Japan's Ikusei Shuro Program (2027): The Complete Foreign Worker's Guide to the Technical Intern Replacement

Information current as of May 2026, based on the Immigration Services Agency Ikusei Shuro Q&A, the December 2025 program outline (PDF), and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare program summary (PDF). This is general information for foreign workers, employers, and existing technical interns. It is not legal advice. Final eligibility, transfer, and transition decisions must be confirmed with the Immigration Services Agency or a certified gyoseishoshi (immigration lawyer).

If you came to this page because someone told you "the trainee program is being scrapped" or "you'll be able to change companies starting in 2027," you've heard the headline correctly — but most of the consequential details are either misreported in English-language press or buried in 200-page Japanese ordinance PDFs. This guide is the foreign worker's complete map. Each section links to a deeper child article when one exists.

Why Ikusei Shuro exists, and what it actually replaces

The Technical Intern Training Program (TITP, 技能実習制度) was created in 1993 to "transfer skills to developing countries." In practice, it became Japan's de-facto low-wage labor channel — by October 2024, about 470,725 people were working in Japan on the technical-intern visa according to MHLW's official Foreign Worker Notification statistics. Vietnam has consistently been the largest single sending country, with Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Myanmar, and Cambodia rounding out the major sources. The Japanese government, the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, and an Expert Panel convened in 2022 all reached the same conclusion: the gap between the program's stated purpose and its real economic function had become untenable, and protections against forced labor and excessive sending-country debt were inadequate.

Ikusei Shuro abandons the "skill transfer to home country" fiction. Its stated purpose is two-fold: train workers to the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW1) standard within three years, and retain them in Japan thereafter. The pretext that the worker would return home with new skills is gone — the new program is openly a domestic labor pipeline.

The replacement was enacted in June 2024 as the "Act on the Proper Implementation of Employment for Skill Development of Foreign Nationals and Protection of Foreign Nationals Engaged in Employment for Skill Development" (外国人の育成就労の適正な実施及び育成就労外国人の保護に関する法律, commonly shortened to 育成就労法). Implementing ordinances were gazetted on September 30, 2025. The Cabinet confirmed the April 1, 2027 effective date on September 26, 2025. Nikkei coverage of the cabinet decision. IM Japan notice on the September 30, 2025 ordinance gazette.

The seven biggest changes from Technical Intern

Issue	Technical Intern (until 2027)	Ikusei Shuro (from April 2027)
Stated purpose	Skill transfer to home country (fiction)	Worker development to SSW1 + retention (explicit)
Maximum duration	5 years (1+2+2 across three stages)	3 years (one extension up to 1 year if exam fails)
Job change (転籍)	Effectively prohibited	Allowed once 5 statutory conditions are met
Japanese on entry	None (caregiving sector excepted: N4)	CEFR A1 (≈ JLPT N5 / JFT-Basic A1) or 100+ hours of certified training
Pay rule	Same as Japanese in theory; widely violated in practice	Same-as-Japanese pay required by law; monitoring strengthened
Family accompaniment	Not allowed	Still not allowed (allowed only at SSW2)
Sending-side fees	Officially capped, often violated	Receiving company must shoulder a portion; worker's burden reduced

The single change that matters most to workers — and the one that international media has covered most — is the job-transfer right (転籍). Under TITP, a worker who could not stand the working conditions had only two options: endure, or run away (失踪). In 2023, runaway counts hit a record 9,753; the figure dropped to 6,510 in 2024 (a 33.3% year-over-year decline), with Vietnamese and Myanmar nationals accounting for the largest shares according to Immigration Services Agency statistics (PDF). Ikusei Shuro will allow lawful transfer instead of running away — but only if you understand the rules, which we cover in our full transfer-rights guide.

