The difference between working in Japan vs Korea is not salary or language difficulty. It is where you have to be standing when you get on the ladder. Japan lets you enter at the skilled tier from your own country. Korea’s skilled visa is a promotion you earn after about four years inside the country.
Both have built a genuine route from entry-level work to long-term status, which is rarer in Asia than people assume. They just start in different places.
Japan: you can arrive skilled
The Specified Skilled Worker system has 16 operational fields and you qualify for it from abroad. Pass the skills test for your field and a Japanese test, and you are eligible before you ever set foot in the country.
What it asks for is unusual in what it leaves out. There is no degree requirement and no qualification recognition, which is the barrier that blocks trades workers across Europe. What it does require cannot be avoided:
- A skills test for the specific field. Not a portfolio, not experience, an actual examination.
- Japanese at JFT-Basic or JLPT N4. Six months to a year of steady study for most people.
- Nursing care adds a further Japanese test on top of that.
The part that matters most in a comparison is the second tier. SSW (ii) is renewable indefinitely and permits family, and construction and shipbuilding were the original two fields on it, with most of the rest added since. That turns a work permit into something you can build a life around. Detail in our Specified Skilled Worker guide, plus how the certificate of eligibility works and the wider Japanese work visas.
Korea: the skilled visa is a promotion
Korea’s equivalent is the E-7-4 skilled worker visa, and it is not an entry route. It exists to move people who are already working in Korea onto something more stable, normally after four or more years on an E-9 non-professional employment visa, an E-10 crew visa or an H-2 visit employment visa.
The scale is real and growing. The 2026 E-7-4 quota is at an all-time high of 33,000, and Korea decided to bring in 80,000 E-9 workers in 2026. So the pipeline is wide at the bottom and the promotion is genuinely available.
It is scored, and the scoring tells you what Korea is optimising for. The threshold is typically 60 points, built from salary, tenure, certifications and Korean language ability, and:
- You need an average annual income of at least KRW 25 million over the previous two years.
- Employer recommendation is worth 50 points, which makes your relationship with one employer close to decisive.
- Applicants aged 27 to 33 score highest.
- There are bonus points for working in depopulation areas.
Read that employer recommendation figure carefully, because it is the risk in the Korean route. Fifty of the sixty points you need can come from the goodwill of the company you work for. That is a lot of leverage in one place, and it is worth knowing before you accept a job rather than after. The residence tiers above it are covered in our guide to Korea’s F visas and the policy direction in how Korea is easing visas.
How you actually get on the Korean ladder
Since the E-7-4 is a promotion, the real question is how you reach the E-9 in the first place, and the answer surprises people: you do not apply to a Korean employer. The Employment Permit System is run government to government, with Korea signing agreements with a defined list of sending countries, and candidates enter through their own country’s designated agency.
Three consequences worth knowing before anyone quotes you a price:
- Your nationality decides whether the route exists for you. If your country has no agreement with Korea, there is no E-9 to apply for.
- The language test is the gate. Applicants sit a Korean examination run for this purpose, and the results feed the roster employers select from.
- A private agent cannot get you an E-9. Selection runs through the official channel, so anyone charging a placement fee for one is selling something they do not control. This is the single most common fraud aimed at Korean-bound workers.
Japan is different in this respect too, and worth comparing directly: there you can prepare and qualify entirely on your own initiative, then be hired by a registered organisation. Nobody allocates you a place.
Side by side
| Japan | South Korea | |
|---|---|---|
| Can you qualify from abroad? | Yes. Skills test plus a language test | Not for the skilled visa. You enter on E-9 and apply after about four years |
| What gets you in | A skills test for one of 16 fields | An E-9 place, allocated within an annual intake of 80,000 for 2026 |
| The skilled tier | SSW (i), then SSW (ii) | E-7-4, quota 33,000 in 2026, typically 60 points |
| Language | JFT-Basic or JLPT N4 to enter | Contributes points rather than gating entry |
| Long-term status | SSW (ii) renews indefinitely and permits family | E-7-4 leads towards F-2 and eventually F-5 permanent residence |
| Biggest risk | Failing the tests. They are the whole gate | The 50-point employer recommendation sitting with your employer |
Which one suits you
- If you want to arrive already skilled, Japan. Study for the tests at home and enter on a status that renews.
- If you can commit to a longer runway, Korea works, and the quotas say it is being expanded rather than tightened.
- If you are 27 to 33, the Korean points system is explicitly built to favour you.
- If you have family to bring, Japan’s SSW (ii) is the clearer answer, and it is available in more fields each year.
- Either way, start the language now. In Japan it is the gate. In Korea it is points. There is no version of this where it does not matter.
Related: work visas that need no degree and mechanic jobs abroad, since automobile repair is one of the Japanese fields. Browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.
Last checked September 2026. Korean quotas are set annually and the E-7-4 scoring is revised; Japan has added Specified Skilled Worker fields several times and more are announced but not yet open. Confirm before acting.
