MOFA/Embassy Information, Unofficial Visa Trackers and the Public Comment Portal on BM Visa Reform

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides general information on the highly skilled professional visa, and the Japanese embassy publishes a page about multiple-entry visas for business trips; a Wikipedia article covers the APEC Business Travel Card, which simplifies business travel across APEC member countries. For unofficial but practical tools, a community-maintained dashboard tracks visa (including PR) processing times based on user-submitted timelines, though it is not always accurate and should be treated as a rough guide only; a separate unofficial calculator estimates HSP visa points more conveniently than the official PDF table, again without being an authoritative source. The Ministry of Justice's official translation website provides English translations of Japanese laws, useful when checking the exact text of a law such as the Immigration Control Act or the Companies Act without needing to read the original Japanese legal text. Finally, the government's public-comment portal was used to track the mandatory public consultation before the 2025-2026 BM visa reform was finalized; its interface is not user-friendly and specific pages must be found via Japanese keyword searches — a shared Google Docs guide walks non-Japanese speakers through drafting and submitting a comment on the proposed changes to the Business Manager visa. Source: https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/long/visa16.html — MOFA general information on the highly skilled professional visa. Source: https://www.ru.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ru/businesstrip.html — embassy page on multiple-entry visas for business trips. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEC_Business_Travel_Card — background on the APEC Business Travel Card for simplified business travel. Source: https://dashboard.retrohazard.jp/ — unofficial community-maintained tracker of visa/PR processing times. Source: https://japanprcalculator.com/ — unofficial calculator for HSP visa points. Source: https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/ — official English translations of Japanese laws. Source: https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&id=315000115&Mode=0 — public-comment listing on the BM visa reform proposal, id 315000115. Source: https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/detail?CLASSNAME=PCMMSTDETAIL&id=595125087&Mode=0 — public-comment listing on the BM visa reform proposal, id 595125087. Source: https://public-comment.e-gov.go.jp/pcm/download?seqNo=0000300768 — text of one of the BM visa reform proposals. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CX3tFc39cTN53pZ7znCRbihaswNy9hd1OsSh2qjvUhY/edit?tab=t.0 — guide to drafting and submitting a public comment on the BM visa reform proposal.