Timeline: the dates you need to know

Date	Event	Who is affected
June 2024	Ikusei Shuro Act enacted	—
September 26, 2025	Cabinet sets April 1, 2027 effective date	—
September 30, 2025	Implementing ordinances gazetted	—
April 1, 2026	Last date to start TITP Stage 2 (Gino Jisshu 2-go) if you want to qualify for Stage 3 (Gino Jisshu 3-go) under transition rules	Existing technical interns who hope to reach 5 total years
April 15, 2026	Supervising/Support Organization license applications open	Companies and supervising bodies
September 1, 2026	Plan-certification applications for Ikusei Shuro open	Receiving companies
April 1, 2027	Ikusei Shuro effective; new TITP intake ends	All future arrivals, all sectors
June 30, 2027	Last date a person can begin a TITP plan under transition rules	Late-stage TITP arrivals

The April 1, 2026 deadline is the one that catches existing workers off-guard. If you are currently in TITP Stage 1 (1-go) and you do not transition into Stage 2 by April 1, 2026, you cannot reach Stage 3 — period. Your maximum stay under your current plan becomes three years instead of five. This is buried in OTIT Notice (Japanese), and almost no English-language source has flagged it. Our transition guide works through this in depth.

The 17 sectors

Ikusei Shuro covers 17 sectors, defined to align (mostly) with the 19 Specified Skilled Worker sectors. The two SSW sectors that are not in Ikusei Shuro are Automobile Transport (自動車運送業) and Aviation (航空). Automobile Transport is excluded because acquiring a Japanese commercial driver's license is a prerequisite for the visa, which makes it incompatible with a 3-year domestic training pipeline. Aviation is excluded because its sector framework is still under design.

1. Caregiving (介護)
2. Building Cleaning (ビルクリーニング)
3. Linen Supply (リネンサプライ — new)
4. Industrial Products Manufacturing (工業製品製造業)
5. Construction (建設)
6. Shipbuilding and Ship Machinery (造船・舶用工業)
7. Automobile Repair (自動車整備)
8. Accommodation (宿泊)
9. Railway (鉄道)
10. Logistics Warehouse (物流倉庫 — new)
11. Agriculture (農業)
12. Fishery (漁業)
13. Food and Beverage Manufacturing (飲食料品製造業)
14. Food Service (外食業)
15. Forestry (林業)
16. Wood Product Manufacturing (木材産業)
17. Resource Recycling (資源循環 — new)

The three new sectors — Linen Supply, Logistics Warehouse, and Resource Recycling — were added to address bottlenecks in healthcare-adjacent laundry, e-commerce fulfilment, and the recycling industries respectively. Industry-by-industry deep-dives are in our caregiving, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture and fisheries guides.

Japanese-language requirement: A1 on entry, A2 to advance

Every Ikusei Shuro applicant must show CEFR A1-equivalent Japanese on entry. This is satisfied by any of three options:

1. Pass Japan Foundation Test for Basic Japanese (JFT-Basic) at A1 level. Note that JFT-Basic added separate A1 / A2.1 / A2 result reporting in August 2026 specifically to align with Ikusei Shuro's tier structure.
2. Pass JLPT N5 or higher.
3. Complete 100+ hours of certified Japanese training before arrival, at a teacher-instructed program approved under the Ikusei Shuro framework.

To advance from Ikusei Shuro into Specified Skilled Worker 1 (SSW1), the worker must, in principle, show A2-equivalent Japanese (JLPT N4 or JFT-Basic A2) and pass the SSW1 sector skill exam. The "good completion" exemption that current TITP 2-go workers enjoy — graduating into SSW1 without taking either exam — will end "at some point" after 2027 (the ordinance uses the deliberately vague phrase "for the time being," 当分の間), but the government has not announced the cliff date as of May 2026.

The caregiving sector retains its higher language bar: workers will continue to need N4 on entry under the published draft sectoral rules. Final language thresholds for each of the 17 sectors are due to be confirmed in pre-2027 sectoral notices.

