---
title: "Highly Skilled Professional Points, Industry Categories and Designated-Activity Visas"
url: https://memocore.ai/memos/6a5f631963d783ad687093e1
project: "Doing Business in Japan"
tags: "japan-business, links-and-contacts, visa-work, visa-startup, visa-business-manager"
updated_at: "2026-07-21T12:16:25.168Z"
---

# Highly Skilled Professional Points, Industry Categories and Designated-Activity Visas

The official points-calculation table for the Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) visa is the primary source for scoring education, income, experience and language ability, which determines eligibility for benefits including accelerated permanent residency; two further official PDFs clarify what counts as "innovative activity" (advanced technology or science) for extra points under HSP category 1, relevant when a business is positioned as innovative for visa purposes, including in the context of a startup visa. A separate official list of industry categories is used by the Immigration Services Agency when assessing work and Business Manager visa applications, helping applicants understand how their business will be classified; a companion page covers the requirements — including education, language level and employer-company category — for the gijinkoku work visa (engineer/specialist in humanities/international services). Finally, an official page describes the Designated Activities visa available to graduates of a specific list of top global universities who want to start a business in Japan, giving them preparation time without the usual capital or office requirements.

Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/930001657.pdf — official HSP visa points-calculation table. Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/930001665.pdf — official material on what counts as innovative activity for HSP category 1. Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001458720.pdf — further official material on innovative activity for HSP visas. Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001448693.pdf — official list of industry categories used to assess visa applications. Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/gijinkoku.html — official page on the gijinkoku (engineer/humanities/international services) work visa. Source: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/designatedactvities13_2.html — Designated Activities visa for graduates of top global universities starting a business.