Paperwork
Part-time work rules for students
The 28-hour limit is counted across all your jobs combined, and you need permission before your first shift. Getting this wrong risks your residence status, not just a fine.
Why this article is stricter in tone than the others
Most decisions on this site cost money if you get them wrong. This one costs your permission to stay in Japan. A student who works over the limit can find their status renewal refused, with no practical appeal and no way to finish the course they came for.
So the advice here is deliberately conservative: stay well below the limit rather than close to it, and treat any employer who encourages otherwise as a warning sign about the job.
The three rules
One — you need permission first. A student residence status permits study, not paid work. Permission to engage in an activity outside that status is a separate authorisation. It is commonly granted at the airport on arrival if you ask for it there, which is far simpler than applying afterwards. If you did not get it on arrival, apply at immigration before you start any job.
Two — 28 hours a week, across everything. The limit is a total, not a per-employer allowance. Your employers cannot see each other’s rotas. If you hold two jobs, the arithmetic is yours to do, and the record that matters is the combined one.
And “a week” is any seven consecutive days, not the calendar week. Whichever day you start counting from, the following seven days must contain no more than 28 hours. This matters more than it sounds: a rota that looks compliant Monday to Sunday can still breach the limit if heavy shifts sit either side of a weekend, because the seven days spanning them exceed 28. Nobody will point this out to you, and the calendar on the wall will not show it.
Three — some workplaces are excluded outright. Work connected with the adult entertainment industry is prohibited regardless of hours and regardless of what your specific duties are. Washing dishes at such an establishment is prohibited work.
During long university holidays
The limit is relaxed during your institution’s long vacation periods, to a daily cap rather than a weekly one: 8 hours a day, and 40 hours a week. Two conditions attach to that, and both matter:
- It applies to your institution’s designated long holiday periods, not to any week you happen to have no classes. What counts is the vacation period set out in your institution’s own rules.
- The relaxed limit is a daily cap sitting under a weekly one, so it does not license an unlimited week. Eight hours a day every day would exceed forty.
Confirm your institution’s official holiday dates with the student office and keep a copy. If your hours are ever questioned, the dates are what the explanation rests on.
What the rules mean in practice
| Situation | Within the rules? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One job, 20 hours a week | Yes | Below the limit, assuming you hold the permission |
| Two jobs, 20 hours each | No | The limit is the combined total, not per employer |
| 28 hours in term time, more during the designated long holiday | Yes | The holiday period allows 8 hours a day within 40 a week — check your institution dates |
| Working before the permission is granted | No | The permission must precede the work, not follow it |
| Cleaning at an adult entertainment venue, 5 hours a week | No | Prohibited by the nature of the business, regardless of hours or duties |
| Genuinely unpaid internship on your course | Yes | No remuneration means no permission is needed and no hours are counted |
| Unpaid internship with a generous "travel allowance" | Depends | If the payment functions as compensation for your labour, it is paid work and the hours count |
Unpaid internships
The permission exists to cover activity for which you receive remuneration. An internship with no payment at all therefore needs no permission and adds nothing to your 28 hours.
The trap is in what counts as payment. A transport or living allowance that is really compensation for the work you did is remuneration, whatever it is called on the paperwork. If money moves toward you in proportion to the hours you put in, treat it as paid work: get the permission, and count the hours.
How to stay safe
- Get the permission at the airport. One question at immigration on arrival saves a separate application later.
- Keep your own record of hours, by week, across all jobs. A note on your phone is enough. Your employers will not do this for you.
- Aim below the limit, not at it. A shift that overruns, or a rota that shifts by a day, should not be able to push you over.
- Tell each employer you have another job, if you do. A good employer will work with the constraint; one that pressures you to hide it is telling you something.
- Get your payslips and keep them. They are the evidence of what you actually worked.
- Ask your student office before anything unusual — an internship, a one-off event job, work for someone who pays in cash. They have seen it before.
Common failures
Starting work before the permission is granted. Common, and treated seriously. The permission is not a formality applied retrospectively.
Adding a second job without recalculating. The most frequent way honest students end up in violation. Nobody is tracking the combined total except you.
Trusting an employer who says it will be fine. Their exposure and yours are not the same. You are the one whose status is at risk.
Being paid in cash with no record. It leaves you unable to demonstrate your hours were within the limit, and it tends to accompany employers who are casual about other rules too.
Assuming a quiet term week counts as a holiday. The relaxed limit applies to designated vacation periods, not to any week without classes.
Counting by the calendar week. The limit applies to any seven consecutive days. A month that looks fine week by week can contain a seven-day stretch that does not.
Treating an allowance as though it were not pay. An unpaid internship is genuinely outside the limit, but a payment that tracks the hours you worked is remuneration under another name. Ask your student office before you accept one.
Next
- Health insurance In preparation — your working hours also affect which insurance scheme you fall into.
- Residence card, My Number, address In preparation — the notifications you owe when your circumstances change.
Questions people actually ask
- Can I work part-time on a student visa?
- Only after you hold permission to engage in an activity outside the scope of your residence status. A student residence status does not by itself permit paid work. The permission is commonly applied for at the airport on arrival, which is much easier than applying later, so ask for it at immigration when you land.
- Is the 28-hour limit per job or in total?
- In total, across every job you hold. Two jobs of twenty hours each is a violation even though neither employer alone exceeds the limit — and neither employer necessarily knows about the other. Tracking the combined total is your responsibility, not theirs.
- What counts as a week for the purpose of the limit?
- Any seven consecutive days — not the calendar week. Whichever day you start counting from, the seven days that follow must contain no more than 28 hours. So a schedule that stays under 28 hours from Monday to Sunday can still be a breach if the shifts bunch around a weekend and some other seven-day stretch goes over. This is the detail that catches people out, so leave margin rather than working right up to the limit.
- What happens if I work over the limit?
- It is a breach of your residence conditions, and the consequences run to non-renewal of your status or removal from Japan — not merely a fine. It can also affect a future application for a work visa. This is the one rule in this article where there is no tolerable margin of error.
- Does an unpaid internship count toward the 28 hours?
- No. The permission covers activity for which you receive remuneration, so an internship with no payment at all needs no permission and adds nothing to your weekly total. The care is in what counts as payment: a transport or living allowance that is really compensation for the work you did is remuneration whatever it is called, and then both the permission and the hours apply.
- Are there jobs I cannot take even within the hours?
- Yes. Work connected with the adult entertainment industry is prohibited regardless of hours, and that prohibition extends to ordinary-sounding roles such as cleaning or kitchen work at such an establishment. The nature of the business decides this, not the nature of your duties.
How this page was checked
- Government and official sources
- Permission to engage in activity other than that permitted by residence status入管法 第19条第2項
- Weekly hour limit, and the daily cap during institutional vacation periods入管法施行規則 第19条第5項第1号イ
- Businesses in the adult entertainment sector風俗営業等の規制及び業務の適正化等に関する法律 第2条
- Grounds for deportation, and the offence of unauthorised activity入管法 第24条第4号ハ / 第73条
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