The career path: from arrival to permanent residence

Ikusei Shuro is the entry point of a long pathway. Here is the realistic full trajectory, assuming the worker stays in Japan continuously and meets each milestone:

Stage	Years	Main requirements	Rights
Ikusei Shuro	0–3	A1 Japanese on entry; OJT + Japanese; sector skill basics	One-time transfer allowed after 1–2 years (sector-dependent) once 5 conditions met
Specified Skilled Worker 1 (SSW1)	3–8	A2 Japanese + sector skill exam pass	Free job change within sector; no family accompaniment; 5-year cap
Specified Skilled Worker 2 (SSW2)	8 onward	Higher sector skill exam; Japanese to sector-defined level	Indefinite renewal; family allowed; counts toward PR
Permanent Residence (永住権)	~18 (10 yrs continuous incl. ≥5 work years)	Standard PR criteria: tax/pension paid, no record, sufficient income	No sponsor required; family preserved

The realistic timeline from first arrival to PR application eligibility is therefore on the order of 10–18 years, depending on how the residence-year calculation is applied to your case — but PR is not automatic. The Ministry of Justice screens for tax payment, pension contributions, and absence of immigration violations across the full track record. The PR Guidelines (PDF) set the standard 10-year continuous-residency bar with at least 5 of those years on a working visa; the question of how Ikusei Shuro and SSW1 years are counted is being clarified by the Immigration Services Agency, and current readings differ. We work through the calculation in detail in our long-term roadmap, and you should also read our broader PR application guide.

Wages, deductions, and the "same pay as Japanese" rule

The TITP record on wages is poor. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's FY2024 monitoring report (published September 26, 2025) found Labor Standards Act violations at 73.2% of inspected TITP workplaces (8,310 of 11,355). The most common violations were inadequate machine safety (25.0%), unpaid overtime premium (15.6%), and inadequate physician consultation on health checkups (14.9%). Illegal payroll deductions — including charging interns for company-provided WiFi without a written agreement — also feature prominently and violate Article 24 of the Labor Standards Act.

Ikusei Shuro tightens this in three concrete ways:

• Equal-pay-for-equal-work is now an explicit statutory requirement for foreign workers in this status, and the receiving company's plan must show wage parity with Japanese employees in equivalent positions.
• Sending-side fees are partially shifted to the receiving company. Vietnamese trainees historically arrived with debt averaging ¥674,000 — the highest among the six surveyed sending countries — per the Immigration Services Agency 2022 survey (PDF); the 2027 framework reduces this by transferring part of the cost to Japanese employers.
• Supervising/Support Organizations (監理支援機関) replace 監理団体, with stricter licensing, mandatory external auditors, and a prohibition on monitoring bodies controlled by parties closely related to the receiving employer. This addresses the longest-standing structural conflict of interest in TITP.

If your wage statement looks wrong — overtime not paid, deductions you never agreed to, withheld documents — the formal channel for redress is the Labor Standards Inspection Office (労働基準監督署), which can issue corrective orders directly to your employer. We walk through the exact request form, evidence checklist, and OTIT/ JITCO escalation routes in our wages and deductions guide.

Country-specific realities

How you arrive in Japan, what you pay your sending agency, and what protections you have before you board the plane vary substantially by country. Each top-five sending country has its own regulator, its own approved-agency list, and its own typical fee structure.

Country (TITP rank)	Sending regulator	Bilateral MOC	Average pre-departure debt	Country guide
Vietnam (largest)	MOLISA / DOLAB	Yes (TITP + SSW)	¥674,000 — about 80% of arrivals borrow	Vietnam guide
Indonesia	BP2MI / SISKOP2MI	Yes (TITP + SSW)	¥282,000	Indonesia guide
Philippines	DMW (formerly POEA)	Yes (TITP + SSW)	¥153,000 — about 34.5% borrow (DMW prohibits worker-paid agency fees)	Philippines guide
Myanmar	Ministry of Labour	Yes	¥315,000; political situation disrupts sending	Myanmar guide
Nepal (fast-rising)	Department of Foreign Employment	Yes (TITP MOC signed January 2024)	Specific 2022 survey data not available	Nepal guide

Debt averages are from the Immigration Services Agency 2022 survey of TITP fees and debt (PDF), which sampled approximately 2,200 trainees across six countries from December 2021 to April 2022. For workers from China, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and other smaller-volume sending countries, see our combined country guide.

