Your Residence Card (在留カード) and the 14-Day Rule

What the 在留カード is

The 在留カードzairyū kādo (residence card) is the photo ID card issued to foreign nationals who live in Japan medium- to long-term. It’s the document that proves you’re here legally, and in daily life it’s your main photo ID — for opening a bank account, signing a phone contract, and most official procedures.

You get one if you’re a mid- to long-term resident (中長期在留者chūchōki zairyūsha) — anyone here on a status of residence and a period of stay longer than three months (work, spouse, student, and the like). You do not get one if you’re:

• staying three months or less, or on a “Temporary Visitor” (短期滞在tanki taizai) status (i.e., tourists),
• here on a “Diplomat” or “Official” (外交gaikō・公用kōyō) status,
• covered by the US–Japan SOFA (more on that below), or
• a special permanent resident (特別永住者tokubetsu eijūsha), who carries a different document (特別永住者証明書tokubetsu eijūsha shōmeisho).

What’s printed on it

The card records:

• your name, date of birth, sex, and nationality/region
• your address (住居地jūkyochi) — written on the back, and updated whenever you register or move
• your status of residence (在留資格zairyū shikaku) and your period of stay (在留期間zairyū kikan) with its expiry date
• whether you’re permitted to work (就労制限shūrō seigen) — worth checking, since it states your work limits at a glance
• the card number, your photo, and the card’s own validity period

There’s an IC chip inside carrying the same data. (As of June 2026, the photo is shown on the cards of holders aged one and over.)

How you receive it

If you arrive as a mid- to long-term resident, you usually get the card on the spot when you clear immigration — but only at ten ports: New Chitose, Sendai, Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Kobe, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Naha.

Enter anywhere else and your passport is instead stamped “residence card to be issued later.” In that case the card is mailed to your address — but only after you register that address at the city office. That’s one more reason the 14-day registration below matters: until you register, there’s nowhere to send your card.

The 14-day rule

This is the deadline that drives your first two weeks. Within 14 days of settling into your residence, take your 在留カードzairyū kādo (or your passport, if the card is being mailed) to your municipal (city or ward) office and file a moving-in notification (転入届tennyū todoke). That single step does double duty: it puts you on the 住民票jūminhyō (resident register) and satisfies the immigration requirement to report your address, after which your address is written onto the back of the card.

The 14-day clock comes back every time you move: notify your new municipality within 14 days of each move, too. The full city-hall visit — and everything else you can knock out in it — is covered in Registering at City Hall, and the whole arrival sequence in Your First Two Weeks in Japan.

Carry it at all times

Mid- to long-term residents aged 16 and over must carry the 在留カードzairyū kādo at all times — it’s a legal requirement, not a formality, and it’s the reason the card is built to be pocket-sized. Two penalties are worth knowing:

• Not carrying it: a fine of up to ¥200,000.
• Refusing to present it when an immigration officer or police officer lawfully asks: up to one year of imprisonment, or a fine of up to ¥200,000.

(Under-16s are exempt from the carrying duty.) In practice the card also is your accepted photo ID, so carrying it solves two problems at once.

Keeping it current: changes, renewals, and loss

The card has to keep matching your real situation, and several deadlines hang off it:

• Address: within 14 days of any move, at the municipal office (as above).
• Other recorded details — name, date of birth, sex, nationality/region: within 14 days of the change, reported to the Immigration Services Agency (not city hall).
• Status or period-of-stay changes: when you extend your stay or change your status, a new card is issued as part of that application — you don’t file separately for the card.
• Expiry: for most statuses the card simply expires with your period of stay, so renewing your status replaces the card. But permanent residents’ cards expire every 7 years even though the status itself doesn’t — you must apply to renew the card within the three months before its expiry date (the window opens earlier, six months before, for under-16s). It’s an easy deadline to forget precisely because your status never lapses.
• Lost, stolen, or seriously damaged: apply for a reissue within 14 days of discovering the loss (or within 14 days of your next re-entry if it happened while you were abroad).

Leaving and coming back

Short trips out of Japan are easy: a resident with a valid passport and residence card can use the special (deemed) re-entry permit (みなし再入国許可minashi sainyūkoku kyoka) — leave and return within one year (or by your period-of-stay expiry, if that comes sooner) without applying for a re-entry permit. You just present your 在留カードzairyū kādo and check the re-entry box on the embarkation card as you depart.

Two traps to avoid:

• The special re-entry permit cannot be extended from abroad. If you don’t make it back within the year, you lose your status of residence — there’s no remedy from overseas.
• Planning to be away longer than a year? Apply for a regular re-entry permit (再入国許可sainyūkoku kyoka) before you leave (valid up to five years, within your current period of stay).

If you’re here under SOFA

People in Japan under the US–Japan Status of Forces Agreement — service members, the civilian component, contractors, and their families — are outside the ordinary immigration-control system and do not hold a 在留カードzairyū kādo at all. Almost none of the rules above apply in the same way. That situation has its own section: SOFA Status in Japan.

The short version

• The 在留カードzairyū kādo is your proof of residence and main photo ID; mid- to long-term residents get one (tourists, diplomats, and SOFA personnel don’t).
• You receive it at one of ten airports, or by mail after you register your address.
• Register your address within 14 days of moving in — and within 14 days of every later move.
• Carry it at all times (16+): not carrying it risks a fine up to ¥200,000; refusing to show it, up to a year’s imprisonment or ¥200,000.
• Report other changes within 14 days, renew a permanent resident’s card every 7 years (apply in the 3 months before expiry), and replace a lost card within 14 days.
• Short trips out: use the special re-entry permit (return within 1 year, no extensions from abroad); longer trips need a regular re-entry permit first.

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This guide is general information, not legal advice. Immigration rules and procedures change and turn on your specific status — verify against the official sources below and the Immigration Services Agency, and consult an immigration professional for anything affecting your status of residence.