Neither is automatically the easier route. The Highly Skilled Professional visa (HSP, 高度専門職) has its own executive and management category, called 高度経営・管理活動, but it qualifies on a personal points test, not a lighter version of the Management Visa (経営・管理). An executive who clears 70 points can apply under HSP's own executive track and gain a faster path to permanent residence; an executive who cannot has the Management Visa once the company meets its entity-level thresholds.
What Is the Difference Between the HSP Visa and the Management Visa?
The core difference is what each status tests: HSP scores the individual applicant, while the Management Visa sets fixed requirements on the operating company. Both sit under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (入管法, "the Immigration Act"): the Management Visa status is listed as 経営・管理 in Appended Table I-2 of the Immigration Act, and HSP is granted under the points-based system generally referred to as the Points-Based System for Highly Skilled Professionals (高度人材ポイント制).
A Management Visa applicant does not accumulate points at all. The company either meets the entity thresholds (capital, staffing, language coverage, business plan certification, office) or it does not, and the applicant's personal profile, income, or age is not scored against a table. HSP works in the opposite direction: the company's structure is a background fact, and the applicant's own credentials generate a numeric score against a published table. The points mechanism is explained in detail in a separate worked example, which is worth reading before assuming either status applies.
Does HSP Have an Executive or Management Category?
Yes. HSP has three application categories, and one of them, 高度経営・管理活動 (1号ハ), is specifically for executive and management roles at Japan-registered entities. The other two categories, 高度学術研究活動 (1号イ) for academic researchers and 高度専門・技術活動 (1号ロ) for technical and specialized professionals, do not apply to a company principal running the business.
This is the point most founders miss when they assume HSP is simply the easy visa and the Management Visa is the hard one for executives. An executive running a Japan company is not locked into the Management Visa by default; if the applicant's personal profile scores 70 or more points on the 1号ハ points table covering academic credentials, professional experience, annual income, age, Japanese language proficiency, and bonus categories, HSP's own executive category is the applicable route, not a fallback. The two statuses are not tiers of the same test; they are two different tests that happen to converge on the same job function.
Which Should a Company Executive Apply For?
The correct status depends on which threshold the applicant can clear first: the personal points threshold or the entity threshold. Since the October 16, 2025 reform, the Management Visa requires the operating KK or GK to meet, at minimum, paid-in capital of at least JPY 30 million and at least one qualifying full-time employee in addition to the applicant, along with language proficiency at JLPT N2 or CEFR B2 level (held by the applicant or the qualifying employee), three years of qualifying management or administration experience or a relevant master's, doctoral, or professional degree, a business plan certified by a Japan-licensed Certified Public Accountant (公認会計士), Tax Accountant (税理士), or Small and Medium Enterprise Management Consultant (中小企業診断士), and commercial office premises. The reform detail is covered in a dedicated guide to the October 2025 changes.
An executive whose personal profile scores 70 or more points on the HSP 1号ハ table, and whose company already meets or is on a credible path to the Management Visa-level capital and employment thresholds, can pursue the HSP executive category directly rather than a plain Management Visa. An executive who cannot clear 70 points, or whose company has not yet reached the JPY 30 million capital and one-employee floor, has the Management Visa as the applicable route once those entity thresholds are met, with no points test involved. Neither path skips the company's own build-out; HSP simply changes which score the applicant needs to hit and what the reward is for hitting it.
Key points:
(a) HSP qualification is a personal points test (70+ points across academic credentials, professional experience, annual income, age, Japanese language proficiency, and bonus categories); the Management Visa qualification is a fixed set of entity-level requirements on the operating company, with no points involved.
(b) HSP-1 holders may apply to upgrade to HSP-2 after 3 years of qualifying activity, or after 1 year if scoring 80 or more points; HSP-2 status confers near-permanent-residence privileges and opens the permanent residence application. The Management Visa carries no such accelerated timeline by itself.
(c) A company executive is not required to choose the Management Visa by default. If the personal points profile clears 70, the executive-and-management category within HSP (高度経営・管理活動, 1号ハ) is the applicable route and should be evaluated against the Management Visa's fixed entity thresholds before either application is filed.
An adjacent third option, the J-SKIP designation, also carries an accelerated permanent-residence path and is worth ruling in or out at the same time; the comparison between J-SKIP and HSP covers where the two diverge for a high-income professional who is not necessarily an executive. Where the applicant's route runs through either accelerated status or the plain Management Visa, the underlying entity build-out, staffing, and filing sequence are the same body of work; see the immigration service overview for how that build-out is structured.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a company executive apply for the HSP visa instead of the Management Visa?
Yes, if the executive scores 70 or more points on the HSP executive and management category (高度経営・管理活動, 1号ハ) points table. This is a genuinely separate qualification path from the Management Visa, not an easier version of it; the applicant's personal profile (income, education, experience, age, and Japanese language ability) is scored directly, while the Management Visa instead sets fixed requirements on the operating company.
Is the HSP visa easier to get than the Management Visa?
Neither is uniformly easier; they test different things. HSP requires the applicant to personally clear a 70-point threshold across several scored categories, while the Management Visa requires the operating KK or GK to meet fixed entity thresholds, including JPY 30 million in paid-in capital and at least one qualifying full-time employee since the October 2025 reform. An executive with a strong income and credential profile may find HSP more attainable; a company that already meets the entity thresholds but whose founder has a weaker points profile will find the Management Visa the applicable route.
Which visa leads to permanent residence faster, HSP or the Management Visa?
HSP has a materially faster structural path: HSP-1 holders can apply to upgrade to HSP-2 after 3 years, or after just 1 year if scoring 80 or more points, and HSP-2 confers near-permanent-residence privileges that open the permanent residence application. The Management Visa does not include this accelerated mechanism on its own; a Management Visa holder follows the general residency track unless they separately qualify for HSP, J-SKIP, or another accelerated designation.
Conclusion
An executive planning to both own and run a Japan company should not assume the Management Visa is the only route or that HSP is a shortcut around it. The two statuses test different things, a personal points profile against HSP's 70-point threshold, or a fixed entity structure against the Management Visa's post-2025 capital and staffing floor, and they lead to different residency timelines. Running both tests against the specific applicant and company before filing determines which status actually applies, and sometimes the answer is that both routes are open and the choice comes down to which timeline the applicant prefers.
This article is informational only and does not constitute legal, tax, or regulatory advice. Consult a qualified advisor before acting on the content. Last updated: August 2026.