budget 1,300,000 to 2,470,000 yen (8,025 to 15,250 EUR) in non recoverable costs for one person, most of which goes into the first lease rather than the flight.
3. The timeline. Four to ten months from a signed job offer to a residence card in hand. The bottleneck is the zairyū shikaku nintei shōmeisho (zairyū shikakunintei証明書, certificate of eligibility), processed inside Japan by the immigration authority.
4. Rent before you buy. A first Japanese lease costs four to seven months of rent up front. It is the line item that surprises everyone, and the one you cannot avoid in year one.
5. Buy later, with clear eyes. A foreigner can own Japanese property freehold, land included, without residing there. But the purchase creates no right to stay, and unlocks no mortgage unless you are resident and salaried in Japan.

If your plan is primarily an investment rather than a relocation, our complete guide to buying a house in Japan answers the other half of the question, and the akiya and Japanese house listings show the real prices in the catalogue we track.

The seven residence routes, and who each one actually suits

There is no generic relocation visa. There are statuses, each with its own entrance. Here are the seven that Western applicants actually meet, and what each one allows.

Route	Entry condition	Typical length	Work allowed	Leads to permanent residence
Skilled work (gijutsu jinbun chishiki kokusai gyōmu, 技術・人文知識・国際業務)	Job offer in Japan plus a university degree or around 10 years of experience	1, 3 or 5 years, renewable	Yes, within the scope of the status	Yes, about 10 years
Spouse of a Japanese national (nihonjin no haigūsha tō, 日本人の配偶者等)	Registered marriage and demonstrable shared life	1 to 5 years	Yes, with no activity restriction	Yes, on a shorter clock
Dependent (kazoku taizai, 家族滞在)	Spouse or child of a work status holder	Aligned with the holder	28 hours a week with permission	Yes, by switching status
Student (ryūgaku, 留学)	Admission to an accredited institution	6 months to 4 years and more	28 hours a week with permission	Yes, by moving on to a job
Highly skilled professional (kōdo senmonshoku, 高度専門職)	70 points on the official scale (degree, income, age, Japanese)	5 years from the start	Yes, wider scope	Yes, 3 years, or 1 year at 80 points
Business manager (keiei kanri, keiei kanri)	30,000,000 yen capital (185,000 EUR), real office, an employee, a certified plan	1 to 5 years	Yes, in your own company	Yes
Working holiday (wākingu horidē, ワーキングホリデー)	Age 18 to 30 and a partner nationality (UK, Canada, Australia, France, Ireland)	1 year, not renewable	Yes, incidentally	Not directly

What does not exist: the retirement visa and the investor visa

Two beliefs circulate and cost people money. The first: buy a house, get a visa. False, without nuance: property ownership appears in no Japanese immigration criterion. We cover it in buying a house in Japan without a visa. The second: there is a retirement visa like Portugal's. There is not, which is the subject of our article on retiring in Japan, where the only real routes are a Japanese spouse, dependent status, or a work status you keep.

As for keiei kanri, often sold as the investor shortcut, it has changed nature. The ordinance in force since 16 October 2025 raised the minimum capital from 5,000,000 to 30,000,000 yen (185,000 EUR), and now requires at least one full time employee, a business plan certified by an accredited professional, and a level of Japanese. Passively holding one or two rental units never qualified, and qualifies even less today: see the business manager visa and real estate.

A digital nomad visits, a digital nomad does not settle

The designated activity created in 2024 for remote workers allows six months, not renewable, subject to a high income threshold (around 10,000,000 yen a year, about 62,000 EUR) and an eligible nationality. A six month stay brings no residence card and no entry in the resident register, therefore no ordinary bank account, no standard lease and no Japanese health insurance. It is a long visit, not a move: the exact limits are in our article on the Japan digital nomad visa.

What it really costs to move to Japan

The question rarely gets a numbered answer, because the flight, the one line everybody anticipates, is under 10 percent of the total. Here are the ranges we see for a single person arriving on a work status, excluding any property purchase.

