The short answer
As a native Japanese speaker, I read the Immigration Services Agency of Japan’s Japanese-language pages and the text of the relevant laws directly for this article. The short version: on a student status (留学, ryūgaku), working is not allowed by default. You need a separate permission called 資格外活動許可 (shikakugai katsudō kyoka, “permission to engage in activity other than that permitted by your status of residence”) before you take any paid job, and the usual version of it for students comes with limits.
According to the Agency, the standard permission lets a student work up to 28 hours a week, or up to 8 hours a day during long school holidays. It does not cover work at certain types of establishments, and the Agency says it is valid only while you are enrolled at a school. Applying costs nothing, and the Agency’s standard processing period is two weeks to two months. If you work without permission or beyond the permitted hours, the Agency warns that you can be deported or refused a renewal. It also says that paying for all of your tuition and living costs with part-time work is not permitted, so it is not a substitute for a funding plan.
I checked every official page cited below on September 25, 2026. Immigration rules get revised, and some details depend on your school and your individual permission, so treat this as a map of how the rules fit together, not as legal advice. The Agency’s pages, your school and the immigration office that covers your address have the final word.
What permission you actually need
The Agency describes 留学 as a status in which working is not permitted, but says that once you receive 資格外活動許可 (the Agency’s own gloss is “permission for part-time work”), part-time work is allowed within limits (Agency guidance for prospective language-school students). The legal basis is Article 19 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act: anyone with a status like yours who wants to earn income outside the activity of that status must have permission first (Agency page on Article 19). “First” matters. The permission is not something you can sort out after you have started working.
The Agency describes two kinds of permission for students:
- Blanket permission (包括許可, hōkatsu kyoka). This is the usual one for ordinary part-time jobs. It covers up to 28 hours a week, without naming a specific employer. For a student, the only document the Agency lists is the application form itself.
- Individual permission (個別許可, kobetsu kyoka). This covers activities outside the blanket range, and the Agency lists examples such as an internship for a final-year university student that exceeds 28 hours a week, or self-employed work where working hours can’t be objectively confirmed. Individual permission requires supporting documents describing the activity.
Both use the same application form, and the Agency notes that a student can hold both types. Details are on its page for students: Permission for activity other than that permitted by the 留学 status.
How the application works
From the Agency’s application page:
- Where: the regional immigration office covering your home address.
- What you bring: the application form, your residence card and your passport, plus a document describing the activity where the type of permission requires one. The Agency adds that it may ask for other materials during review.
- Fee: the page says there is no fee (手数料はかかりません). The Act’s fee provision also lists only other kinds of applications, such as status changes and extensions, so this matches the statute. Those other applications do carry fees, and the fee provision is scheduled to be amended from October 1, 2026, so check the Agency’s current fee information before you file one.
- Timing: a standard processing period of two weeks to two months.
- Online: online filing is possible only when you file at the same time as a status change, extension or acquisition application.
There is also a route for new arrivals. The Agency says that a student who has just been granted permission to land, other than one given a three-month stay, can apply for blanket permission right after landing and receive it at the same port of entry.
The permission appears as a sticker in your passport or as a separate permission document, and a summary is printed on the back of your residence card. It is worth checking the back of your card before you start a job, and employers are expected to check as well. The Agency’s Q&A for employers says a student can be hired only if they hold this permission, and that hours and activities are restricted.
The Agency lists seven general conditions for permission, and three stand out for students: the work must not get in the way of your studies, you must actually be carrying out the activity of your status, and your conduct must not be poor.
One practical note from the Agency’s notice for new students: tell your school where you work (Agency notice for newly enrolled students).
How many hours you can actually work
The number appears in the Agency’s pages and in the regulation itself. Article 19, paragraph 5, item 1 of the Enforcement Regulations (出入国管理及び難民認定法施行規則) describes the blanket permission as work of “一週について二十八時間以内” (28 hours or less per week), adding that for a student, during a long vacation period set by the student’s school regulations (学則), the limit is “一日について八時間以内” (8 hours or less per day). The text is on e-Gov. The Agency’s notice for new students says the same thing in plainer words: up to 28 hours a week, and up to 8 hours a day during long breaks such as summer vacation defined in the school’s rules.
