### Chapter 3. Acceptance of Foreign Nationals and Immigration Control Administration

## Section 1 ☐ Promotion of the Acceptance of Highly-Skilled Foreign Nationals

## 1 Outline of Points-Based Preferential Treatment for Highly-Skilled Professionals

Japan introduced preferential immigration treatment based on a points' system for highly-skilled professionals (hereinafter referred to as "points-based system for highly-skilled professionals") in May 2012, and has since been promoting the acceptance of highly-skilled foreign nationals. The points-based system for highly-skilled professionals is aimed at foreign nationals who have advanced capabilities and qualities that are expected to contribute to Japan's economic growth, and divides the contents of the activities of the highly-skilled professionals into the three categories of "advanced academic research activities", "advanced specialized/technical activities" and "advanced business management activities", and according to the characteristic features of each category, points are awarded for each item, such as "academic background", "professional career" and "annual salary", and if the total number reaches 70 points, such a foreign national is recognized as a "highly-skilled foreign national" and becomes eligible for preferential immigration treatment.

Following the introduction of the system, a recommendation was made by the 6th Immigration Policy Discussions Panel to the Minister of Justice to revise the points-based system for highly-skilled professionals in May 2013, and even in the “Japan Revitalization Strategy” approved by the Cabinet on June 14 of the same year, a goal was set out to revise the system and to start the new system within the same year. Based on these, the Immigration Bureau amended the Ministry of Justice public notice on December 17 of the same year with the aim of revising the criteria for recognition pertaining to highly-skilled professionals and revising the preferential treatment.

In order to further promote the acceptance of foreign human resources who possess a high degree of professional competence, the statuses of residence of “Highly-Skilled Professional (i)” and “Highly-Skilled Professional (ii)” were newly established through an amendment of the Immigration Control Act in 2014 for those highly-skilled professionals who had previously been granted the status of residence of “Designated Activities”.

## ② “Highly-Skilled Professional (i)” and “Highly-Skilled Professional (ii)”

The new statuses of residence of “Highly-Skilled Professional (i)” and “Highly-Skilled Professional (ii)” established through the 2014 Amendment Act are both limited to those foreign nationals who meet the criteria prescribed by an Ordinance of the Ministry of Justice, and in response, the Ordinance to Provide for the Criteria in the Right-Hand Column Corresponding to “Highly-Skilled Professionals as Specified in the Appended Table I (2) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act” (Ministerial Ordinance No. 37 of 2014) was enacted and the criteria were set. With regard to “Highly-Skilled Professional (i)”, the criteria for the points-based system for highly-skilled professionals operated previously through the status of residence of “Designated Activities” are be followed, and the total number of points set for each of the categories of “academic background”, “professional career” and