Japan's Digital Nomad Visa: 6 Months, No Residence Card

Nadia Dardón

Immigration Content Writer

Last update 27 August, 2026

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Overall 3.4

Internet Infrastructure 5.0

Country Stability 5.0

Cost of Living 3.0

Ease of Obtaining Visa 2.0

Taxes 2.0

Quick Visa Facts

Visa length 6 months, non-renewable

Possible to extend? No. Six months is the maximum, and you must spend six consecutive months outside Japan before reapplying.

Who can apply? Nationals of the 51 countries and regions that hold both a visa waiver and a tax treaty with Japan, earning at least JPY 10 million a year from clients or employers outside Japan.

Minimum Income Requirements JPY 10,000,000 per year (about USD 67,000-70,000) in active income. Savings do not count.

Time for visa applications Varies by consulate. No Certificate of Eligibility is required, which removes the slowest step.

Want to know if you can apply?

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Japan finally has a digital nomad visa. It launched on 31 March 2024, it's real, and you can apply for it today.

It's also more restrictive than almost anything else on the market, and the restriction that catches people out isn't the income bar. It's that you don't get a residence card. More on that below, because it changes what your six months in Japan actually look like.

Here's the whole thing, current as of August 2026.

Who can apply, and why your passport probably decides it

This is the first gate and it's absolute. Your country has to tick two boxes at once:

It has a visa waiver arrangement with Japan for short stays
It has a tax treaty with Japan

Both. Not either. That combination is why the list is shorter than you'd expect, and it's why plenty of countries with strong ties to Japan still don't qualify.

As of August 2026 the official list runs to 51 countries and regions. I counted them off the Immigration Services Agency's own PDF rather than trusting a summary. The list has grown since launch, so a figure you read elsewhere may simply be old.

A lot of articles still say 49. Don't take anyone's word for it, including ours. The Immigration Services Agency publishes the official list as a PDF and that's the only version that counts.

Worth clearing up one thing our own page used to get wrong: this has nothing to do with being non-EU. EU nationals are eligible. The test is the treaty pair, not the passport's region.

The money: ¥10 million a year, and it has to be income

You need to show an annual income of at least 10 million yen. That's roughly $67,000 to $70,000 depending on the rate.

The word that matters is income. Savings don't count. A big bank balance doesn't get you there. Japan wants to see continuous earnings from work you're doing for companies or clients outside Japan, evidenced with tax returns, contracts or bank statements showing regular payments in.

That bar is high by nomad-visa standards. Spain asks around €2,849 a month. Japan is asking for roughly double that, and it won't let you average it out with a lump sum.

What actually counts as work here

The visa permits remote work for employers or clients outside Japan. That's the whole scope, and Japan is strict about the edges of it.

What you cannot do, in any form:

Work for a Japanese company, employed or contracted
Take on Japanese clients, even one small freelance project
Pick up part-time work locally

There's no grey area written into it. A single invoice to a Japanese client is outside the permitted activity, and unauthorised activity is grounds for having your status revoked.

The Immigration Services Agency publishes a Q&A on exactly which activities are permitted. If your setup is unusual, read that rather than guessing.

Six months, then you leave

The visa grants six months. It cannot be extended or renewed. There's no path from it into a longer status.

And when it ends, you can't just hop out and come back. You have to spend six consecutive months outside Japan before you're allowed to apply again.

So the realistic pattern is six months in Japan, six months elsewhere, repeat. If you were picturing this as a way to settle in Tokyo, it isn't one. It's a long visit with legal permission to work.

Tax, and the 183-day trap

This is where the six-month limit gets interesting, and where a lot of people will get caught.

Stay 183 days or fewer and you're generally a non-resident for Japanese tax purposes, so Japan doesn't tax your foreign-sourced income. Cross that line and income from the whole stay can become taxable, at a non-resident rate of 20.42% on employment income.

Now look at what "six months" actually means in days:

Arrive 15 January, leave 15 July: 181 days
Arrive 1 April, leave 1 October: 183 days, exactly on the line
Arrive 1 July, leave 1 January: 184 days, over it

Same visa, same length, different tax exposure, decided entirely by which month you land in. Nobody tells you this at the consulate.

Two things to hold onto. Count days across the calendar year, not the visa period, and a stay that straddles New Year splits across two years. And the exact test depends on your country's tax treaty with Japan, since some are written against any consecutive 12-month period rather than the tax year.

Japan has treaties with over 60 countries to stop the same income being taxed twice. Which one applies to you decides the detail, so this is worth twenty minutes with an accountant before you book flights, not after.

The part nobody mentions: no residence card

Digital nomad visa holders aren't classed as mid-to-long-term residents. So you don't get a zairyu card, Japan's residence card.

