Japan Unlikely to Raise Specified Skilled Worker Visa Cap for Food Service, Minister Onoda Says
Updated: 5 minutes ago
TOKYO, 5 November 2026 – Japan is unlikely to raise the intake cap for the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) Type I visa in the food-service industry, the minister responsible for foreign nationals policy has indicated, even as business groups press the government to reconsider the restrictions. Kimi Onoda, the minister in charge of policies related to foreign nationals, told a news conference on 2 November 2026 that demand for the SSW programme is expected to decline in the long term, and that there is therefore no need to expand the cap. Her remarks, reported by The Japan Times and The Asahi Shimbun, come after the government stopped accepting new applications for the food-service sector in April 2026, when the number of SSW Type I holders was projected to reach the 50,000 ceiling set for the industry through March 2029.
Food Service Hit Its Cap in April 2026
The food-service sector reached its SSW Type I limit far earlier than planned. According to an official notice published by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (ISA) on 27 March 2026, approximately 46,000 foreign nationals held food-service SSW Type I status as of the end of February 2026, and the figure was expected to exceed the 50,000 intake limit around May 2026. In response, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the ISA decided on 13 April 2026 to suspend the issuance of Certificates of Eligibility (CoE) for the food-service field, invoking Article 7-2, paragraphs 3 and 4, of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. Applications for CoE received on or after 13 April 2026 are not being approved, while applications received before that date are being processed sequentially within the expected intake limit, with priority given to change-of-status applications from people already in Japan.
The official SSW support website maintained by the ISA now states plainly under the food-service field that “we are not accepting new applications at this time.” Separate reporting indicates that the sector’s SSW population had reached 49,290 by the end of July 2026, or 98.6% of the 50,000 cap, confirming how tight the remaining headroom had become.
Onoda’s Argument: Productivity, AI, and a Shrinking Need
Minister Onoda’s position is not simply that the cap should stay where it is; she has argued that the number of SSW workers Japan needs should eventually shrink. At the 2 November news conference, she was asked whether the government plans to raise the cap further. She replied that because demand for the SSW programme is expected to decline over the long term, there is no need to do so. “If productivity rises, working conditions improve and more (Japanese) people come to work in the sector, the shortfall, and therefore the number of (SSW) workers, should naturally decline,” Onoda told reporters.
She developed the point further in remarks reported by The Asahi Shimbun, describing the SSW programme as a system intended to fill labour shortages only after industries have made efforts to improve productivity, use domestic human resources, and improve working conditions. Noting that some workers move on to the more advanced SSW Type II status, which has no effective limit on stay or intake, Onoda pointed to advances in AI and improved labour-market conditions. “Far from expanding, the cap on the number of workers accepted should naturally shrink as time goes on,” she said. “This is not a discussion about simply increasing the number of workers accepted because there is a labour shortage.”
A Partial Workaround: Meal Services at Medical and Welfare Facilities
Although the general food-service cap remains closed, the government has moved to address one specific bottleneck. In October 2026 it announced plans to tweak the programme so that foreign workers can be accepted for meal services at medical and welfare facilities under a different framework from the restaurant sector, with the change intended to take effect from April 2027. The Japan Times reported that the government said last month it plans to accept more foreign workers specifically for meal services at medical and welfare facilities starting next April. This reclassification allows a category of food-preparation work that sits close to the nursing-care and welfare sectors to be treated separately from the capped restaurant industry, without reopening the restaurant quota itself.
The distinction matters for employers and prospective applicants. Work waiting on customers and bringing out food at restaurants and similar businesses remains within the capped food-service field and is currently closed to new applications, as the ISA’s SSW field description makes clear. Meal preparation in hospitals, nursing-care facilities, and similar settings is being routed through a separate arrangement, and applicants should confirm which field and quota their intended role falls under before making plans.
Business Groups Want the Cap Reviewed
The minister’s remarks have not settled the debate. The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in May 2026 that “experts and other relevant parties should review the appropriateness of the cap, including why it was reached, and consider raising it if necessary”. Other industries are also expected to reach their caps sooner than anticipated, which has reinforced calls from business groups for a broader review. Japan is grappling with chronic domestic labour shortages driven by its ageing and shrinking population, with businesses increasingly relying on foreign workers to fill vacancies in sectors such as food service, nursing care, and construction. The government’s overall plan envisages accepting more than 800,000 foreign nationals across 19 sectors, with a maximum of 50,000 in food service by March 2029.
Wider Immigration Policy Context
Onoda’s intervention comes as the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi moves to tighten immigration controls, including revising guidelines for some residence statuses and cracking down on violations by foreign residents. A government expert panel is reviewing Japan’s overall approach to accepting foreign nationals, and the government is expected to formulate a basic policy on that approach by the end of March 2027, including the question of whether an overall cap on the number of foreign residents should be introduced. The food-service cap debate is therefore playing out within a much larger policy conversation about the scale and management of foreign labour in Japan, not as an isolated sectoral adjustment.
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What This Means for Employers and Applicants
For employers in the restaurant sector, the practical position is that no new SSW Type I applications are being accepted for food service, and the minister has indicated that the cap is unlikely to be raised. Employers should monitor the ISA’s official SSW application pages for any change in the suspension, and should not assume that the October 2026 meal-services adjustment reopens the restaurant quota. For prospective applicants, the key distinction is between restaurant work, which remains closed, and meal services at medical and welfare facilities, which is being addressed through a separate arrangement from April 2027. Applicants should also note that the SSW programme’s official support site sets out the skills and Japanese-language testing requirements for each field, and that the food-service field page currently confirms the suspension of new applications.
The broader signal from the minister’s remarks is that Japan’s SSW caps are intended to be ceilings that reflect genuine residual shortages after domestic efforts, not targets to be expanded whenever employers report difficulty hiring. Whether that approach survives the business-group pressure and the expected arrival of other sectors at their own caps will be one of the central immigration questions of 2027.
For more news and daily updates on Japan visas and immigration policy, visit visasupdate.com/blog/category/japan
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