Where Foreign Residents Can Get Official Help in Japan

Official sources checked September 16, 2026

Choose help by problem and jurisdiction, not by the organization with the broadest-sounding name. Before calling, visiting, emailing, or uploading a document, open the current official page and confirm the service's scope, area, language, hours, cost, reservation rule, and contact method.

This directory is for mid-to-long-term foreign residents who need to find the right official starting point. It is general service-navigation information, not legal, immigration, employment, consumer, housing, financial, medical, or emergency advice. Omnishoku does not provide consultation, submit a case, or represent you. The responsible agency and its current instructions control.

Emergency or Non-Emergency?

For an incident that needs the police now, call 110. For fire or an ambulance, call 119. Do not call either number to test a phone or ask a routine question. The National Police Agency and Fire and Disaster Management Agency publish the current emergency guidance; this page covers non-emergency service selection only.

Choose the Right Official Starting Point

Problem	Start here	What this route can do	Check before contact
Visa application before entering Japan	MOFA's visa hub and the Japanese embassy, consulate, or visa-information route responsible for where you live	Explain the current overseas visa process and local application route	Mission jurisdiction, purpose, application method, documents, and whether you need a visa. A visa is not a status of residence.
Entry or status-of-residence procedure in Japan	ISA's Foreign Resident General Information Center or the responsible regional immigration office	Give general guidance from published ISA information and direct you to the responsible procedure	Language and contact method. It cannot predict approval or give every individual case-progress answer.
Resident registration or another local-life procedure	Your city, ward, town, or village; start with ISA's Daily Life Support Portal when you need to find a consultation desk	Help identify the local counter for registration, insurance, pension, tax, childcare, education, welfare, garbage, or another municipal service	The municipality for your actual address, who the desk serves, language, appointment, and whether it offers information, interpretation, or a specialist referral.
Finding work	Hello Work services for job seekers or the current foreign-employment service for your area	Support job search, registration, vacancy referrals, and related employment-service tasks	Which office serves you, work eligibility for the vacancy, language, registration, and whether an in-person step is required.
Pay, hours, leave, dismissal, safety, or another working-condition concern	MHLW's foreign-language counseling services and hotlines or a listed Labour Bureau adviser	Give general working-condition guidance and identify the appropriate labor route	Current language day, hours, call cost, local office, and whether the service fits your issue. This is not a job-search service.
Purchase, subscription, phone, utility, or another consumer contract	The business first when safe and appropriate, then your local consumer-affairs center or Consumer Hotline 188	Route a consumer complaint or question to a local consultation service	Local eligibility, language, opening time, call charges, and phone compatibility. 188 does not connect you to the Consumer Affairs Agency itself.
General legal-system information or a suitable legal service	Houterasu's Multilingual Information Service	Give general information about Japan's legal system and refer you to a suitable service	Language, call charges, location, and the separate conditions for legal aid. Information, professional advice, and representation are different services.
Discrimination or another human-rights concern	MOJ's foreign-language human-rights counseling through a Legal Affairs Bureau	Receive counseling and consider the published investigation or remedy process	Current language and access method. The route is not a court, police service, or lawyer and cannot promise a compulsory remedy or particular outcome.

One situation may need more than one route. For example, job loss could create both a working-condition question and a status-of-residence question. Use each agency for the part it actually owns.

What FRESC Is—and Is Not

The Foreign Residents Support Center (FRESC) is a government center in Yotsuya, Tokyo, where eight bodies from four ministries and agencies work on one floor. Resident-facing routes include Tokyo immigration consultation, labor consultation, employment support, human-rights counseling, MOFA visa information, and Houterasu. Other bodies have different functions, including business support and information-disclosure requests.

FRESC is not one universal adviser. Its representative phone menu connects the caller to a selected body, and each body keeps its own scope, languages, appointment rules, and access methods. The Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau's residence consultation at FRESC is a reserved in-person or online consultation. It is distinct from the general telephone information center, and it does not take consultation calls through the reservation service.

Houterasu at FRESC can coordinate with immigration or labor bodies when an issue crosses categories. That does not turn every agency into a single caseworker. If you live outside Tokyo, first check the national, regional, prefectural, or municipal route for your actual problem; a trip to FRESC is not the default answer.

Find Multilingual Help Where You Live

Use this method instead of relying on an old nationwide office list:

1. Identify the municipality for your actual address. A designated city may have both a citywide center and separate ward procedures.
2. Open ISA's current Daily Life Support Portal or your municipality's official domain.
3. Confirm who the desk serves and whether it handles your topic directly or provides information, interpretation, a specialist appointment, or a referral.
4. Check language by day and method. In-person, phone, email, and video interpretation may not offer the same languages.
5. Check the appointment, fee, confidentiality, geographic, document, and accessibility rules on that desk's current page.
6. If the issue is outside its remit, ask for the exact specialist office and official page rather than a general organization name.

For example, the YOKOHAMA Foreign Residents Information Center serves non-Japanese residents of Yokohama. Its current city page describes multilingual daily-life consultation, phone interpretation with ward offices, and scheduled specialist consultation. That is a useful model for what to verify, not proof that another municipality offers the same eligibility, languages, schedule, or services.

Job Search, Workplace Problem, or Legal Issue?

• Use Hello Work to look for work, register as a job seeker, and ask about the employment service that applies to you.
• Use MHLW's working-condition routes for general guidance about wages, hours, leave, dismissal, safety, or workplace rules.
• Use Houterasu when you need general legal-system information or a referral to a suitable service.
• Use the Legal Affairs Bureau human-rights route when discrimination or another rights concern fits its published scope.
• Use 110 or 119 when the situation requires an immediate police, fire, or ambulance response.

These routes can overlap, but they do not replace one another. This page cannot tell you which legal or employment claim you have or what result you should receive.

