The Diet on July 8 revised immigration laws to unify administrative work related to foreigners under the central government. The revision of the Basic Resident Registration Law will affect all foreigners who remain in Japan more than 3 months. The bills will abolish alien registration cards issued by local municipalities and instead require the central government to issue “zairyu” — new residency cards equipped with integrated circuit chips to foreigners who remain in Japan longer than three months.

For legal residents, the amendments will boost convenience in some areas. Residency periods will be extended from the current three years to five years and they will no longer be required to obtain reentry permits if they return to Japan within a year.

Although it will take some time for this new legislation to take effect, along with the revision of the guideline for visa extension and renewal, there will be a stricter administrative structure in place to oversee all foreigners in Japan.

GaijinPot has summarized these recent revisions and picked up three factors, which will particularly affect those foreigners who plan on residing in Japan for the long term.

Health Insurance

Perhaps the most significant change among the new guidelines for visa extension and renewal is the fact that Immigration Officers will be instructed to require evidence of membership of one of the Public Health Insurance schemes, which for foreign residents means either National Insurance (Kokumin Kenko Hoken) or Employee’s Health and Pension (Shakai Hoken) when processing visa renewal applications.

Put simply, not holding an officially recognized form of health insurance means no visa renewal and private plans are not officially recognized.

Tax Obligations

When it comes to visa renewal, it will have to be demonstrated that all tax payment obligations have been met satisfactorily; this applies to both income tax and residence tax. Principally, this means that individuals who have received punishment for non-payment of taxes and those ascertained to be owing large amounts of monies or to have defaulted on payments for a long period of time will be judged to be failing to meet their tax obligations and will not be considered as being eligible for visa renewal.

Alien Registration Cards

One new condition of the immigration law revision makes notification of a change in address to the government mandatory and imposes a fine of up to 200,000 yen on foreign residents who fail to notify the government of the change within 14 days. Their residency status could be revoked if they fail to report changes within 90 days.

Put simply, the new legislation will mean a hefty fine or possible deportation for anyone failing to carry their registration cards or not ensuring that the information carried on their cards is kept up to date with regards to personal information, including residential address, place of employment or marital status.