The Atarashift Blog
Insights for working in Japan
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
The Atarashift Blog
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
You can bring your spouse and unmarried children to Japan on a Dependent visa, but not your parents. Your spouse can work only 28 hours a week, with permission.
If you hold a Japanese work visa, your spouse and unmarried children can join you on a Dependent visa (家族滏在). Your parents cannot, unless you are a Highly Skilled Professional and meet extra conditions.
Two details catch people out. Your spouse is not allowed to work by default, and the permission that lets them work caps them at 28 hours a week. And several work statuses do not qualify to sponsor anyone at all.
This guide covers who you can bring, what Immigration actually checks, how your partner can work, and the two routes for applying.
The Dependent status is open to spouses and children of someone holding a qualifying status of residence, and to nobody else. That is the complete list of relatives. Parents do not qualify. Nor do siblings, nor unmarried partners, however long you have been together.
Children must also be your dependants. Adult children who support themselves fall outside it.
Your own status has to be on the qualifying list, and not every work status is:
| Your status of residence | Can bring spouse and children? |
|---|---|
| Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services | Yes |
| Highly Skilled Professional | Yes, plus parents under conditions |
| Business Manager, Legal/Accounting, Medical, Researcher, Instructor | Yes |
| Intra-company Transferee, Nursing Care, Entertainer, Skilled Labor | Yes |
| Professor, Artist, Religious Activities, Journalist | Yes |
| Specified Skilled Worker (ii) | Yes |
| Student, Cultural Activities | Yes |
| Specified Skilled Worker (i) | No |
| Technical Intern Training | No |
Those last two rows matter a great deal. People on Specified Skilled Worker (i) or Technical Intern Training cannot bring family to Japan as dependants at all. Moving up to Specified Skilled Worker (ii) changes that, which is one of the main reasons people pursue it.
If you are unsure which status you hold, our guide to the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa covers the most common one.
There is no published income threshold. This surprises people, because plenty of blogs and agencies quote a figure as though it were a rule. Immigration does not publish one for the Dependent status.
Instead, what Immigration asks for is evidence that you can support the person financially. In practice that means one of:
The tax certificates are the important pair. They show both what you earn and whether you have met your obligations. Unpaid residence tax is a real risk here. It is easy to accrue in your second year, because residence tax is billed a year in arrears. Our guide to income tax and social insurance explains that timing.
With no fixed line, the check weighs your income against how many people you support and where you live. A salary that comfortably supports one dependant in a regional city may be questioned for three dependants in central Tokyo.
Not automatically, and not full time.
The Dependent status covers "daily activities" while you support them, and paid work sits outside that. Work permission is the separate approval that lets a dependant take a job at all (資格外活動許可). Your spouse has to apply for it.
Once granted, the standard blanket permission (包括許可) allows up to 28 hours per week. That is the number to plan around. The cap applies across all jobs combined, not per employer. Work in adult entertainment businesses is excluded regardless of hours.
Three things worth knowing:
It is not automatic. Your spouse has to apply. The application can be made at the airport on arrival with a Certificate of Eligibility, or later at an immigration office. Doing it on arrival saves a trip.
28 hours is a real ceiling. It rules out most full-time roles. Couples who both want to work full time usually need the spouse to obtain their own work status, rather than staying a dependant.
Exceeding it has consequences. Working beyond the cap is a status violation, and it can affect future extensions and permanent residency applications for both of you.
If your spouse does find full-time sponsored work, they can switch from Dependent to a work status. Our guide on transferring a work visa covers the mechanics of changing status.
There are two routes, depending on where your family is now.
A Certificate of Eligibility is a document Immigration issues in advance, confirming your family member qualifies before they apply for a visa abroad (在留資格認定証明書). The route runs like this.
Plan on three to five months end to end. Start before you want them to arrive, not when.
If your spouse or child is in Japan on another status, such as Student, they apply to change status (在留資格変更許可申請) to Dependent. That costs ¥6,000 on paper, or ¥5,500 online, payable only on approval. Processing usually runs two weeks to a month.
At minimum:
Documents not in Japanese usually need a translation. Your home country may not issue a document Japan expects, such as a family register. Ask the immigration office what they will accept before you file.
The Highly Skilled Professional status unlocks two things ordinary work statuses do not.
