Japan PR after refusal (不許可): the reason and re-applying
2026-10-04
A 不許可 (refusal) ends that permanent-residence application, but you can file a new one. If the reason was about payments, first pay anything still unpaid. Then wait until each late payment has left the period ISA reviews for your route. Begin by finding out exactly which payments were the problem, and decide early whether your new filing will come before or after 31 March 2027, when the rules change.
Start with the notice
Read the notice itself and note three things: its date, which application it refers to, and any reason it gives. ISA's procedure page for permanent residence lists no administrative appeal for this application (不服申立方法：なし). Whether to challenge a decision in court is a question for a lawyer. This guide covers the other path: a new application.
Keep your current status of residence valid in the meantime. ISA's page also reminds applicants of a related rule: if your period of stay ends while a permanent-residence application is pending, you have to file a separate renewal before it expires.
Ask the bureau for the reason
ISA does not publish a procedure for explaining a refusal. Applicants commonly ask the regional immigration bureau that handled the application for an explanation. Bring the notice and your residence card, and write down what you are told:
- which obligation was the problem: 住民税 (resident tax), pension, health insurance or national tax;
- which months or installments were involved;
- whether the problem was a late payment, an unpaid amount or a missing document.
The details matter because a late 住民税 installment and a late pension month stay in the review window for different lengths of time.
Payment-related reasons
ISA's guideline (2026-02-24 revision) is explicit: a tax or premium that has been paid by the time you apply, but was not paid within its original period, is evaluated negatively in principle (原則として消極的に評価されます). The usual payment-related reasons are:
- 住民税 installments you pay yourself (普通徴収), paid late or still unpaid;
- 国民年金 (national pension) premiums paid after the end of the following month (国民年金法 第91条), or not paid at all;
- 国民健康保険 (national health insurance) premiums paid late or not paid at all;
- unpaid national tax, which shows on the 納税証明書（その3）.
Pay anything unpaid first
While anything is still unpaid, there is no clean filing date to aim for. Pay it and keep the receipt. Then give the payment time to show up before you order certificates. Shibuya says it takes about two weeks for a payment to reach the ward's records. The NTA says a certificate showing a national tax paid at a convenience store can be issued about three weeks after payment. For which certificates to order and how, see getting tax certificates by mail.
When each late item leaves the window
ISA reviews a fixed number of years back from your filing date:
| Route | 住民税 | Pension | Health insurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work statuses, 家族滞在, 定住者 | 5 years | 2 years | 2 years |
| Spouse of a Japanese national or permanent resident | 3 years | 2 years | 2 years |
| Highly skilled professional, 70+ points | 3 years | 2 years | 2 years |
| 80+ points, J-Skip, child of a Japanese national or permanent resident | 1 year | 1 year | 1 year |
ISA does not publish a formula for when a late payment stops counting. This is our cautious reading, not an ISA rule. For each late item, take the later of two dates: the deadline (moved to the next business day if it fell on a closed day) and the day you paid. Call that the reference date. Add the length of the window, plus one day. The latest result across all your late items is your earliest clean date.
Example. Mei is on the work route. Her 国民年金 premium for January 2025 was due on Friday 28 February 2025, and she paid it on 10 March 2025. A 国民健康保険 installment printed as due on Monday 31 March 2025 was paid on 7 April 2025. Both fall inside the two-year window for pension and health insurance.
| Late item | Reference date | Leaves the 2-year window on |
|---|---|---|
| Pension, January 2025 | 10 March 2025 | 11 March 2027 |
| Health insurance, March 2025 installment | 7 April 2025 | 8 April 2027 |
Her earliest clean date is 8 April 2027. That is one week after 31 March 2027, so a new application would be assessed under the revised guideline. If the health-insurance installment had been paid on time, her date would have been 11 March 2027, while the current guideline still applies.
The window is not the whole story. For applications filed from 1 April 2027, the revised guideline adds two points. Past failures to pay, such as having been subject to a 滞納処分 (delinquency disposition), are evaluated negatively in principle even if nothing is unpaid when you file. And public dues are reviewed per household. In its public-comment answers, ISA says past non-payment is checked as far as the payment record can be confirmed (「確認可能である範囲内で」), with no uniform look-back period. Pension details are in late pension payments and PR.
Reasons outside payment records
A refusal can also rest on other grounds:
- the length of residence or time spent abroad;
- income or assets;
- conduct, such as fines or traffic offences;
- notifications you owe to immigration;
- missing documents.
Our audit reads only tax, pension and health-insurance records, so it cannot assess any of these. A licensed 行政書士 (administrative scrivener) or a lawyer can prepare a new application and its 理由書 (statement of reasons) for a fee. One registered with the regional bureau can also submit it for you. We do not write 理由書.
Fee and time
The permanent-residence fee is due only if an application is approved: 「許可されるときは２００，０００円が必要です」. It is paid in revenue stamps (収入印紙) at that point, so a refusal does not cost you the fee. If your refused application was received by 30 September 2026, it would have cost the old ¥10,000 on approval. A new application received now pays ¥200,000 if it is approved.
A second refusal costs mostly time. ISA's standard processing period is 4–6 months, and in practice it often takes longer.
The 31 March 2027 line
The filing date decides which guideline applies:
- Filed by 31 March 2027: the current guideline (2026-02-24 revision). A 3-year period of stay counts as the longest.
- Filed from 1 April 2027: the 2026-10-01 revision, with new factors such as household income, pension outlook, Japanese at CEFR B1 (with exceptions), time abroad and school attendance.
From that date, a 3-year stay held on 31 March 2027 counts as the longest only for your first application filed from 1 April 2027, and only if it is decided before that stay expires. A refused application filed before April 2027 does not use up this transition. The details are on our 2027 rules page.
In the free check you can mark that you were refused; the full audit then offers an after-refusal section that compares the reason you were given with your payment record.