Point system (page 1 of the excel doc for devs):
If you recall, in January there was talk about having highly skilled workers be eligible for PR after only 1 year, that has been implemented as of a few weeks ago.
The timeline for PR is 3 years if you are between 70 and 79 points and 1 year if you have 80+.
I am working on my application now. 
Awesome, thanks for sharing! Hope your application goes well.
This wasn’t immediately obvious to me, but it looks like you need to have the Highly Skilled Foreign Professional for the required number of years to qualify for PR. So if you’re someone who would qualify for that status and have been living in Japan for 3+ years, but haven’t obtained the status yet, you’ll need to apply for it first, and then wait the number of requisite years.
I thought so too, at first. I called to ask about that and they said as long as you can prove you qualified for 80 points a year ago, it will be fine (as long as you have been living in Japan for that whole year).
Although it is a new thing and not every Japanese bureaucrat handles new well. We shall see.
Wow, that’s interesting to hear. If it works retroactively as well, that could make a big difference to a lot of people.
Just checking in.
I went down to immigration today to apply and it worked! The points are indeed retroactive.
I had a valid application (composed of about 15 docs for application and about 5 for the points).
Before you can actually apply, your application gets checked to make sure you fulfill the base requirements. I had 1 check for the overall application and another counter checked to make sure that my points were valid.
I then waited 4 hours to submit my application, which was Hanko’d all over the place.
However, just because my application is valid, does not mean my request will he granted. I should find out the response within 4 months.
Interesting to hear they actually check the validity of the documents. With the normal PR process, they don’t seem to do much more than checking you have the listed documents (it only took them about 5 minutes to process my application). Hopefully that means you have a good shot of getting your PR!
I don’t know how thorough they were in checking, but they did make it clear that they had to make sure I qualified for the points before actually putting the application into the bureaucratic abyss. ;p
I hope so! But it’s my first try, so my expectations are in check.
that’s great. thanks for sharing. 