That sounds administrative. It isn't. The residence card is the key to ordinary life in Japan, and without one you can't do most of it:

No Japanese bank account. The major banks all require a residence card. You'll be running everything through Wise, Revolut or similar.
No long-term phone contract. Prepaid and eSIM only.
No standard apartment lease. You're looking at monthly furnished places, serviced apartments or long-stay rentals, which cost noticeably more.
No national health insurance. You're excluded from the public system, which is why private cover is mandatory.
No residence registration, so no municipal services, no My Number card, no pension enrolment.

The bank account one bites hardest. Practically, people run everything through multi-currency accounts like Wise or Revolut, pay by card, and keep some cash on hand because plenty of smaller places in Japan still don't take cards. It works, but it means you're a visitor financially for the whole stay.

None of that is a dealbreaker for six months. But it's the difference between visiting Japan with a work permit and actually living there, and it's the single most useful thing to know before you start the paperwork.

What you actually need to submit

The good news is the process is unusually light. There's no Certificate of Eligibility, which is the slow, sponsor-dependent step that makes most Japanese visas painful. You apply directly at a Japanese embassy or consulate.

A completed application form with a photo
Proof of income of ¥10 million or more, via tax returns, contracts or bank statements
Evidence you work remotely for companies or clients based outside Japan
Private health insurance covering death, injury and illness for your entire stay. Japan asks for coverage of ¥10 million and you'll need the certificate, not just a policy number.

Legally the status is Designated Activities (Notice No. 53). If a consulate form or an official page doesn't say "digital nomad" anywhere, that's why. Look for the notice number.

Can your family come?

Yes. Spouses and children can accompany you under a partner status, Designated Activities (Notice No. 54).

Here's a wrinkle worth knowing, because almost nobody covers it. The spouse and child list is longer than the nomad list. You need a country with both a visa waiver and a tax treaty, which is the 51. Your family only needs the visa waiver, and that list runs to 73 countries and regions.

So a partner from Argentina, Costa Rica, Malta, Monaco or Panama can join you even though none of those passports would qualify them for the nomad visa in their own right. If you're a mixed-nationality couple, check both columns of the ISA chart, not just the first one.

They need their own private medical insurance covering the stay. Their permission is tied to yours, so it starts and ends when yours does.

Why not just go as a tourist?

Fair question, and it is the one most people quietly ask. Japan gives many nationalities 90 days visa-free. Why bother with income proof and insurance certificates for six?

Because working on a tourist entry is not really a grey area in Japan. It is just a bad idea.

Short-term stay status covers tourism, business meetings and visits that do not involve remunerative activity. Japan has never blessed remote work on it. The US Embassy in Japan warns plainly that people found working illegally are subject to arrest and deportation, and that travellers believed to be intending to work without the right status can be refused entry at the border.

In practice nobody is worried about you answering a few emails on holiday. Running your job out of a Tokyo apartment for three months is a different thing, and there is no provision that makes it lawful.

That gap is exactly why this visa exists. Japan kept tourism and work strictly separate for decades, then in March 2024 built the one status that explicitly permits remote work. If you are opening your laptop for real, it is the only clean answer.

So is it worth it?

If you earn over ¥10 million, hold one of the 51 eligible passports, and want half a year in Japan working legally rather than pretending to be a tourist, yes. Nothing else gets you that.

If you're hoping to build a life in Japan, no. This visa is explicitly designed not to do that. There's no renewal, no residence card and no bridge to a longer status, and Japan structured it that way on purpose.

The honest framing is that this is a trial run. Six months to find out whether you actually want the version of Japan that comes with a residence card, a lease and a tax return, before you go after it properly.

And if you don't clear the income bar, look elsewhere in the region first. Malaysia's DE Rantau programme and Indonesia's Bali route both ask for far less, and Sri Lanka's visa opened in 2026 at around $2,000 a month.

Our full list of digital nomad visa countries has the rest of Asia side by side.

Does Japan have a digital nomad visa?

Yes. It launched on 31 March 2024 under Designated Activities (Notice No. 53). It allows a six-month stay for remote workers earning at least 10 million yen a year from clients or employers outside Japan.

How many countries are eligible?

51 countries and regions as of July 2026, up from 49 at launch. A country qualifies only if it has both a visa waiver arrangement and a tax treaty with Japan. The Immigration Services Agency publishes the official list.

Can I extend the Japan digital nomad visa?

No. Six months is the maximum and there are no extensions or renewals. You also have to spend six consecutive months outside Japan before you can apply again.

Do I get a residence card?

No. Digital nomad visa holders aren't classed as mid-to-long-term residents, so no zairyu card is issued. That means no Japanese bank account, no long-term phone contract, no standard apartment lease and no national health insurance.

What's the income requirement?

10 million yen a year, roughly $67,000 to $70,000. It must be active income from work, evidenced by tax returns, contracts or bank statements. Savings don't count toward it.

Can my spouse and children come with me?

Yes, under Designated Activities (Notice No. 54). They each need private medical insurance covering the stay, and their permission runs for the same period as yours.

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