The Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) Visa

Japan’s Specified Skilled Worker policy covers 19 fields after the January 23, 2026 Cabinet decision. The official SSW overview lists the existing 16 plus linen supply, logistics warehousing and resource recycling. Being listed in the policy does not by itself mean that applications are currently accepted: the operating-policy notice says that newly added fields and work categories require implementing measures before acceptance can begin.

This guide explains which sectors qualify, the all-important split between Type 1 and Type 2, the skills and language tests that gate entry, how the status handles family and long-term settlement, and how it connects to the Technical Intern system that is being replaced from 2027.

The policy fields and implementation

The lists and examples below describe the 16-field scope introduced in 2024. They are not a complete current eligibility list. Check the official field policy, permitted work, tests, Type 2 availability and application notices for your actual job.

• Caregiving (介護)
• Building cleaning
• Industrial product manufacturing (a merger of the former materials, industrial-machinery, and electrical-electronics fields)
• Construction
• Shipbuilding and ship machinery
• Automobile repair and maintenance
• Aviation
• Accommodation
• Agriculture
• Fishery
• Food and beverage manufacturing
• Food service (restaurants)
• Automobile transportation — added in 2024
• Railways — added in 2024
• Forestry — added in 2024
• Timber industry — added in 2024

The current framework comes from the January 23, 2026 integrated field policies, replacing the older separate policies. Check the latest field policy for its acceptance ceiling and implementation conditions. Work examples below help identify a field; confirm the current work category and principal duties for the actual job in the official operating materials.

Type 1 vs Type 2

There are two tiers, and the difference shapes your whole future in Japan.

Type 1 (特定技能1号) is where almost everyone begins. It is deliberately time-limited: the total stay is capped at five years, and you cannot normally bring family. It is designed as a working stint, not a settlement track.

Type 2 is available in 11 fields according to the official SSW overview.

Passing the tests

To qualify for Type 1 you generally need to pass two things: a skills test for your specific sector and a Japanese-language test showing you can function at work and in daily life. The skills test is set by the ministry that supervises your field; the language test is usually the JFT-Basic or an equivalent JLPT level.

There is an important shortcut. People who have completed the relevant Technical Intern Training in a matching field can often transition into SSW Type 1 without retaking the skills and language tests — the intern experience is treated as evidence of the same skill. This is the main pipeline into SSW today, and it is exactly the pipeline the Ikusei Shūrō system will reshape from 2027.

For applicants coming from overseas rather than from an internship, the tests are the gate, and they are held both inside Japan and in a growing number of sending countries. The skills test proves you can actually do the sector's core tasks; the language test proves you can take instructions, follow safety rules, and manage daily life. Passing both, plus a job offer from an employer in a qualifying field, is the standard cold-start route into Type 1.

SSW, Technical Intern, and Ikusei Shūrō

It is easy to confuse the three programmes, because workers move between them. Technical Intern Training was officially a skills-transfer programme rather than a labour scheme, and it fed workers into SSW once they finished. From April 2027 it is replaced by Ikusei Shūrō (育成就労), a new system explicitly designed to train workers toward Specified Skilled Worker status rather than pretend to be something else. In other words, the on-ramp is changing name and design, but the destination — SSW — stays the same, which is why understanding SSW itself matters more than ever.

The practical takeaway: if you are early in this journey, aim your skills and language study at the SSW tests directly, because they are the common gate no matter which on-ramp you arrive through.

Family, settlement, and permanent residency

Because Type 1 blocks family and caps the stay at five years, it is not by itself a path to settling in Japan. Type 2 is. Only Type 2 lets your family join you, and only Type 2 has the open-ended stay that a long-term life needs.

There is a further nuance if permanent residency is your goal. Permanent residency asks for around ten years of residence, of which at least five must be on a work status — but time on Specified Skilled Worker Type 1 does not count toward that five-year working portion. Type 2 years, by contrast, are ordinary working-status years. In practice this means the realistic route from SSW to permanent residency runs through Type 2, not Type 1 — another reason to treat Type 2 as the target rather than a bonus.

The employer's support obligation

SSW carries a duty that other work statuses do not put on the employer in the same way. A company hiring a Type 1 worker must provide a defined package of registered support: a pre-arrival orientation, help opening a bank account and finding housing, interpreting and language assistance, guidance on public procedures, and a route for consultations and complaints. Employers that cannot run this in-house must contract a registered support organisation (登録支援機関) to do it.

For the worker, this is a genuine protection rather than paperwork. It means Type 1 comes with a legal expectation that someone is responsible for helping you settle in — a meaningful difference from arriving cold on a general work visa. When you compare job offers, it is worth asking who provides the support and how, because the quality of that support shapes your first year more than almost anything else.

From application to arrival

The mechanics otherwise resemble other work statuses. You line up an employer in a qualifying sector, pass (or waive, via Technical Intern experience) the skills and language tests, and your employer supports the application — a Certificate of Eligibility if you are overseas, or a change of status if you are already in Japan. Once on Type 1, your period of stay is granted in shorter blocks that you renew, up to the five-year total cap; each renewal is a fresh check that you are still employed in the sector and still meeting the conditions. The Certificate of Eligibility is free to file, while a change of status or an extension inside Japan costs 6,000 yen in person or 5,500 yen online since the April 2025 fee revision. The strategic goal throughout those five years is to build the skill and record that let you test into Type 2 before the cap runs out.

Where SSW fits among Japan's work statuses

Specified Skilled Worker is the right answer when the job is skilled frontline work in a shortage sector. If your role is office, technical, or professional, the Engineer / Specialist in Humanities / International Services work visa is the correct status instead, and high earners or advanced-degree holders should look at the Highly Skilled Professional route for its faster settlement benefits. Within SSW itself, the whole game is moving from Type 1 to Type 2: that step is what unlocks family, an unlimited stay, and a credible path to permanent residency.

This is general information only and not legal advice.