A few points are easy to get wrong:
- Long vacations are defined by your school. The rule refers to the long vacation periods set out in your school’s regulations. A gap between classes, or a week with few lessons, is not automatically a long vacation. Check your school’s official calendar or ask the office.
- The vacation rule is stated per day. In the Agency pages and the regulation text I read, the vacation exception is 8 hours a day, and I did not find a separate weekly figure. Some universities state a 40-hour weekly cap for vacation periods, but it is not in the Agency pages or the regulation I read, so it appears to be those schools’ own guidance rather than a legal limit. Ask your school or the immigration office before working more than 28 hours in any week.
- Enrollment matters. The regulation limits the student permission to work done while you are enrolled, and the Agency’s Q&A confirms that after graduating, when you are no longer enrolled anywhere, part-time work is not allowed even if your stay period has not ended (Agency Q&A, Q45).
- How several jobs and a “week” are counted. The Agency pages I read do not spell out how a week is counted, or say how hours at more than one job combine. On the second point, universities and other guides commonly say the limit applies to your total across all jobs, and I found no source saying otherwise, so plan on that basis: two 15-hour jobs add up to 30 hours, over the limit. How a week is counted (calendar week or any seven consecutive days) I could not confirm; my own cautious suggestion, not an Agency statement, is to keep any seven consecutive days under the limit and to ask your school or the immigration office.
What kind of work is off-limits
The regulation excludes work at certain kinds of businesses from the blanket permission. The Agency’s wording covers activity “at a business premises where” a 風俗営業 (fūzoku eigyō), a 店舗型性風俗特殊営業 or a 特定遊興飲食店営業 is operated, and also work for the other sex-related and telephone-introduction businesses it lists. The definitions come from the Entertainment Business Act (風営法, fūeihō), and Article 2 of the text on e-Gov lays them out. In plain terms, and as a summary rather than a legal definition:
- 風俗営業 includes cabarets, 待合 and 料理店-style venues and cafés that provide 接待 (entertaining customers in a way meant to create a convivial atmosphere), cafés and bars operated with very dim lighting (10 lux or less) or with small, hard-to-see booths (5 square meters or less), mahjong parlors and pachinko parlors, and certain amusement shops with machines that could be used for gambling-like play.
- 特定遊興飲食店営業 is a nightclub-style business offering entertainment together with food and alcohol, unless it operates only between 6 a.m. and midnight.
- The sex-related and telephone-introduction businesses the regulation lists are excluded too. The regulation names several categories, including delivery-type and online video-type services.
The rule is written around the establishment, not the job title, so a role that seems harmless, such as washing dishes or cleaning, is not automatically safe if the venue itself falls into one of these categories. An ordinary restaurant is licensed as a different kind of business and is not on this list, but the boundaries are technical, and a workplace can look ordinary from the outside. If you are not sure about a specific workplace, ask your school or the Agency’s Foreign Residents Information Center (0570-013904, listed on the Agency’s student pages) before you accept the job.
A few other limits from the Agency’s pages:
- The activity must not violate laws, in the general conditions for permission.
- Freelance and contract work needs care. The Agency says self-employed or contract work where working hours cannot be objectively confirmed requires individual permission, while delivery-type work with clearly recorded hours can fall under blanket permission. Which case you are in is a question for the Agency, not for the company offering the work.
- Opening a business with a company, employees or an office is a different matter. The Agency says such activity would require a different status (経営・管理, keiei-kanri).
Finding a job as a student
This article does not recommend specific job sites or employers. What I can offer are the kinds of places to look and what to check once you find a listing.
- Your school. Ask the student support or career office whether it has guidance or a notice board for part-time jobs. Because the Agency asks you to tell your school where you work, it is also the natural place to raise questions about hours and workplaces.
- Public employment services. Tokyo Hello Work’s page for foreign nationals lists the Tokyo Foreign Employment Service Center, located inside the Foreign Residents Support Center (FRESC), which handles consultations from international students who want to work (page checked September 25, 2026). Services differ by city, so check what your local Hello Work offers.
- Job listings and shop notices. The checks below matter more than where you find the listing.
Before you accept a job, check:
- That the employer knows you need permission, and will check your residence card. Employers who let foreign nationals do unauthorized work face penalties of their own under Article 73-2 of the Act, which is a good reason for them to check.
