If you’re a work, spouse, student, or permanent resident visa holder living in Japan, your residence card (在留カード, zairyu card) is your most important piece of plastic — more important, day to day, than your passport. Losing it, or letting it expire, isn’t a minor inconvenience: Japanese law requires you to carry it at all times, and failing to replace it within the legal window can trigger fines or complications at your next visa renewal. Here’s exactly what to do, in what order, and what it actually costs.
First, Know Which Problem You Have
There are two separate situations, and they use different application forms at the immigration bureau, even though you’ll end up in the same building.
- Lost, stolen, or destroyed card — you need to apply for reissuance, and you have a strict 14-day deadline from the day you realized it was gone.
- Expired card — this mostly affects permanent residents, whose card must be renewed every seven years even though their status of residence never expires. If you’re on a work, spouse, or student visa, your card’s expiration date is normally tied to your visa’s own expiration date, so you’ll handle it as part of your regular extension-of-period-of-stay application rather than as a standalone card issue.
If Your Card Is Lost or Stolen: File a Police Report First
Before you go anywhere near immigration, go to the nearest police station (koban) and file a lost-property or theft report. This is free and takes 15–30 minutes. You’ll receive a reception number (juri bangou) or a printed certificate — immigration will not accept your reissuance application without it, so don’t skip this step even if you’re in a hurry.
If your card was destroyed (burned, run through the wash, snapped in half) rather than lost, bring the remains instead of a police report; you can usually show the damaged card itself as evidence.
Applying at the Regional Immigration Services Bureau
Once you have the police reception number, head to your nearest Regional Immigration Services Bureau. In Tokyo, that’s the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau at 5-5-30 Konan, Minato-ku (near Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Monorail/Rinkai Line, or reachable by shuttle bus from Shinagawa Station). Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima, and Naha each have their own regional bureau. Counters are generally open weekdays 9:00–16:00 and closed weekends and national holidays — check the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) website for your specific bureau, since several locations now use an online appointment system for in-person visits and walk-ins can mean a long wait.
Bring:
- Application for reissuance of residence card (available at the counter or downloadable from the ISA site)
- One passport-style photo, 3cm x 4cm, taken within the last 3 months — a photo booth runs about ¥700–800, while a studio that prints ID photos same-day runs ¥1,500–3,000
- Your passport
- The police report reception number or certificate
- Any remains of the old card, if it was damaged rather than lost
There is no fee for reissuance due to loss, theft, or destruction.
How Long It Takes — and What to Carry Meanwhile
Processing time varies by bureau. Some regional offices can produce and hand over the new card the same day if everything is in order; others produce cards centrally and mail them out, which can take a couple of weeks. Ask the counter staff what to expect when you submit your application. In the interim, keep the application receipt slip they give you together with your passport — it’s the closest thing to valid ID you’ll have until the new card arrives, so don’t lose that one too.
If you have international travel booked before the new card is likely to arrive, mention this to the immigration officer when you apply; re-entry into Japan without a valid residence card in hand can create complications at the airport, so it’s worth asking about your options rather than finding out at check-in.
If Your Card Has Expired: The Renewal Process
For permanent residents, the card-renewal application (not a change of status — your permanent residency itself doesn’t expire) uses a similar document set: application form, one 3x4cm photo taken within 3 months, your passport, and your current (expiring) card. Apply before the expiration date printed on the card, ideally a few weeks ahead, since you’re not under the 14-day loss deadline but you also can’t legally use an expired card as ID. Like reissuance, there’s no fee for this card-renewal application.
If you’re on any other visa type, your card and your status expire on the same date, so renewing your period of stay through the normal extension application covers both — you’ll be issued a new card automatically once that’s approved.
Common Mistakes That Slow This Down
- Skipping the police report. Immigration staff will turn you away without the reception number, costing you a second trip.
- Missing the 14-day window. It’s counted from when you realized the card was missing, not from when it was actually lost — track that date carefully.
- Bringing an old or cropped photo. Vending-machine photo booth prints that are months old, or photos with hats, sunglasses, or a patterned background, get rejected at the counter.
- Forgetting the follow-up at city hall. If your old card had a health insurance or pension number sticker on the back, you’ll need to visit your municipal office afterward to have that re-applied to the new card — immigration doesn’t handle this part.
- Assuming any branch office works. Smaller sub-offices sometimes can’t process every type of application; call ahead or check the ISA site if you’re not going to the main regional bureau.
If you’re living somewhere rural or on a long-term placement far from a regional immigration bureau — a situation that comes up often for people doing extended stays through programs like WWOOF Japan and guesthouse work exchanges — budget travel time into your 14-day window, since the nearest bureau may be a few hours away by train. And if the stress of untangling Japanese bureaucracy on top of a lost-ID scramble is weighing on you, it’s worth knowing there are resources for English-speaking counseling and mental health support in Japan aimed specifically at foreign residents navigating exactly this kind of logistical stress. For a sense of how Japan’s “report it properly, then fix it” approach plays out in other mishap scenarios, our guide on what to do after a rental car accident follows a similar documentation-first logic.