The single most important thing every prospective Ikusei Shuro worker can do is verify that any sending agency in their home country is officially licensed, and confirm in writing the maximum fee allowed under both the home country's regulations and any bilateral MOC. The Embassy of Japan in Vietnam, for example, publishes a Japanese-language fee ceiling notice stating that the maximum fee for a 3-year contract is USD 3,600 and that no money may be collected before the worker enters Japan. If you are quoted higher, you are being illegally exploited.

Frequently asked questions

I'm currently a technical intern. Will I be forced into Ikusei Shuro?

No. Existing TITP plans continue under their original rules until they end. You are not required to convert. But your path forward is constrained — see the April 1, 2026 deadline above and our transition guide.

Can I bring my spouse or children on Ikusei Shuro?

No. Family accompaniment is not allowed during Ikusei Shuro or SSW1. Family accompaniment becomes available only at SSW2. This is the single biggest unchanged feature of TITP, and there is currently no proposal to relax it.

I want to change companies under Ikusei Shuro. Can I just quit?

You can quit, but to transfer (and keep your visa) you must satisfy five statutory conditions: (1) the sector-defined transfer-eligibility period has elapsed (1 year for some sectors, 2 years for skill-intensive sectors like caregiving, construction, and shipbuilding); (2) you have passed the basic skill test or Ikusei Shuro evaluation; (3) you have passed JLPT N5 or equivalent; (4) the receiving company is on the "excellent operator" list; and (5) you go through a public channel such as Hello Work or the Supervising/Support Organization. Hardship and harassment cases can transfer under different rules. Full breakdown in the transfer-rights guide.

How much will I earn?

The law requires equal pay with Japanese workers in equivalent jobs. Practical floors are set by the prefecture's minimum wage (which varies — Tokyo's hourly minimum was ¥1,163 in fiscal 2025, the lowest prefectures around ¥950–¥1,000). Sector-by-sector reality differs; see each industry guide.

What if my company violates my rights?

The labor authorities — labor standards inspection offices, OTIT, JITCO multilingual hotlines, prefectural foreign-resident consultation centers, and 法テラス (Japan Legal Support Center) — all have channels available to foreign workers, several with multilingual interpretation. The wages-and-deductions guide details each route.

What to do next

Choose your path:

• If you are an existing technical intern: read the transition guide immediately — the April 1, 2026 deadline catches people out.
• If you are considering applying from your home country: read the country guide for your country (links above) before signing anything with a sending agency.
• If you are choosing a sector: read the relevant industry guide. Wages, work conditions, and Japanese requirements differ markedly.
• If you want to know about transferring or your rights: read the transfer rights and wages and deductions guides.
• If you are thinking long-term: the 18-year roadmap to permanent residence walks through SSW1, SSW2, and PR eligibility in sequence.

Sources and further reading

• Immigration Services Agency — Ikusei Shuro Q&A (Japanese)
• Ikusei Shuro Program Outline, December 2025 revision (PDF, Japanese)
• Immigration Services Agency — Employment for Skill Development English summary (PDF)
• MHLW — Ikusei Shuro program summary (PDF, Japanese)
• MHLW — 2024 TITP labor monitoring report
• Immigration Services Agency — TITP runaway statistics (PDF)
• Immigration Services Agency — TITP fee and debt survey (PDF)
• OTIT — TITP transition timeline notice
• JITCO — Employment for Skill Development page
• U.S. State Department — 2025 TIP Report on Japan
• Japan Foundation Test for Basic Japanese (JFT-Basic)

If you are unsure about your specific case, contact the Immigration Services Agency directly or consult a certified gyoseishoshi specializing in residence-status applications. This guide does not substitute for individual legal advice.