取次 (Toritsugi) System, COE Timelines, JLPT N2, and Post-Termination Rules

取次 (toritsugi) is a system for registering a company employee as an authorized "agent" to file immigration applications (COE, extensions, etc.) on behalf of other employees, without each person visiting in person or hiring a 行政書士 (gyoseishoshi, administrative scrivener). Registering a company as a filing agent (取次者) lets it submit applications on its own behalf; by rumor — unconfirmed officially — this automatically assigns the company Category 2 status, which can be advantageous for longer visa terms. The process: designate a responsible employee, attend an immigration seminar, obtain agent status, and register the company in the online system. COE (Certificate of Eligibility) processing times vary widely — from 2 weeks to 9 months, with queues lengthening in 2025; concrete examples for three employees at one company were 54, 64, and 62 business days. The variation is attributed to filing method (online vs. paper), the handling office (Tokyo vs. others), and whether the company is filing for the first time (first-time applications are scrutinized more strictly). Opinions differ on online versus paper filing speed: some in discussion found online filing noticeably faster (2-3 weeks for a work visa), while other lawyers hold that paper filing is faster, because online applications are printed out and placed in the same paper queue. Starting April 15, 2026, JLPT N2 becomes a mandatory requirement for obtaining an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa via COE — but only for positions where the job requirements explicitly specify "Japanese language," and it does not apply to the "student to work visa" pathway (students at language schools or universities are unaffected). An application can specify an "English-only" language requirement for the position to legally sidestep the N2 barrier — a workaround also known within the Chinese expat community. These changes primarily affect Category 3 and 4 companies, which is where most small businesses discussed fall. After termination, an employee may search for new work for up to 3 months, after which they must leave the country within 2 weeks; in practice this is often not enforced (one known case involved 11 months without work with no consequences, so long as taxes, pension, and insurance were paid on time). Stricter enforcement is expected going forward, including, for "haken" (dispatch) visas, a planned tie to contract duration. Employers are required to notify immigration of a termination, but this is weakly enforced in practice (one case: an employee hired on a 3-year visa worked 2 days and then disappeared — the employer has essentially no legal protection against this). HR agency recruiting fees in Japan run 3-6 months' salary, higher than the global norm of roughly 1-3 months' salary. See: Hiring a Foreign Employee: General Requirements and Procedures. Sources: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/gijinkoku.html — official MOJ page on employer company categories and the Japanese-language requirement for COE.