Before you start

A Certificate of Eligibility obtained by your employer or sponsor before the visa application, for most work statuses
A visa issued by a Japanese embassy or consulate
A passport valid well beyond the intended stay
A confirmed Hiroshima address, so you can register within the fourteen-day window

Step-by-step

1
Receive your residence card at the airport
For medium and long-term stays the zairyū card is issued on landing at the major airports. Hiroshima Airport is not one of the card-issuing ports, so most arrivals here are via Haneda, Narita or Kansai — check the name spelling, status of residence and period of stay at the counter, because corrections are far easier there than afterwards.
In personWho: YouOn arrival
2
Register your address at the correct ward office within fourteen days
Hiroshima has eight wards — Naka, Higashi, Minami, Nishi, Asaminami, Asakita, Aki and Saeki — and you must register at the one covering your address. Take your residence card and passport. This produces the jūminhyō and starts your My Number. Fourteen days is a legal deadline, not a target.
In personWho: YouWithin 14 days of moving in
3
Enrol in health insurance and pension in the same visit
If your employer runs shakai hoken they handle it. If not, enrol in National Health Insurance and the National Pension at the ward office while you are already there. Both are compulsory and combining them saves a second morning.
In personWho: YouSame visit
4
Apply for the physical My Number card, not just the number
The number arrives by post; the card is a separate application. It is increasingly used as identification, for online tax filing, and now functions as your health insurance card.
OnlineWho: You
5
Use the Hiroshima bureau for extensions and status changes
The Hiroshima Regional Immigration Services Bureau covers Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Okayama, Tottori and Shimane. Applications for extension of period of stay can be filed from three months before expiry, and the process routinely takes several weeks to two months, so file early rather than close to the date.
In personWho: YouFrom 3 months before expiry
6
Carry the card, and report every move within fourteen days
Foreign residents must carry the residence card at all times. Moving means notifying the new ward office within fourteen days so the card is updated — and that applies to a move between two Hiroshima wards just as much as a move between cities.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport with the visa
Certificate of Eligibility, if issued
Residence card
Proof of your Hiroshima address
Passport photographs to Japanese specification
Employment or enrolment certificate, for extensions

Things most newcomers don’t know

Hosting a regional bureau rather than a branch office is a genuine practical advantage.

Japan has eight regional immigration bureaux — Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Takamatsu and Fukuoka — and dozens of subordinate branch offices. A branch office can accept routine applications but the harder cases, and the decisions, sit with the bureau. Hiroshima is a bureau, so a complicated status change is dealt with in the city you live in. It is the single clearest administrative difference between living here and living in, say, Nagasaki.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

The fourteen-day ward registration is the keystone, and Asakita is not Naka.

Health insurance, most bank accounts, phone contracts and your My Number all depend on being registered as a resident of the specific ward your address sits in. The card issued at the airport does not do this by itself. Hiroshima's eight wards stretch from the delta to genuinely mountainous country, and registering at the wrong office means being sent to the right one against a legal deadline.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

The Highly Skilled Professional points system is worth calculating before you accept a standard status.

Japan scores education, income, age and Japanese ability, and clearing the threshold brings a five-year period of stay, permanent residence in as little as one to three years rather than ten, and easier arrangements for a spouse and parents. Many eligible people never calculate their score because an employer applied for an ordinary work status by default.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

Japan's digital nomad status does not make you a resident of Hiroshima or anywhere else.

The 2024 route permits a six-month stay for remote workers above a high income threshold, but confers no resident status — no ward registration, no National Health Insurance, private cover required, and no path onward. It is a long visit rather than a move. Anyone intending to settle needs a work status with a sponsor.

Source: Immigration Services Agency

Common mistakes to avoid

Missing the fourteen-day ward registration deadline and blocking everything behind it.
Registering at the wrong one of Hiroshima's eight ward offices.
Assuming Hiroshima Airport issues residence cards — plan your entry through a card-issuing port.
Leaving an extension application until the last few weeks before expiry.
Accepting a standard work status without checking your Highly Skilled Professional score.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.