Hotel and Ryokan Jobs on the ESI Visa: Official ISA Cases on Duties, Training and Language

1. What hotel work the ESI status covers

As tourism has grown, the ISA has published guidelines on hotel and ryokan jobs to make the screening more predictable. A hotel job can qualify for the ESI status if it needs professional knowledge or skills, or a way of thinking based on a foreign culture. Based on the published cases:

You also need the usual education or experience. The job must be related to what you studied, and for graduates of Japanese vocational schools (senmon gakko), the connection is checked more strictly than for university graduates. In the published cases, graduates of hotel service and translation courses were approved for front desk work, while a graduate of a fashion design course was refused. For more on this, see Part 2. For the basic requirements of this visa, see our Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa guide.

2. Case 1: The real duties were luggage, cleaning and serving (refused)

What happened

• A graduate of a foreign university who had majored in economics applied to be hired by a hotel in Japan. When the ISA asked for detailed documents on the planned duties, it found that the main work was carrying guests’ luggage and cleaning rooms. Refused.
• A graduate of a Japanese university who had majored in commerce applied to be hired by a newly opened hotel. The planned duties were guiding cars in the parking lot and serving and clearing food in the restaurant. Refused.

By contrast, a graduate of a foreign university’s tourism department was approved for front desk work in foreign languages and for guiding foreign guests around the hotel’s facilities, at about JPY 220,000 a month.

What to learn from it

• A degree alone is not enough. The ISA may ask for detailed documents on your daily duties, and it decides on those duties, not on your job title.
• New hotels and short-staffed hotels may need help with every task. Before you apply, ask the employer what you will actually do each day, and how often.

3. Case 2: Training at a hotel — how long is too long?

Approved: six months of training, then the front desk

A graduate of a Japanese university who had majored in business administration was hired by a hotel popular with foreign tourists as a career-track employee (management candidate). After two months of mainly classroom training and four months of customer service training at the front desk and in the restaurant, the employee moved to front desk work in foreign languages, handling requests from foreign guests and planning accommodation packages, at about JPY 300,000 a month. This was approved.

In another approved case, a vocational school graduate was hired as a career-track employee at a large resort hotel. The shifts included some restaurant service and handling room supply requests. However, the main work was translation and interpreting at the front desk, reservation management, concierge work in the lobby and analyzing guest satisfaction, and it was the same work as that of the Japanese career-track employees.

Refused: two years of serving and cleaning

A vocational school graduate who had studied hotel services and business practice applied to work at the front desk of a hotel. The documents showed that for the first two years, the employee would work mainly in the restaurant and cleaning rooms as “practical training”. Because this non-qualifying work would take up most of the stay, the application was refused.

In a further refused case, a hotel planned one year of restaurant and cleaning work as training before front desk work. The ISA found that foreign employees hired by the same hotel for the same reason in the past were still serving food and cleaning rooms, long after their planned training had ended. The application was refused.

What to learn from it

• Training in the restaurant or at the front desk can be accepted when it is short, fixed in length and the same as the training Japanese employees receive.
• Training that takes up most of your expected stay is not accepted. When training is included, the first period of stay is in principle one year, and at the extension the ISA checks that you have moved to qualifying work.
• The ISA can look at how the employer treated foreign employees before. A hotel’s track record can affect your application.
• For the general rules on training, see Part 1.

4. Case 3: An interpreter who did not speak the guests’ language (refused)

What happened

A graduate of a foreign university who had majored in Japanese studies applied to work at a ryokan as an interpreter for foreign guests. However, most of the foreign guests spoke a language different from the applicant’s native language, and the applicant could not prove ability equivalent to CEFR B2 in the guests’ main language. The ISA found that there was not enough work for the applicant to do in their native language, and the application was refused.

What to learn from it

• For an interpreting or front desk job, the question is not only whether you speak foreign languages, but whether you speak the languages the guests actually use, and whether there is enough work in those languages.
• For work that mainly uses language skills with people, the ISA expects CEFR B2-level ability in the language used. Your native language or an official language of your country counts. For other languages, a test result showing CEFR B2 or higher is the usual proof. For Japanese, JLPT N2 or higher, BJT 400 or higher, an EJU Japanese score of 200 or higher or a JPT score of 525 or higher can be used (see EJU and JPT Scores Now Accepted as Proof of Japanese).
• If the employer is in Category 3 or 4, proof must be submitted with the application. Even with a Category 1 or 2 employer, the ISA may ask for it during the review.

5. Pay: the same rule applies

The hotel guidelines also include a refusal on pay: a front desk hire at a ryokan at about JPY 150,000 a month, when Japanese employees hired at about the same time for similar work received about JPY 200,000, with no reasonable explanation for the difference. Pay must be at least equal to what a Japanese employee would receive. See Part 1 for more.

6. A quick check before you apply

1. What will I do on a normal day? Is the main work front desk, guest services, interpreting, marketing or planning, not luggage, cleaning or serving?
2. If there is training, how long is it, is the end fixed, and do Japanese employees receive the same training?
3. Which languages do most of the guests speak, and can I show CEFR B2-level ability in those languages?
4. Is the job related to what I studied?
5. Is my pay at least the same as that of Japanese employees hired for the same work?

Disclaimer: This article is provided for general information only and is not legal advice on any individual case. The information is based on sources available as of October 29, 2026. Laws, guidelines and their application may change without notice. The cases described are summaries of examples published by the Immigration Services Agency and do not guarantee the outcome of any other application. TKG Immigration Consulting Office accepts no liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of this information. In case of any difference between our English descriptions and the original Japanese texts, the Japanese texts prevail.