Agriculture (農業) is a long-standing Specified Skilled Worker field with consistent demand, and it has a working pattern that differs from the rest of the programme in ways worth understanding before you commit.
Verify before you act on this. The Specified Skilled Worker system is revised frequently — fields are added, caps are imposed, and requirements change. The Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the ministry responsible for your field are the sources that bind. This page is orientation, not authority.
The two requirements
Language: JFT-Basic at 200+ or JLPT N4+ — identical to every other field.
Skills: the agriculture skills evaluation test. Agriculture is generally divided into cultivation (crop farming) and livestock, and you test into one. Choose deliberately; the work is genuinely different.
Check the test schedule in your country first — it is usually what sets your timeline. See the skills test explained.
What makes agriculture different
The work is seasonal. Farming has peaks and troughs, and the intensity of the year is uneven in a way that factory work is not. The SSW framework includes arrangements intended to accommodate this, including patterns where workers move between farms across seasons. Confirm exactly what arrangement you are being offered, because the variations here are real and they affect your daily life substantially.
It is rural. This is the point most under-weighted by candidates. You are likely to be in a small community, a long way from a city, with limited public transport and few other speakers of your language. For some people that is peace; for others it is isolating in a way they did not anticipate.
Ask specifically where the work is, and look at it on a map before you agree to anything.
It is physically demanding and weather-dependent. Outdoor work, early starts, and conditions that do not pause for the season.
Accommodation is often provided by the employer. Ask what it is, what it costs, and what is deducted — see salary and deductions.
Who it suits
People with genuine farming experience, who are comfortable with physical outdoor work and rural life, and who prefer a smaller and quieter setting to a city.
Agricultural experience helps materially with the skills test, which is about doing the job rather than about theory.
Who it does not
People who assumed “Japan” meant a city. This is the most common mismatch in the field, and it is discovered after arrival rather than before.
If your mental image of working in Japan involves trains, convenience stores and things happening in the evening, look carefully at where you would actually be living before you choose this route.
Long-term prospects
Agriculture is included in the SSW (ii) expansion, which means a route beyond the five-year cap of SSW (i), with family accompaniment and a path towards permanent residency. Confirm the current position for your specific field before relying on it — see SSW (i) versus (ii).
Questions to ask before signing
- Where exactly is the farm? Nearest town, nearest station, distance.
- Cultivation or livestock? What, specifically, will I be doing?
- What is the seasonal pattern, and does it involve moving between employers or locations?
- What accommodation is provided, and what is deducted for it?
- Who is the registered support organisation?
An employer or agency that answers these plainly is a good sign. One that finds them irritating is a different kind of sign — see agency red flags.
Start on the language
It is the requirement common to every field and the one with the longest lead time. Our free practice test will tell you where you stand in about fifteen minutes.