- That the hours fit under your limit, including any other job you have. It helps to keep your own record of shifts and pay slips.
- That the workplace is not one of the excluded kinds in the previous section.
- That the working conditions are lawful. The Agency’s extension guidelines say part-time employment conditions must comply with labor laws.
The Japanese you will use also matters, from the interview onward. Many student jobs, especially in shops and restaurants, involve polite customer-service Japanese, and Keigo for Beginners covers what to learn first.
One warning comes from the Agency itself. Its guidance for prospective students says some study-abroad agents claim you can earn 300,000 yen or more a month from part-time work in Japan, cover all your costs and even send money home. The Agency calls such claims false and describes students who borrowed money, then broke the hour limit to repay it, neglected their studies and had to go home. Plan your finances so the job is a supplement, and use How Much Does It Cost to Study Japanese in Japan? for the cost side.
Taxes and insurance apply too. The Agency’s notice for new students says students may owe taxes if certain conditions are met, and that several part-time jobs require a procedure at the tax office. The Agency’s extension guidelines add that large or long-unpaid taxes or insurance premiums can count against you when you renew.
What can go wrong
The Agency’s language on this is direct. Its guidance for prospective students says that working beyond the hours in your permission can lead to deportation or to a renewal being refused, ending your ability to continue studying. Its notice for new students says that if you are in breach of your permission, your stay period may not be renewed. Those are the Agency’s statements about what can happen, and outcomes depend on the case.
The law itself, as published on e-Gov (I read the version in force on September 25, 2026), provides for several consequences:
- Loss of the permission. Article 19, paragraph 3 (第十九条第三項) allows the permission to be revoked if you break its conditions or if continuing it is otherwise judged inappropriate.
- Criminal penalties. Article 73, item 1 provides for up to one year of imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥2 million, or both, for engaging in income-earning activity in breach of Article 19, paragraph 1. Where the unauthorized work is what a person is mainly doing, Article 70, paragraph 1, item 4 provides for up to three years or a fine of up to ¥3 million, or both.
- Deportation. Article 24, item 4 lists people who are clearly mainly engaged in unauthorized income-earning activity among the grounds for deportation.
- Loss of your status. Article 22-4, paragraph 1, item 5 allows revocation of a status where the person is not carrying out the activity of that status and is doing something else instead, unless there is a legitimate reason. The Agency’s Q&A also says a student who does not carry out their studies for three months or more can have their status revoked, unless they have a legitimate reason (Q69).
I am not a lawyer, and I am reading the text, not predicting how the authorities would treat a particular case. Small overruns and long-term unauthorized work are not the same thing, and the law distinguishes between them. What I can say is that the Agency treats the hour limit as a real condition and states plainly that breaking it can end a student’s stay. If something has already gone wrong, speak to your school or a qualified adviser, and do not wait.
Sources checked on September 25, 2026: the Agency pages linked above, plus the Agency’s overview of permission for activity outside status and its guidelines for status changes and extensions. The Enforcement Regulations, the Immigration Control Act and the Entertainment Business Act are cited from e-Gov.
FAQ
Can I start working as soon as I arrive?
Not until you have permission. Some new arrivals can apply right after landing, as described above; otherwise you apply at the immigration office covering your address, and the standard processing period is two weeks to two months. Plan your first weeks without job income.
Can I keep working after I graduate or leave the school?
No. The Agency’s Q&A says the blanket permission for students is valid only while you are enrolled, so when you are not enrolled anywhere, part-time work is not allowed, even if your stay period has not ended.
Do unpaid or one-off jobs need permission?
The Act’s rule is about activities that earn income or remuneration. It excludes a few minor categories, such as fees for one-off lectures that are not done as a business, temporary payments that come with daily life, and others set by ministerial ordinance. Whether a specific arrangement counts is not something I can decide for you, and “unpaid” or “one-off” is not a safe assumption. Ask the immigration office before you start.
Can I work more hours during summer break?
Up to 8 hours a day during a long vacation defined in your school’s regulations, according to the Agency and the regulation. Some universities cite a 40-hour weekly cap, but I could not find one in the Agency’s pages or the regulation. It appears to be those schools’ own guidance, so ask your school or the immigration office.
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