Your parents can come. Either your parents or your spouse's parents may live in Japan under a Designated Activities status, on these conditions:
You can bring a domestic helper. That needs a household income of ¥10 million or more, plus further conditions.
These are among the more practical reasons to pursue the status if you are close to qualifying. Our guide to the Highly Skilled Professional visa covers the points system.
Note the conditions are narrow. The parent provision is built around childcare and pregnancy, not general eldercare. Parents cannot come simply because they are elderly or you would like them nearby.
Acquisition of status of residence is the application that gives a Japan-born baby a status of its own (在留資格の取得). A child born in Japan to foreign parents can stay 60 days without one. If they will remain beyond that, you must apply for acquisition of status of residence (在留資格の取得) within 30 days of birth.
The application is free. Miss the 30-day window and you are in a much more difficult position, so put it on the calendar alongside the birth registration.
If the baby will leave Japan within 60 days, no application is needed.
Your dependants' status is tied to yours, so a job change affects them indirectly rather than directly.
If you hold Engineer/Specialist in Humanities and move to a similar role, you do not need a new status before starting. You must notify Immigration of the change of contracting organisation within 14 days. That notification is free and involves no examination.
Your family's Dependent status continues through this. Their residence cards do not change, and they do not file anything of their own.
Two cautions. Highly Skilled Professional and Specified Skilled Worker holders do need an approved change of status before starting new work, because their permission names the employer. And if you stop the activity your status covers for three months without good reason, your status becomes revocable. That puts your dependants at risk too.
If you are between jobs, the safest move is to keep Immigration informed and not let the gap drift.
Dependants are not covered by your employer's benefits automatically. Family allowances vary widely between companies, and many do not cover dependants living outside Japan. Our breakdown of Japanese salary allowances covers what to check.
Housing gets harder, not easier, with family. Larger apartments mean higher upfront costs, and guarantor screening looks at whether your income supports the household. See our guide to renting an apartment in Japan as a foreigner.
Your dependants' stay is tied to yours. If you lose your status, theirs does not survive independently. That is worth understanding before a job change.
Time on a Dependent visa counts differently for permanent residency. What usually matters is continuous residence. The separate rule about holding a work status applies to the main applicant. Our guide to permanent residency requirements sets out the tests.
No. The Dependent status covers spouses and children only. Parents can come only if you hold Highly Skilled Professional status and household income is ¥8 million or more. There must also be a child under 7, or a pregnant spouse, needing care.
Immigration publishes no minimum. It assesses your tax certificate and tax payment certificate against the number of dependants you are supporting. Figures quoted online as fixed thresholds are not official rules.
Only with permission to engage in an activity other than that permitted, and only up to 28 hours a week across all jobs. Adult entertainment work is excluded. Without that permission, any paid work is a status violation.
Not on a Dependent visa, which requires a legal marriage. Some people in this position use a Designated Activities status, but it is discretionary and not guaranteed.
Applying from abroad through a Certificate of Eligibility usually takes one to three months for the certificate, plus a few days for the visa. Changing status inside Japan usually takes two weeks to a month.
It can count toward continuous residence, but permanent residency has its own tests covering conduct, independent livelihood and national interest. Dependants are usually assessed alongside the main applicant.
Eligibility, qualifying sponsor statuses and required documents are from the Immigration Services Agency's page on the Dependent status of residence (在留資格「家族滏在」).
The 28-hour limit, and the split between blanket and individual permission, come from Immigration Services Agency guidance on work permission for Dependent status holders (「家族滏在」の在留資格に係る資格外活動許可について).
Conditions for parents of a Highly Skilled Professional are from the Immigration Services Agency's page on Designated Activities for those parents. That page carries the ¥8 million figure, the age-7 threshold and the one-set-of-parents rule.
The 60-day and 30-day rules for children born in Japan come from the Immigration Services Agency's page on acquisition of status of residence (入管法第22条の2). The same page confirms there is no fee.
Change-of-status fees of ¥6,000 on paper and ¥5,500 online reflect the rates effective 1 April 2025. Processing times are typical ranges, not guarantees, and vary by immigration office and season.
This article is general information, not immigration advice. For a complex case, consult a certified administrative scrivener (行政書士) or immigration lawyer. Data retrieved 11 September 2026.
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