## Section 3 ☐ Outline of the Revisions

Based on the report of the Immigration Policy Discussion Panel and the “Japan Revitalization Strategy”, a Ministry of Justice public notice was amended on December 17, 2013 for the purpose of revising the recognition criteria and preferential treatment measures for highly-skilled foreign professionals (enforced on December 24, 2013).

Specifically, the recognition criteria were revised as follows: (1) abolishment of the minimum annual income for advanced academic research activities, and lowering of the minimum annual income to 3 million yen for advanced specialized/technical activities and advanced business management activities; (2) inclusion of remuneration other than that received from the organization of affiliation in Japan in the calculation of the annual income; (3) increase in the number of points for the item of research achievements in the category of advanced academic research activities (for one research achievement: 15 points → 20 points and for two or more research achievements: 15 points → 25 points); (4) increase in the number of points for the item of Japanese language proficiency (10 points → 15 points); (5) increase in the number of points for the item of acquisition of a degree from a Japanese institute of higher learning (5 points → 10 points); (6) additional points for certain specialist degrees, foreign qualifications or awards, etc.; (7) additional points enabling small and medium-sized business enterprises to utilize the system; and (8) eligibility of foreign nationals intending to reside in Japan for less than one year under the points-based system.

The system of preferential treatment was revised as follows: (1) lowering of the annual income requirement to enable the highly-skilled foreign national's parents to accompany him or her (10 million yen → 8 million yen); (2) highly-skilled foreign national's parents permitted to accompany the highly-skilled foreign professional in cases of pregnancy; (3) revision of the age requirement for children in order to permit the highly-skilled foreign professional's parents to accompany him or her (under three years of age → under seven years of age); (4) abolishment of the requirement of biological children in order to permit the highly-skilled foreign professional's parents to accompany the highly-skilled foreign professional for the purpose of helping with raising an adopted child; (5) abolishment of the requirement of biological parents in order to permit the highly-skilled foreign professional's adoptive parents to accompany him or her; (6) lowering of the annual income requirement in order to permit domestic staff to accompany the highly-skilled foreign professional (15 million yen → 10 million yen); and (7) inclusion of the annual income of the spouse and annual income from an organization other than the organization of affiliation in Japan in the annual income requirement to enable the parents or domestic staff to accompany the highly-skilled foreign professional.

## Section 4 ☐ Publicity Measures

It is important to proactively conduct publicity measures and to promote the use of the points-based system for highly-skilled foreign professionals in order to have as many highly-skilled foreign professionals utilize the system as possible. Therefore, the Immigration Bureau has been conducting the following kinds of publicity measures.

(1) A special “Points-Based System for Highly-Skilled Foreign Professionals” page was created for the Immigration Bureau’s website on which easily-comprehensible explanations on the system can be found in Japanese and English. In addition, with the cooperation of the related organizations, information has also been sent out in the e-magazines of related organizations.

(2) A leaflet showing at a glance how the points are calculated was prepared and distributed to the foreign embassies in Japan and the Japanese embassies abroad.