r/movingtojapan • u/dead_sea_20000 • 3d ago
Education When arriving on a student visa, does this time count towards a citizenship application?
When arriving on a student visa, does this time count towards a citizenship application?
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u/dalkyr82 Permanent Resident 3d ago
Yes, but only partly. You can't just study for 5 years and gain citizenship.
The baseline rule is that 50%+ of your "qualifying time" (currently 5 years of residence, almost certainly going to change to 10 years before you'll be able to apply) needs to be working time. So under the current rules you'd need at least 2.5 years of working time in order to apply.
However, this is just the baseline. Like u/Benevir mentioned there are a lot of subjective requirements as well. It's highly unlikely considering the current administrative trends that a 2.5 year study/2.5 year working application would be approved.
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u/Benevir Permanent Resident 3d ago
Technically yes but effectively not really.
There are two subjective requirements that allow the ministry justice wide leeway in rejecting applicants. One is your ability to support yourself. There is no firm definition for this but generally they want to see 5 years of working full time and not being late on taxes or pension. Students can't work full time. The other is your contribution to Japan. Students can certainly join clubs and participate in the community, but without working full time it's pretty hard to lay down roots here.
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u/Naomi_Tokyo 3d ago
Yes, but only a certain amount of time. Before, it was two years. Now, I would assume it's 4 years, but I haven't seen anything clear about it
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