For a Consumer Contract Problem

Contact the provider first when that is safe and appropriate. Ask for the contract-specific answer in writing and keep the agreement, disclosures, invoice, payment record, cancellation attempt, error message, and relevant correspondence.

If the issue remains unresolved, Consumer Hotline 188 uses location information such as a postal code to route a caller to a nearby local consumer-affairs service. The consultation can be free while phone charges still apply. Some IP and prepaid phones may not connect, and 188 is not a call to the Consumer Affairs Agency. Use the National Consumer Affairs Center's local consultation-office search as an alternative.

Do not assume 188 or the selected local center can consult in your preferred language. Verify language and resident-area rules with that center before relying on it.

Prepare Before You Contact a Service

Prepare a short private note with:

• a one- or two-sentence description of the problem and what you are asking this service to do;
• your current municipality and the relevant prefecture, employer, school, provider, property, court, or immigration office;
• each filing, payment, cancellation, appeal, renewal, court, or contract deadline copied exactly from the current notice or document;
• your preferred language and another contact method if that language is not available by phone;
• key dates, names, contract or case references, notices, and a short chronology; and
• whom you already contacted, when, and what that office said.

Ask the service which documents it needs and how to send them securely. Do not email or upload a passport, Residence Card, My Number, bank credential, medical record, employment record, or full contract to an address found on an unofficial page.

Before contact, verify the official domain or official-government referral, the issue and geographic remit, current date and holiday closure, language and method, reservation, service type, cost, domestic or overseas access, phone limits, and required identification. A consultation, interpretation service, referral, legal-aid decision, and professional representation are not the same thing.

When One Problem Needs More Than One Route

Name the immediate deadline and the authority that owns it first. Then contact each relevant specialist route or a genuine one-stop desk. Examples include a status-of-residence question after job loss, a rental contract plus a legal dispute, or workplace discrimination plus unpaid wages.

Record the date, service, staff name or reference number when provided, and the next step. If the first service is not responsible, ask for the exact office, department, and official page. A referral, unanswered call, translation delay, employer discussion, or Omnishoku page does not pause a filing, payment, appeal, renewal, cancellation, or court deadline unless the responsible authority says it does.

Related Omnishoku Guides

• Use the first-month checklist for the order of newcomer administration tasks.
• Use the job-search guide for vacancies, employer checks, and sponsorship planning—not a workplace dispute.
• Use the rental guide, phone guide, and utilities guide for provider-first steps before escalation.
• Use the Specified Skilled Worker guide for the separate support-plan boundary that applies to SSW(i).
• Use the Japan visa resources for Omnishoku's country-planning pages; MOFA and the responsible Japanese mission remain the official visa sources.

FAQ

Is FRESC the same as immigration?

No. Immigration is one of eight co-located bodies at FRESC. Labor, employment, human-rights, visa-information, legal-information, business-support, and information-disclosure functions keep separate remits.

Can FRESC or ISA tell me whether my application will be approved?

No approval forecast is promised. ISA's general information center explains published entry and residence procedures, but it says it cannot answer questions such as an individual permission outlook or every case-progress request.

Is official help available outside Tokyo?

Yes, depending on the issue. ISA has regional routes, MHLW lists labor services, Houterasu has local offices, Legal Affairs Bureaus operate nationwide, and municipalities may run one-stop or multilingual desks. Verify the office that serves your location. FRESC's Tokyo immigration consultation also lists an online option, but its current reservation rules still apply.

Can I receive help in English or another language?

Maybe. Language access varies by service, day, location, and contact method. Check the current service page; do not assume a language offered in person is also offered by phone, email, or online consultation.

Is consultation free?

It depends on the named service and method. A consultation may be free while a phone or data charge applies. A referral to a lawyer or another professional can lead to a different fee. Verify before contact.

Should I use Hello Work for a wage or dismissal problem?

Use Hello Work for job-seeking and employment-service tasks. For general guidance about wages, hours, dismissal, safety, or other working conditions, start with MHLW's foreign-worker counseling routes.

Does Houterasu give every foreign resident a free lawyer?

No. Its multilingual service provides general legal-system information and referrals. Free legal consultation and an interest-free advance for legal fees are separate civil-legal-aid measures with conditions; representation is a different service again. Houterasu also states that general legal-issue consultation access is limited for people living outside Japan.

Is Consumer Hotline 188 multilingual?

Do not assume it is. 188 routes by locality, and language access belongs to the selected consultation service. Check that center's current language and method before relying on it.

What if the first office says it is not responsible?

Ask which exact office owns the issue, how to find its official page, and whether you need a reference or document from the first contact. Record the answer, verify the new service yourself, and keep protecting any independent deadline.

Official Sources Checked

Checked September 16, 2026. Reopen the live page before acting because service scope, language, hours, contact method, cost, jurisdiction, and appointment rules can change.

Residence and local life

• Immigration Services Agency, Daily Life Support Portal for Foreign Nationals
• Immigration Services Agency, Foreign Resident General Information Centers and one-stop centers
• Immigration Services Agency, FRESC overview, current agency routing, and Tokyo residence consultation
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visa portal and responsible-mission guidance
• Yokohama City, YOKOHAMA Foreign Residents Information Center

Work

• MHLW, Hello Work services for job seekers
• MHLW, Counseling Services and Hotlines in Foreign Languages

Consumer

• Consumer Affairs Agency, Consumer Hotline 188
• National Consumer Affairs Center, local consumer-affairs office search

Legal information and human rights

• Houterasu, Multilingual Information Service and services at FRESC
• Ministry of Justice, foreign-language human-rights counseling and remedy-process limits

Emergency boundary

• National Police Agency, police emergency and consultation guidance
• Fire and Disaster Management Agency, 119 emergency-call guidance