Increased fees coming to visas and PR

I'm used to the usual paperwork cycle of dealing with the immigration office now...gathering documents, booking an appointment, paying a few thousand yen, and hoping everything goes smoothly. Starting as early as next fiscal year, though, that routine may change in a big way. The government is preparing to raise residence-related fees to levels closer to Europe and the US, and the increases are dramatic enough that many of us will feel the impact.

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Right now, renewing or changing a status of residence costs 6,000 yen, and applying for permanent residence costs 10,000 yen. Under the plan being discussed, those fees could jump to around 30,000–40,000 yen for renewals and over 100,000 yen for permanent residency. It would be the first legal revision of the fee structure since 1981, and it's apparently happening because the current upper limits in the law are too low to support the immigration system as it is.

The foreign resident population is at a record high of nearly 4 million people, and the government says the additional revenue will be used to improve processing times, expand language education, and strengthen measures for dealing with overstays. As someone who has spent plenty of hours waiting at immigration offices here (Tachikawa, I'm looking at you), improving processing times would be nice. Still, paying five times more for the same renewal is going to sting. 

Visa fees for visitors are also set to rise for the first time since the 1970s, which could affect friends or family planning trips.

In short, life here is becoming more expensive in many ways, and this is just another cost to factor in to long-term life in Japan plans.