Japan's nomad visa is still six months, no extension
The Japan Times ran a feature on people living in Japan on the digital nomad visa — the '180-day locals'. The ministry page that defines that visa has not moved: six months, no extension, and a fixed yen income bar. You can apply today.
What MOFA still publishes
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps one English page for this status: Specified visa: Designated activities (Digital Nomad, Spouse or Child of Digital Nomad). The page is dated 31 March 2024. Checked on 30 September 2026, the rules on it had not moved.
Three lines do the work:
- Period of stay: 6 months (No extension will be granted).
- Who it is for: people who want to work remotely in Japan for a period not exceeding six months, and a spouse or child accompanying them on the same clock.
- Eligible nationalities: not listed on the MOFA page itself. It points at an Immigration Services Agency PDF: moj.go.jp/isa/content/001416932.pdf.
This is not an announcement of a visa to come. Missions already issue it. The gap the Japan Times piece is writing about is what six months feels like on the ground, not whether the category exists.
The income bar, as the page gives it
MOFA asks for documents proving annual income of JPY 10 million or more. It names tax payment certificates, income certificates, employment contracts, and contracts with a business partner that state the period and the amount. It gives no figure in any other currency, so neither do we here. The Japan page converts the yen threshold into yours.
Insurance is a second numbered bar, not a soft ask: cover against death, injury or illness during the stay, with medical compensation of JPY 10 million or more. A spouse or child needs the same cover (or proof that the principal’s policy already includes them), plus proof of the family relationship and a copy of the digital nomad holder’s passport.
A Certificate of Eligibility from a regional immigration bureau lets you omit several of those documents at the embassy. MOFA is explicit that a COE does not guarantee a visa.
What “180 days” actually means
The Japan Times headline calls holders 180-day locals. That is the calendar length of the stay MOFA already prints: six months, and no extension. The page does not describe a path from this status into a longer residence category, and it does not name a renewal. When the six months end, this visa ends with them.
Tourism and lifestyle writing will keep returning to Japan because the yen is weak and the cities are workable. None of that changes the row. If MOFA shortens the income bar, lengthens the stay, or opens an extension, the country page will move when the ministry page does — not when a feature about life on the visa recirculates.
Everything above is taken from the MOFA Specified visa page and the ISA nationality PDF it links. If a mission is applying different figures, tell us.
The row behind this
Every figure this post relies on lives on a country page with its source and its confidence grade beside it. That is where it gets corrected, and where it stays current after the post stops being news.
- Japan — Digital Nomad Visa (Designated Activities)
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