Item	Range in yen	In euros	Avoidable?
One way flight from Europe or North America	90,000 to 200,000 yen	555 to 1,235 EUR	No
Sea freight, 3 to 5 cubic metres	250,000 to 600,000 yen	1,545 to 3,705 EUR	Yes, by travelling light
Moving into a rental (breakdown below)	320,000 to 480,000 yen	1,975 to 2,965 EUR	No, unless company housing
Compulsory fire insurance, 2 years	15,000 to 25,000 yen	93 to 154 EUR	No
Lock replacement	15,000 to 25,000 yen	93 to 154 EUR	Rarely
Appliances, bedding, light fittings	150,000 to 350,000 yen	926 to 2,160 EUR	Partly, buying secondhand
Phone, internet, connection fees	10,000 to 40,000 yen	62 to 247 EUR	No
Three months of living expenses in reserve	450,000 to 750,000 yen	2,780 to 4,630 EUR	No
Realistic total	1,300,000 to 2,470,000 yen	8,025 to 15,250 EUR

Drop the sea freight and the total falls to 1,050,000 to 1,870,000 yen (6,480 to 11,545 EUR). That is the single most profitable trade off of the whole move: Japanese rentals come unfurnished, secondhand appliances are cheap and plentiful, and shipping a European sofa costs more than replacing it locally.

The line that surprises everyone: moving in

On a reference rent of 80,000 yen a month (495 EUR), here is what a Japanese landlord asks for at signature.

Line	Japanese name	Amount
First month of rent	yachin (家賃)	80,000 yen (495 EUR)
Deposit, partly refundable	shikikin (敷金)	80,000 to 160,000 yen (495 to 990 EUR)
Key money, never refunded	reikin (礼金)	0 to 160,000 yen (0 to 990 EUR)
Agency fee, tax included	chūkai tesūryō (chūkai tesūryō)	88,000 yen (545 EUR)
Guarantor company, compulsory without a Japanese guarantor	hoshō gaisha (保証company)	40,000 to 80,000 yen (247 to 495 EUR)
Fire insurance and lock change	n/a	30,000 to 50,000 yen (185 to 310 EUR)

That is 318,000 to 618,000 yen (1,965 to 3,815 EUR) to enter a flat renting at 80,000 yen, in other words four to seven months of rent at once. Reikin is the line to attack first: more and more listings advertise reikin zero, especially outside the big cities and outside the February to April moving season. To compare this against your monthly budget once settled, read our article on the cost of living in Japan.

The timeline, month by month

How long it takes barely depends on you: it depends on how fast the certificate of eligibility is processed in Japan. Here is the typical sequence on the work route, the most common one.

Step	Who acts	Typical delay
Job search and signed offer	You	1 to 6 months
Assembling the certificate of eligibility file	Your employer in Japan	2 to 4 weeks
Processing by the immigration authority	Administration	1 to 3 months
Certificate posted, visa applied for at the consulate	You	About 5 working days
Flight, entry, residence card issued at the airport	You	Same day
Move in notification at the town hall, health insurance, pension	You	Within 14 days
Bank account, phone, individual number	You	1 to 6 weeks
Viewings and lease signature	You	2 to 4 weeks
Total, decision to settled		4 to 10 months

The first fourteen days decide the rest

The residence card (zairyū kādo, 在留カード) is handed over on arrival, for any stay over three months, at the main international airports (Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, New Chitose, Hiroshima, Fukuoka). Enter through any other port and it is posted to you after your town hall registration. It is not enough on its own. Within fourteen days of moving in, you must file the move in notification (tennyū todoke, 転入届) at the town hall, which creates your entry in the resident register (jūminhyō, 住民票). That entry is the key that unlocks:

• enrolment in national health insurance (kokumin kenkō hoken, 国民健康保険) if your employer does not cover you, with a 30 percent patient share on treatment;
• enrolment in the pension system, compulsory, and partly transferable on departure depending on the applicable agreement;
• the individual number (mai nambā, マイナンバー) that banks, employers and the tax office all require;
• a real bank account, without which no serious lease gets signed. The full path is in opening a Japanese bank account as a foreigner.

Every week lost here delays everything downstream. It is also why digital nomads, who hold neither a residence card nor a jūminhyō, run straight into a banking and rental wall.

Rent first: what nobody tells you about the first lease

Almost nobody buys on arrival, and that is the right instinct: you only judge a neighbourhood properly after living there a season. But the Japanese rental market puts three obstacles in front of a newcomer that do not exist in Europe or North America.

The guarantor, obstacle number one

Most landlords require a Japanese personal guarantor (rentai hoshōnin, 連帯保証人). Failing that, a guarantor company stands in for 50 to 100 percent of one month of rent at signature, then an annual fee of 10,000 to 20,000 yen (62 to 124 EUR). It is not negotiable: it is the entry price for a foreigner with no Japanese credit history.

