The Real Cost of a Japan Work Visa: A Full Breakdown

Key Takeaways

• A Japan work visa for SSW is not one fee. It is a short list of separate government, clinic, and test fees that you pay yourself.
• Add them up and the realistic total is roughly PHP 12,000 on the low end to about PHP 20,000 on the high end, depending on your field and which clinic you use.
• The biggest swing in that range comes from your skills evaluation test fee and your medical exam, not from the visa itself.
• Airfare and any Japanese language classes sit outside this total. Airfare is usually the employer's cost per contract; classes are optional.
• If a recruiter's number is far above PHP 20,000, ask them to show you which item accounts for the difference. There usually is not a good answer.

Why "how much does it cost" needs a real number

Search "work visa Japan cost" and you will find guesses, old numbers, and posts that quietly bundle in a placement fee that should not exist at all. That makes it hard to plan, and it makes it easy for a bad actor to name a number that sounds reasonable.

This is the opposite of a guess. It is the same figures published on our cost table on /money, added up into two totals, so you know roughly how much cash to set aside before you sign anything.

One thing this article does not cover: the placement fee. There is no such fee for Japan-bound SSW workers, and if someone asks you for one, that is a separate problem covered in what you should never pay. What follows here is only the money that is legitimately yours to pay.

The bill, item by item

These are the same figures on our money page, current as of September 2026. Confirm the exact numbers before you pay anything, because government and test fees change.

Two totals, so you can actually budget

Put the required items together and you get a range, not one number.

Low estimate, roughly PHP 12,000. This is a passport renewal, a skills test at the cheaper end of Prometric's list, and a clinic on the lower end of the medical exam range. Add the JFT-Basic fee, NBI clearance, and the visa fee, and you land close to PHP 12,000.

High estimate, roughly PHP 20,000. This is a first-time passport, a skills test at the pricier end (some fields cost more to evaluate than others), and a clinic at the higher end of the medical exam range. The rest of the items stay the same, so the total climbs to close to PHP 20,000.

Notice that this upper number matches what our money page already says: legitimate costs "are small" and anything well past PHP 20,000 deserves a hard question. Now you can see exactly why that line sits where it does. It is not a round guess. It is what the items actually add up to.

Where the swing comes from

Two items move the total more than anything else, and they are worth understanding before you pay.

The skills evaluation test. Prometric's published fee list ranges from about PHP 380 to PHP 2,900 depending on your field. Caregiving has an added Care Japanese Test on top of the regular skills test, which pushes that field toward the higher end.

The medical exam. DOH-accredited clinics set their own rates within a published range, so two applicants in the same field can pay different amounts depending on which accredited clinic they use. Ask the clinic for their current rate before you book, and confirm it is accredited for Japan-bound workers specifically.

Everything else on the list, the passport, NBI clearance, JFT-Basic, and the visa fee, is a fixed government rate that does not depend on your field.

What is not in this total

Airfare. Most SSW contracts have the employer cover it, but confirm this in writing before you assume it. If your contract says you pay, that is legal, it just needs to be written down, not sprung on you at the airport.

Japanese language classes. These are optional. Prices for a private school range widely, from around PHP 5,000 to PHP 40,000, but free materials exist if you study on your own. Nobody can require you to enroll in a specific paid class as a condition of deployment.

Anything after you land. This total covers what you pay in the Philippines before departure. What comes out of your Japanese payslip once you start working, insurance, pension, tax, is a separate topic, covered in SSW salary in Japan.

If you are already in Japan and switching employers

The costs above are for a first deployment from the Philippines. If you are already working in Japan under SSW and moving to a new employer in the same field, the process and the costs are different, since you are not starting from a Philippine passport application. See changing jobs in Japan on an SSW visa for that separate process.

Use the total as a scam check

You now have a number: roughly PHP 12,000 to 20,000, all paid to a government office, an accredited clinic, or an official test provider, each with a receipt in that office's own name.

If an agency or "consultant" quotes you a package price well above that, ask a direct question: which item on this list costs that much more? A legitimate answer names a specific item and a specific reason. "Processing," "guarantee," or "reservation" are not items on this list, because they are not real costs. They are a placement fee wearing a different name.

Check any agency's license before you pay anything at /check, and keep every receipt in the item's own name, not a personal account.

Sources

• Department of Migrant Workers (DMW): licensed agency verification, OEC issuance
• Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA): passport fee schedule
• Prometric: SSW skills evaluation test and JFT-Basic fee list, September 2026
• Embassy of Japan in the Philippines: consular fees, 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2027
• National Bureau of Investigation (NBI): clearance fee schedule
• OWWA: PDOS
• Hanapon: /money, /check