Nepal to Japan Work Visa: The Specified Skilled Worker Route

Specified Skilled Worker (tokutei ginou) is different from most work visas because the qualification comes before the employer. You first pass a skills test for a specific sector — nursing care, food service, agriculture, construction, building cleaning and several others — and separately demonstrate Japanese language ability, usually through the JFT-Basic test or JLPT N4. Only then do you look for an employer in that sector.

This means a Nepali applicant is not dependent on finding a sponsor first, which is the usual bottleneck in the UK or Australian systems. It also means an agent who offers you a Japanese job before you hold a skills test pass is describing something that does not exist.

Nepal regulates foreign employment at the point of departure, and this is the step applicants most often overlook. Under the Foreign Employment Act, a Nepali citizen going abroad for work needs labour approval (shram swikriti) from the Department of Foreign Employment before leaving. Travelling for employment without it creates problems both on exit and later, including with the welfare protections it is tied to.

Recruitment must go through an agency licensed by the DoFE, and the licence can be checked. Contributions to the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund are also part of the process, and that fund is what supports workers and families if something goes wrong abroad.

The framework Japan operates for Specified Skilled Workers is built on the principle that the worker does not pay recruitment fees to secure the job. Where fees are demanded from the worker to obtain an SSW placement, that is a departure from how the route is meant to operate and is worth stopping over.

Genuine costs do exist: the skills test fee, the language test fee, your passport, medical checks, the DoFE process and travel. Those are ordinary and should be itemised in writing. A large lump sum described only as a placement or guarantee fee is not.

The first tier of Specified Skilled Worker is time-limited and does not allow you to bring family. A second tier exists for a smaller number of sectors, is renewable, and does permit dependants, but moving up to it requires further experience and testing rather than simply time served.

This matters for planning. If your intention is to settle in Japan with family, check whether your sector has a second-tier pathway at all before you commit years to the first one.

A job offer or offer letter does not extend your visa by itself. You still need a genuine employer, a real role and a successful application through the official government process.

We check your profile against the route, explain what the official rules require, and help you prepare a complete, accurate application. We also introduce suitable candidates to employers registered in the destination country that are recruiting for genuine roles.

The employer interviews you and decides whether to hire you, and the government decides your visa. Where the destination country requires immigration advice to come from a registered or authorised professional, that advice is given by our partner lawyers.