Refusal of foreign tenants, less common but real

Some landlords still refuse foreign tenants, usually citing language. The counter is threefold: a Japanese employment contract in hand, an agency used to foreign clients, and a complete file ready at the first viewing. Large cities and university districts are markedly more open than small municipalities.

Three alternatives to the standard lease

• Company housing (shataku, 社宅): many Japanese employers house new staff for the first year, or take the lease in the company's name. This is the single strongest lever, and it must be asked for before signing the employment contract.
• Public UR housing (UR toshi kikō, UR都市機構): no key money, no agency fee, no guarantor, in exchange for an income requirement and a larger deposit. Little known among foreigners, yet open to them.
• Furnished share houses (shea hausu, シェアハウス): move in costs cut to roughly one month, ideal for the first six months while you work out where you want to live. Our city by city comparison is in where to live in Japan as a foreigner.

Buying: what it gives you, and what it never will

Japan is one of the few developed countries where a foreigner, resident or not, buys freehold with no prior authorisation, land included. That freedom is rare and explains much of the market's appeal. It comes with three limits worth stating immediately.

Question	Answer	Practical consequence
Does buying open a right to stay?	No, never	Settle the status first, separately
Can a non resident get a Japanese mortgage?	No, in practice	Cash purchase, or a loan taken at home
Can a foreign resident borrow?	Yes, if salaried in Japan	Permanent residence or a Japanese spouse helps a great deal
What are the acquisition costs?	6 percent of the price at most	Well below France or the UK, still to be budgeted
Can you buy remotely?	Yes, by power of attorney	Delegated viewings and remote signing are possible

The mortgage point is the most misunderstood. Japanese banks lend against the stability of local employment, not against foreign wealth: with no residence and no Japanese payslip, the file does not clear, whatever your income at home. We set out the rare exceptions in getting a Japanese mortgage as a foreigner. The budget consequence is direct: a first purchase is almost always in cash, which naturally points towards the 4 to 15 million yen bracket you will find in our Japanese houses under 50,000 euros.

On costs, the rule is simple and favours the buyer: registration tax, acquisition tax, the specialist notary's fee, the agency commission and the revenue stamp together stay under 6 percent of the price, against 7 to 8 percent in France. The line by line breakdown is in the real cost of buying property in Japan. To test a scenario in figures before you even land, our yield and cost simulator runs on the real prices in our catalogue.

Worked example: a couple moving to Fukuoka

Take a European couple. One lands a developer job in Fukuoka on skilled work status, at 5,500,000 yen a year (33,950 EUR). The other follows as a dependent and works 28 hours a week with permission. Here is their trajectory, year by year.

Item	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3 (purchase)
Non recoverable moving costs	1,800,000 yen (11,110 EUR)	0	0
Rent on a two bedroom flat, 95,000 yen a month	1,140,000 yen (7,035 EUR)	1,140,000 yen (7,035 EUR)	570,000 yen (3,520 EUR), 6 months
Purchase of a sound 1985 house, 30 minutes from the centre	0	0	8,000,000 yen (49,380 EUR)
Acquisition costs, 6 percent ceiling	0	0	480,000 yen (2,965 EUR)
Entry works (kitchen, bathroom, partial insulation)	0	0	2,500,000 yen (15,430 EUR)
Annual property tax	0	0	About 70,000 yen (430 EUR)
Cumulative cash out	2,940,000 yen	4,080,000 yen	15,630,000 yen

What the table actually says, comparing the ten years after year 3 on the same basis. Keep renting: 11,400,000 yen (70,370 EUR) in rent, and nothing at the end. Buy: 10,980,000 yen (67,780 EUR) in price, fees and works, plus roughly 700,000 yen (4,320 EUR) of property tax over the period, so 11,680,000 yen (72,100 EUR). The outlay is therefore of the same order, within a few percent, but it changes nature: at the end one owns nothing, the other owns land, the only part that durably holds value in Japan (the building itself depreciates, as we explain in why Japanese houses lose value while land does not). Do not over read it either: the first two years of rent are lost in both scenarios, and buying ties up cash that renting leaves free.

