Japan enacted a bill on Friday to raise visa-related fees for foreign nationals by up to 30 times the current levels. The increase will enable the government to use the additional revenue to help cover the administrative costs of managing the country’s growing foreign population.

The bill, which cleared the Lower House in April, was approved by a majority in the Upper House with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Japan Innovation Party (also known as Nippon Ishin no Kai), as well as the opposition Komeito and the Democratic Party for the People. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan opposed the legislation, arguing that the steep fee hikes could place an undue burden on asylum seekers and other vulnerable foreign residents.

Until now, the statutory upper limit for fees to change residency statuses or extend a period of stay was ¥10,000 ($63), while the cap for permanent residency applications was also set at ¥10,000. Under the revision, those ceilings will be raised to ¥100,000 and ¥300,000, respectively.

Under the revised framework, actual fees will be set by Cabinet orders within the new statutory limits. The government has proposed raising fees for residency status changes and stay extensions from the current range of ¥5,500 to ¥6,000 to between ¥10,000 and ¥70,000, while fees for permanent residency applications would increase from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000. The government is aiming to implement the changes sometime before the end of the next fiscal year on March 31, 2027.

Ryoji Tanishima, an immigration lawyer and CEO of Tanishima Legal, said that Friday’s revision has two main consequences — companies employing large numbers of foreign workers will pay a higher price, and individuals looking to obtain permanent residency for themselves and their family members are likely to delay their applications or even abandon such plans.

The government plans to use the additional revenue for processing Japan’s growing foreign resident population — which reached a record 4.13 million as of the end of 2025 — as well as expanding Japanese-language programs and strengthening measures against illegal overstayers. There were about 68,500 known overstayers in January.

The bill also includes plans to introduce an electronic travel authorization system called JESTA, Japan’s version of the U.S. ESTA system, by March 2029. The government has said the system is intended to help prevent “undesirable foreigners,” such as terrorists and those who have been deported in the past, from entering the country. Under the system, travelers from countries exempt from Japan’s short-term visa requirements would be screened in advance and could be denied entry if deemed problematic by authorities.

The Immigration Services Agency has said JESTA would help crack down on overstayers while easing congestion at airports and ports.

During a vote in the Upper House Judicial Affairs Committee on Thursday, an accompanying resolution was adopted calling on the government to ensure that the actual fees set do not place an excessive burden on foreign residents. The resolution also urged the government to exercise the utmost caution in operating JESTA so that it does not unjustly hinder the entry of refugees and others.

The government has justified the fee hikes by arguing that Japan must align visa- and residency-related charges more closely with those of Western countries in order to build a more robust immigration system. Visa renewal fees, for example, are about $420 to $470 in the United States and €93 ($107) to €98 in Germany.

Chinese nationals — by far the largest group of foreign residents in Japan — will be among those most affected at a time of strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo.

Inbound tourists will also be paying more, with the government planning to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee to ¥15,000, in line with Western standards in the current fiscal year. In other countries, short-term stay visas cost $185 in the U.S. and £127 ($166) in the U.K.

The additional revenue will be used for measures to combat overtourism.