What is a Residence Card?

• A “residence card” is an ID for foreign residents who stay in Japan for over three months.
• A “residence card” includes your name, nationality, and address.
• A “residence card” shows your status of residence, working restrictions, period of stay, and so on.

Status of residence

Activities permitted during your stay.
※You cannot engage in an activity other than those permitted by your status of residence.

Period of stay

The last day you can be in Japan (“date of expiration”)
※You cannot stay in Japan after your period of stay expires.

Rules of Residence Card

• A person who is over 16 years old needs to carry his/ her residence card at all times.
• If you are asked to show your residence card by the police or Immigration Services Agency, you have to show it.
• You cannot rent or give your residence card to others. Borrowing someone’s residence card is also not permitted.
• Do not change what is written on your residence card or make a new residence card without permission.

Receiving Residence Card

• If you arrive at Narita Airport, Haneda Airport, Chubu Airport, Kansai Airport, New Chitose Airport, Hiroshima Airport, and Fukuoka Airport, you will receive your residence card at the airport. After that, please submit a “moving-in notification” to the municipal office where you live within 14 days.
• If you arrive at an airport that is not listed hereabove, please submit a “moving-in notification” to the municipal office where you live within 14 days after your arrival in Japan. After that, your residence card will be delivered to your home by mail.

If you lost your residence card

①Please first go to the police box or police station and file a loss report. After that, you will receive a paper with the reception number.

②You need to submit documents to the Immigration Services Agency within 14 days of the day when the loss is known, and receive a new residence card.

What you need to bring to the Immigration Services Agency

• Passport
• A photograph (4 cm long x 3 cm wide, taken within the last three months)
  ※ you do not need to submit a photograph if you are under 16.
• The paper with the reception number you received when you filed the loss report at the police box or police station

The location of the Immigration Services Bureau

Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau

Japanese

Mito Immigration Office (Tokyo Immigration Bureau)

Japanese

Modification of information on a residence card

When you want to change what is written on your residence card (the status of residence, period of stay, name, nationality, address), you need to visit the “Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau” or the “Mito Immigration Office (Tokyo Immigration Bureau)” and submit documents.
For more details, please check ”Guidebook on Living and Working”. You can find further explanations in various languages.

Immigration Services Agency Guidebook on Living and Working (multilingual)

When you need a consultation regarding your residence card

Immigration Information Centers (Japanese)

Telephone inquiries

• Time
  Weekdays (From 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.)
• Languages
  Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Nepali, Indonesian, Thai, Khmer (Cambodian1), Myanmar, Mongolian, French, Sinhala, and Urdu.

E-mail inquiries

• Please send an email in Japanese or English. They will not respond to emails sent in other foreign languages.
• Some inquiries may not receive a response depending on the nature of the inquiry. Please check the website of the Immigration Information Centers before you send an email.