Two honest warnings about this example. First, the renovation line is the most volatile: a pre 1981 house needs a seismic assessment before anything else, and the 1981 seismic standard is the real risk marker. Second, the 6 percent is an observed ceiling, not a promise: it moves with the price and the assessed value.

The mistakes that cost the most

• Buying before arriving, believing it helps the visa. The most expensive and most frequent error: it locks 5 to 15 million yen into a town you have never lived in, and buys not one day of residence rights.
• Counting on a Japanese mortgage without being a salaried resident. A financing plan built on that assumption collapses at the first bank meeting. Plan for cash, or a loan secured on an asset at home.
• Underestimating the move in cost. Four to seven months of rent at once is what drains badly sized budgets, usually at the worst moment, right after the move.
• Booking the flight before the certificate of eligibility arrives. Processing runs one to three months with no service commitment. A non refundable ticket bought too early is money lost.
• Choosing the city before the job or the school. Japanese commutes are measured in line changes, not kilometres. A flat 20 minutes further from the right station costs an hour a day, indefinitely.
• Missing the fourteen day window at the town hall. Without a jūminhyō there is no bank, no health insurance and no phone contract in your name: everything downstream stops.
• Forgetting the tax authority back home. Leaving does not suspend every obligation. Japanese income and any capital gain still have to be declared under the applicable treaty, a subject we cover in tax on Japanese rental income for non residents.
• Treating digital nomad status as a move. Six months, not renewable, no residence card: it is a trial stay, not a starting point.

In short: the order that costs the least

Moving to Japan is neither easy nor impossible: it is sequential. The cheapest order is always the same. Secure the residence status first, aiming at the shortest route for your profile (skilled work, spouse, studies, or highly skilled professional). Set aside 1,300,000 to 2,470,000 yen (8,025 to 15,250 EUR) for the move and the first lease, without counting on a Japanese mortgage. Rent for a full season before choosing a neighbourhood, which costs far less than a bad purchase. Then, and only then, buy a sound property in cash, in a town you actually know, with acquisition costs held under 6 percent.

Two habits serve the whole journey: check every residence rule directly with the Japanese immigration authority and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because the law moves fast (the October 2025 tightening of keiei kanri proves it), and never let a seller or an agency tie a purchase to a promise of a visa. If you are starting from a specific country, our detailed guides already exist for moving to Japan from the US and for moving to Japan from the UK. And if you want the property side handled from the search through to the keys, our Search and Transaction service covers exactly that scope.

Frequently asked questions

How much money do you need to move to Japan?

Budget 1,300,000 to 2,470,000 yen (8,025 to 15,250 EUR) for one person: flight, optional freight, moving into a rental, furnishing it and three months of reserve. Without sea freight the budget drops to 1,050,000 to 1,870,000 yen (6,480 to 11,545 EUR). Most of it goes into the first lease, not the journey.

Can you move to Japan without a job?

Yes, but through another door: marriage to a Japanese national, dependent status, studies, or a working holiday if you are under 30 and hold a partner nationality. No residence status exists on the basis of wealth or a pension alone.

How long does it take to move to Japan?

Four to ten months from decision to residence card on the work route. The fixed part is processing the certificate of eligibility in Japan, one to three months, on top of the job search, roughly five working days at the consulate, then two to four weeks to find housing.

Does buying a house in Japan give you a visa?

No, under no circumstances. Property ownership appears in no Japanese immigration criterion. A foreigner may buy freehold, even as a non resident, but must separately obtain a residence status tied to work, marriage or study.

How hard is it to move to Japan?

Hard to qualify, straightforward once you do. The difficulty sits entirely at the status stage: you need an employer, a school, a spouse or a real company. After that, the administrative path is well signposted and predictable, provided you file at the town hall within fourteen days of arriving.

Do you need to speak Japanese to move to Japan?

Not for most residence statuses, the business manager status since the October 2025 reform being the exception. Daily life, house hunting and town hall paperwork are far easier at an intermediate level, and some landlords treat it as an implicit condition.

Can a foreigner get a mortgage in Japan?

Only while residing in Japan and earning a Japanese salary. Banks lend against the stability of local employment, not against foreign assets. Permanent residence or a Japanese spouse makes the file considerably easier. A non resident buys in cash.

Is there a retirement visa for Japan?

No. Japan issues no retirement visa, unlike Portugal or Thailand. A foreign retiree has to use an existing status, most often spouse of a Japanese national or dependent of a resident child.