The Japan Startup Visa: how the founder pathway works, and where an AI internship fits

Japan's Startup Visa gives foreign entrepreneurs up to two years to prepare a business inside Japan before converting to the Business Manager (経営・管理) visa. As of October 2025 the target on the other side of that conversion has tightened considerably, which changes the calculation for anyone thinking about arriving cold and starting a company.

Most guides treat the Startup Visa as a stand-alone product. It is not. It is the bridge between being able to live in Japan and being allowed to run a company there. The bridge is two years long, and the height it bridges to has just gone up.

This guide explains how the bridge works, what changed in October 2025, which municipalities issue the visa, and where a free AI internship sits in the picture. It is worth being blunt at the start about the last part: no training programme issues visas, and no host company decides one.

How the Startup Visa actually works

The Startup Visa is not a separate residence category. It is an application of Japan's Designated Activities (特定活動) status, granted under the Foreign Entrepreneurial Activity Promotion Programme administered by METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). Each authorised municipality issues a Confirmation Certificate that the Immigration Services Agency uses to grant the residence status.

The preparation period was originally six months. It extended to one year in 2020 and to two years in April 2025. The longer window matters. A Tokyo founder needs runway to incorporate, hire, secure office space, and prove commercial traction, and the post-October 2025 capital threshold makes that runway more valuable, not less.

Who is eligible

The Startup Visa is a low-bar visa by Japanese standards. There is no university-credential requirement, no income floor, and no upfront capital test. What it asks for is:

• A business plan the host municipality believes is realistic
• Proof of funds for living expenses during preparation (around ¥200,000 minimum, varies by municipality)
• A passport and proof of identity
• A municipality willing to issue the Confirmation Certificate

The municipality is the gatekeeper. Different cities prioritise different sectors. Tokyo's Invest Tokyo programme emphasises high-growth ventures. Shibuya Startup Support leans on creative industries and Web3. Kyoto favours manufacturing, life innovation, and social-impact startups. Osaka gives weight to advanced industry plays through its Innovation Hub.

A founder rejected in one city can re-apply in another. The decision is local, not national.

The October 2025 change and what it means

In October 2025 the requirements for the Business Manager (経営・管理) visa, the residence category that Startup Visa holders convert to, were tightened materially. The most consequential element: the capital-and-investment threshold widely reported to have moved from ¥5 million to ¥30 million.

The strategic implication is simple. Before October 2025, a foreign founder could justify launching from cold by setting up a small entity with ¥5 million and working forward. After October 2025, the same founder needs to demonstrate either ¥30 million in capital or a credible path to it, plus an office, a qualifying employee, and management experience or relevant academic credentials.

The visa did not get harder. The company on the other side of it did.

That distinction is the whole planning problem. Step one is administrative. Step two is commercial, and two years is not long to build a company that clears a ¥30 million bar from a standing start in a country you may have only just arrived in.

How to get a Startup Visa

The procedure is administrative, not opaque. The order matters because municipal review precedes immigration review, and skipping the order resets the queue.

Approved municipalities at a glance

The Startup Visa programme rolled out nationwide from January 2025. The active cities, as of mid-2026:

Each programme has different sector preferences and different review cadences. Pick one that matches the venture, not just one that issues the fastest visa.

Business Manager conversion: the second step

The Business Manager (経営・管理) visa is the long-term residence category for foreign nationals who run businesses in Japan. The post-October 2025 conversion checklist, subject to confirming exact thresholds with the Immigration Services Agency before banking on numbers, broadly comprises:

• An incorporated company in Japan
• A physical office (rented commercial space, not a residence)
• Capital or paid-in investment at the current threshold (widely reported as ¥30 million as of late 2025)
• One or more full-time qualifying employees, with Japanese national, permanent resident, or qualifying long-term resident status
• Three or more years of management experience, or an MBA or equivalent advanced degree
• A demonstrated business plan reviewed by a qualifying expert, such as a certified accountant
• Sufficient Japanese-language proficiency for the applicant or a qualifying employee to operate the business

The Business Manager visa is renewable for one, three, or five years. Requirements for permanent residence vary considerably with residence history and whether Highly Skilled Professional points apply, so confirm your own position with a specialist.

Where an AI internship fits, and where it does not

Aoyama Professionals does not issue visas, sponsor Startup Visa applications, or influence immigration decisions. Saying otherwise would be false, and the people who lose from believing it are applicants.

What the programme is, in plain terms: a free four-week, remote-first project internship, run on APRO and Orbweva portfolio projects. Task completion is checked weekly. A pitch and communication block is mandatory. Everyone who completes it receives a certificate recording what they worked on. Top performers enter the Shortlist, the curated set of completers we surface to Tokyo host companies. A placement with a Tokyo host company is an outcome of shortlisting, not something the four weeks themselves provide.

From there the ladder continues on the applicant's own initiative. The Academy is a ¥15,000/month subscription: a self-paced Claude Code programme, MVP building, five 15-minute standups a month, and a community. The Accelerator is invite-only and runs three months, with a validated Academy MVP as the prerequisite; its terms are disclosed on invitation.

Set against the Startup Visa file, three of those pieces are genuinely relevant.

1. The business plan is the thing being judged, and it has to be built. An MVP built and validated in the Academy is not a visa document, but it is the raw material a plausible plan is written from, which most first-time applicants do not have.
2. A record beats an assertion. Four measured weeks of documented project work and a certificate naming what was delivered describe someone who has done the work rather than described it. Review committees weigh evidence.
3. Relationships are formed in Japan, not before arriving. Host companies that meet an intern through the Shortlist can become early customers, referees, or advisors. None of that is promised, and none of it substitutes for the municipality's own judgement.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need ¥30 million in the bank to apply for the Startup Visa itself? No. The preparation phase has no upfront capital requirement. The threshold applies to the Business Manager visa that follows it. Applicants do need to prove living funds, typically around ¥200,000, and a credible plan to reach the Business Manager threshold within two years.

What if I cannot reach the Business Manager threshold within two years? The Designated Activities status cannot be extended indefinitely. Applicants typically move to a different residence category: Engineer/Specialist/Humanities/International Services if they take employment, or J-Find if they remain eligible by age and graduation date. Planning that alternative early is the point.

Can Aoyama Professionals get me a Startup Visa? No. The visa is issued by a host municipality and the residence status is granted by the Immigration Services Agency. What the programme can do is help build the evidence, the skills, and the working relationships that a plan is assessed on.

The remaining questions applicants ask, including student-visa switching and availability outside Tokyo, are answered in this article's FAQ schema.

The Startup Visa is administrative, not magic. The October 2025 changes raise the bar on the second step without changing the first one. What they change is the cost of attempting the founder pathway from cold, and how much real commercial substance an applicant needs behind them before the two-year clock starts.

Building that substance is work. It starts before the visa file is opened.

→ Start with the free AI internship, or see the Academy for the subscription programme that follows it.