Overstay

If your visa has expired and overstayed, you must go into the immigration bureau voluntarily to report and explain your overstay and situation.

Departure order system:

If your status is just overstay, without illegal entry, imprisonment and violations of laws, you can leave Japan with no fine, no detention, no charge and only blacklist you for one year (i.e., landing denial period)

Departure order system and Deportation
overstay

The following requirements may need to be satisfied for the Departure Order System

  1. The foreign national has appeared at an immigration office voluntarily;
  2. The foreign national does not come under any of the grounds for deportation other than overstaying*;
  3. The foreign national has not been sentenced to imprisonment with or without labor on the charge of larceny or other prescribed crimes after entering Japan;
  4. The foreign national has no past record of deportation, nor that of departure by a departure order;
  5. The foreign national is expected with certainty to depart from Japan immediately.

*If you entered into Japan illegally, this departure order system is not applied.

Special permission to stay

If you want to keep staying in Japan instead of departure and deportation, you can ask
the Minister of Justice to grant special permission to stay.

This special decision may be granted in the following cases:

  1. A person has obtained permission for permanent residence
  2. A person has had in the past a permanent domicile in Japan as a Japanese national
  3. The Minister of Justice finds any other grounds for granting special permission to stay; or
  4. A person is recognized as a refugee

The special permission to stay is subject to the wide discretion of the Minister of Justice, so everything is case by case.