Capital and Staff Requirements for the BM Visa

Since 16 October 2025 the minimum capital required for the Business Manager visa is 30,000,000 yen (up from 5,000,000 yen previously). How this is calculated depends on the legal entity type: for a 株式会社 (KK) it is the paid-in registered capital (資本金); for a 合名会社・合資会社・合同会社 (including a GK) it is the combined contributions of the members; for a sole proprietor (個人事業主) it is the sum actually invested (office rent/purchase, annual payroll, equipment, etc.). What matters is the registered capital (資本金) specifically — capital reserves (undistributed company reserves) do not count toward this requirement; a lawyer confirmed this after checking directly with immigration. At least one full-time staff member (常勤職員) is now mandatory, working full days and not in a managerial role. Eligible categories of staff are: a Japanese national, a holder of 永住者 (PR) status, a holder of 特別永住者 (special PR) status, the spouse of a Japanese national, the spouse of a PR holder, or a 定住者 (long-term resident) — this includes recognized refugees and people under complementary protection, who receive 定住者 status for 5 years, though the recognition process itself can take from 2 months to a year. Ordinary work-visa holders (技術・人文知識・国際業務, 技能, 企業内転勤) and part-time/baito workers do not qualify. The requirement is aimed at supporting the local labor market, which is why holders of activity-tied work visas (visas restricted to a specific job, such as 技術・人文知識・国際業務) are excluded — only staff whose status is not tied to a specific job (Japanese nationals, PR holders, spouses of nationals/PR holders, and 定住者) count. A sample calculation of the minimum cost of employing a proper full-time staff member with pension and insurance (based on Toyama prefecture) comes to roughly 2,200,000 yen per year. There is no formal legal definition of "full-time" for this staff requirement. Informally it is interpreted as working 30+ hours a week or earning from roughly 2.1 million yen a year (Tokyo's 2025 minimum-wage level), but this interpretation is not officially confirmed. The minimum salary for a BM visa holder is likewise not formally regulated. The theoretical Tokyo minimum is around 2+ million yen a year, but lawyers recommend budgeting from 3 million yen a year as a safe benchmark (a range of 200,000-300,000 yen a month was cited previously). A co-owner of the company who is not an employee can draw no salary; a salaried director cannot go without one.