The step-by-step plan for Japan

In this step you see the order everything goes in: first a sponsor, only then papers. That shapes your whole planning.

Japan has no separate work permit. You get one residence status, and it depends on what you're coming to do.

The pivot is the Certificate of Eligibility (COE): an approval in advance for your stay. You can't apply for that COE yourself from the Netherlands. A sponsor in Japan does it for you. For work routes, that sponsor is your employer.

That fixes the order:

• First the job.
• Then the COE.
• Only then the visa.

Do you want to move first and look for a job afterwards? Then there's no route for Japan, apart from the trial routes in the next step. The good news: once the sponsor is there, the rest is predictable and surprisingly cheap.

In this step you choose the route that fits you. The options at a glance:

• The gijinkoku work visa, the ordinary work visa, is the standard. You need a job at bachelor's level. There are no points, and for most positions there's no language test.
• The HSP points system (for Highly Skilled Professionals) is a bonus here, not a threshold. With 70 points you get five years' certainty and permanent residence after three years. With 80 points you get that after just one year. So always count your points.
• The Business Manager visa is for entrepreneurs. It was tightened drastically in October 2025: you now need ¥ 30 million capital, plus staff and a language requirement. What older sites say about "¥ 5 million" is no longer correct.
• The working-holiday visa is for trying first. For Dutch citizens there's a quota of 200 a year.
• The digital-nomad visa is a trial route too. It lasts six months, asks for ¥ 10 million annual income and gives no residence card.

Working holiday and digital nomad are both a trial, not emigration.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. The good news: the Japanese government isn't the big cost item. The COE is free, and the fees (the cost of the application) stay under a hundred euros per person. Do note: the visa fees were raised sharply in July 2026. So don't count with older amounts.

The money is in the landing:

• A Japanese rental contract asks four to six months' rent upfront.
• Until your first salary you live off your buffer. That buffer is the item that counts here.

The calculator lines it up for your situation.

In this step you take an honest look at what the language means for you, for your work and for your daily life.

First the work. There's no general language requirement for the work visa, and English-language work really exists. You find it especially in the international IT sector and via the JET Programme for teaching positions. Do note: since April 2026 the immigration service does set a language requirement for customer-contact positions at smaller employers. It's level N2 of the JLPT, the standard test for Japanese as a foreign language.

Then life. At the municipal office, in the hospital, in the rental contract and at your children's school, everything is in Japanese.

So the question for this week isn't "can I get in without Japanese". You can. The question is "do we want a life in which we learn it". Start a course today. Every month's head start counts.

In this step you weigh up together whether Japan suits you. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Japan? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4 sheet.

One thing the recruitment stories skip: the distance is real. It's thirteen hours' flying and seven to eight hours' time difference. In the whole of Japan there's a Dutch community of just over a thousand people. Japan won't become a second Netherlands. That's the attraction, and also the price. You weigh it together.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for the visa, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Japan and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Also discuss your partner's career. On a dependent visa, the visa for family members, your partner may work at most 28 hours a week. That needs a separate permission. If you both want a career, look seriously at a work status of your partner's own or at the HSP route. There the partner does work freely.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. In Japan only marriage counts. For unmarried partners there's no regular route: the dependent visa asks for a marriage certificate. Check at the visa and at your healthcare further on in your plan what else applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

Public elementary and junior high schools in Japan accept foreign children. Tuition and textbooks are free, but lessons are in Japanese.

Who learns the language, and when? What the language means for you is in the step "Be honest about the language". Here you agree who is going to learn Japanese. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

Choose below the date on which you want to be standing in Japan. The plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen. The job hunt is the big unknown here. The rest is surprisingly predictable. A target date is yours: moving it is always allowed.