Current condition of Permanent Residence Applications in Tokyo

 Tokyo is the most attractive city for foreign citizens who move to Japan for their work, study, and living. There are many universities, institutes, and large markets. And Tokyo also has rich cultural environment based on tradition and history. And it’s the home for Japanese government and you’ll see so many government agency’s headquarters. And you’ll also find that Tokyo also has so many community for foreigners so you feel better compared with living in rural area where there is no foreigner in the area.

 Due to such unique envirnements, Tokyo has largest population of foreign citizens.  721,223 of foreign citizens live in Tokyo and The biggest Immigration Services Burau in this nation by the number of staffs.

 Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau has been processing the largest number of applications for Immigration procedures. But even they has received such number of application, their inspection period was no much different from the standard inspection period set by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.

 But now, the applicants in Tokyo and Kanto has suffered with “too long inspection period” for PR applications. And recent 2 months, the approval rates has declined sharply so the many applicants see the rejection after they were waiting for such long period.

 In this article, I’ll explain why Tokyo has such conditions and what to do for residents in Tokyo to prepare for PR applications.

78% of PR applications are filed in Tokyo

 Here is the monthly statistics released by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan. It’s the data to show the condition of PR applications on 2025/6. According to this statistics, 69,048 of PR applications were filed through the nation until 2025/6. But if you see the section of Tokyo, you’ll find 54,201 of PR applications were filed at Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau. So, 78 % of PR applications are filed at Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau.

 Even they receive so many PR applications, Tokyo Regional Immigration bureau just has single inspection department for PR applications while Osaka and Nagoya also have single inspection department for PR applications.

 Since Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau has the limited capacity to inspect PR applications, The bureau finished inspection for 3,183 of PR applications in 2025/6. Simply ,they need 17 months to finish inspection for 54,201 of PR applications.

 The reason why residents of Tokyo have to wait for result of their PR applications for long time is lack of enough human resources to proceed PR applications within standard inspection period.

Approval rate is 40%

  If you closely see the statiscitcs, you’ll find the section of 既済(meaning the application they finished inspection on ) and this section has 2 subsection named “許可” meaning Approval, “不許可” meaning rejection and “その他” meaning the others.

 If you see the number of Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau, the number of 既済 is 3183 while the number of 許可 is 1,285

And the number of 不許可 is 1,816. So simply, the approval rate in Tokyo is 40%. You also need to note that other Immigration Services Bureaus and District Immigration Office don’t have such lower approval rate. For example, the approval rate at Yokohama is 67%, the approval rate at Nagoya is 66%. The approval rate at Osaka is 66%. Kobe record 67% .

 As an agent who handle PR application Tokyo and Yokohama, the Inspectors is now having strict interpretation of PR requirements and has much strict attitude on the applicants whoHas negative points in terms of inspection standards.

 And you also need to know that the Immigration Inspectors sometimes question your tax/social security handling even you proceed it based on your employer’s guideline or your accountants. They review  handling by their own view, doesn’t rely on tax accountant and your employer. Sometimes, they also check the information they keep and then find applicant’s mishandling which tax authority and social security authority doesn’t find .So, it’s better to check your tax/ social security again before filing your PR application.

Careful consideration is required

 Since it takes such long time for PR applications and the inspectors now implement strict inspections. I recommend people of Tokyo to check their compliance with law including tax and social security carefully, checking your Immigration history, and other information to find the potential problem on your status.

Currently, our office also conducut prioritize reviewing condition carefully rather than proceeding application faster. During the reviewing, we also check the documents which is not mensioned as required documents to find potential problem on the applicants and their families.

Even there is no problem actually, you also need to understand that you need to prove "there is no problem " and make inspectors understand it. You need to present additional documents to prove it to inspectors even through the documents are not required on the list of documents or webpage of the Immigration Service Agency.

Under such conditon, you need to make sure you prepare enought proofs to explain you meet the requirements and conducut self reviewing before filing application.

Daichi Ito

Immigration Consultatn(Gyoseishoshi)