a) Allows multiple business activities: A general work visa only allows you to engage in the business listed on the visa, but a Highly Skilled Professional visa allows you to engage in multiple businesses, such as running a business while engaging in academic research at a university.

b) 5-year residence period: Generally, the duration of a work visa ranges from 3 months to 5 years. The Immigration Bureau will determine the duration of each visa based on your residence record, company size and operating conditions, etc. However, Highly Skilled Professional visas are always issued for 5 years and can be extended later.

c) Relaxation of permanent residence permit requirements related to residence: If the spouse is non-Japanese, foreigners must have lived in Japan for 10 years before they can apply for a permanent residence permit, and they must hold a work visa for 5 years. However, under the Highly Skilled Professional visa system, as long as you score 80 points or above, you can apply for a permanent residence permit after maintaining work for one year; with a score of 70 points or above, you can apply for a permanent residence permit after maintaining work for 3 years, so it is regarded as a shortcut to obtain a permanent residence permit.

d) Employment of spouse: Spouses with general work visas do not have employment qualifications and need to apply for a "permit for activities outside the qualifications" to be allowed to work no more than 28 hours a week; or meet the "education", "technology or humanistic knowledge or international business” visa academic qualifications and work experience requirements before you can engage in full-time employment. However, spouses holding Highly Skilled Professional visas can still obtain visas to work full-time even if they do not meet the academic qualifications, work experience and other requirements.

e) Parents are allowed to live together under certain conditions: Highly Skilled Professional visa holders, if their family income exceeds JPY8,000,000, can use the reason of taking care of children under 7 years old, or taking care of the pregnant visa holder/spouse, may apply for parents of one side to live together in Japan.

f) Allowing domestic helpers to live with them under certain conditions: Japan originally only allowed foreigners engaged in "business management" or "law/accounting" to live with overseas domestic helpers. In some cases, holders of Highly Skilled Professional visas can apply for domestic helpers to live in Japan together. 1) If the family income exceeds JPY10,000,000, they can pay the helper a monthly salary of JPY200,000 or more, and the helper has already paid for this before coming to Japan. If the family has been working overseas for more than one year, it can continue to hire and apply to live in Japan; or 2) If the family income exceeds JPY10,000,000, it can support the monthly salary of a helper of JPY200,000 or more, and there are children under 13 years old in the family who need care. You can apply to bring the same overseas domestic helper to live with you in Japan.

g) Priority processing of entry/residence procedures: first-time application, approval time is about 10 days; application for extension of period of stay or change of status of residence, etc., processing time is about 5 days.

In order to attract foreign professional talents to Japan, Japan’s Highly Skilled Professional visa adopts a points system. In addition to age, education, work experience and annual income, the following achievements may have additional points: high-amount investment, graduates from top universities and obtaining multiple master’s degrees. Or a doctoral degree, Japanese language proficiency N1/N2, patented invention, etc.

No. J-Skip is the highest level newly added from April 2023. If it belongs to the "highly academic research field" and "highly specialized/technical field", you must have a master's degree or above, have relevant work experience of 10 years or more, and have an annual income of more than JPY20,000,000 or above; or those who belong to the "high-level operation/management field", have 5 or more years of operation or management experience, and have an annual income of more than JPY40,000,000, are exempt from scoring, and are awarded "Special Highly Skilled Professional (J-Skip)" ” qualification, you can apply for a permanent residence permit after working for one year, and receive 3 additional preferential treatments:

a) Two domestic helpers are allowed to live together: If the family income exceeds JPY30,000,000, two overseas helpers can be hired to live together, and other conditions are exempted, such as taking care of children or being continuously employed overseas for one year or more, etc.

b) Expand the spouse’s job category: In addition to being able to engage in jobs with residence statuses such as “researcher”, “lecturer”, “technology/humanities/international service” and “performing arts”, J-Skip’s spouse can also engage in “professor” ", "Arts", "Religion", "Journalism" and "Skills" categories, and are allowed to work more than 28 hours per week.

c) Priority entry: You can use the priority lane when entering the country at major airports.

In Hong Kong, there are a total of 5 universities designated by the Minister of Justice to receive extra points, namely: The University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The City University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. For other institutions that can receive extra points, please refer to the information of the Immigration Service (Japanese): https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001335478.pdf

Under normal circumstances, foreigners need to live in Japan for 10 years before they can apply for a permanent residence permit, and they must hold a work visa for 5 years. However, under the Highly Skilled Professional visa system, as long as you score 70 points or above, you can apply for a permanent residence permit after maintaining your work for 3 years; if you score 80 points or above, you can apply for a permanent residence permit after maintaining your work for one year; if you obtain a Special Highly Skilled Professional (J-Skip ) qualifications, you can also apply for a permanent residence permit after maintaining your work for one year.

Foreigners who have lived in Japan for 5 consecutive years, including 3 years with a work visa, can submit a "naturalization permit" to the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Justice. Applicants must be at least 18 years old at the time of application, have a legal address, have a stable income, and have good character, including payment of welfare annuities and health insurance, payment records, and no criminal or traffic violation records. In addition, applicants need to have basic Japanese ability and need to give up their original nationality. Since they have given up their original nationality when they formally apply, they are temporarily unable to enter and exit the country before obtaining Japanese nationality. The application time is at least one year. For Japanese naturalization permission, please refer to the website of the Ministry of Justice of Japan (Japanese): https://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/kokuseki.html