Saitama Business Manager Manish Kumar Says Restaurant Owner Ordered to Leave Japan After 30 Years

(SAITAMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN) — Japanese authorities rejected Manish Kumar’s Business Manager Visa renewal, leaving the Indian restaurant owner facing deportation after about 30 years in Japan and raising the prospect that his business in Saitama Prefecture will close.

Kumar has run an Indian curry restaurant in Saitama Prefecture for 18 years. He said the visa denial would force him to shut down the restaurant.

Speaking at a rally in Tokyo, Kumar said immigration authorities told him, “Go back to India.” He described the order as a rupture in a life built over decades in Japan, where he has raised a family and operated his business for nearly two decades.

Recent changes to Japan’s Business Manager Visa rules sit at the center of his case. Reported requirements now include a minimum capital threshold of ¥30 million, up from ¥5 million, along with a requirement to employ at least one full-time Japanese worker or permanent resident.

Authorities have also tightened checks on tax records and on whether an office is legitimate. Home offices are no longer accepted, and applicants are now expected to show Japanese-language ability at about JLPT N2 level.

Those changes mark a higher bar for both current business owners seeking renewals and people applying for the visa for the first time. A business that operated for years under earlier conditions can still run into trouble if it no longer fits the new standards.

Kumar’s case has drawn attention because of how long he has lived in Japan and how rooted his family is there. He said, “My children were born and raised in Japan, they only understand Japanese, their only friends are Japanese but we are being told to go back to India.”

That account placed the visa dispute far beyond a paperwork problem. It tied the renewal denial to a household whose daily life, language and social ties are in Japan, not India.

His restaurant has operated in Saitama Prefecture for 18 years, a span long enough to outlast changes in the local economy, the restaurant trade and immigration policy. Kumar has linked the visa decision directly to the business’s survival, saying he would have to close if he is forced to leave.

The Business Manager Visa is designed for foreign nationals who run businesses in Japan, and the new conditions described in Kumar’s case show how much more documentation and structure authorities now expect. Capital, staffing, language ability, tax compliance and a separate office are all part of the test.

Each part of that test can carry consequences. Raising the threshold from ¥5 million to ¥30 million demands a far larger financial commitment, while the requirement to hire at least one full-time Japanese worker or permanent resident adds a payroll obligation that some small operators may struggle to meet.

The language expectation introduces another filter. A standard around JLPT N2 points to a level of Japanese proficiency that goes beyond basic daily communication and moves into more advanced reading and workplace use, a requirement that can weigh heavily on long-time business owners whose companies operate in multilingual settings.

Stricter scrutiny of tax records and office legitimacy also shifts the focus toward formal compliance. A business owner who once relied on a home office can no longer do so under the reported rules, even if the business itself has operated for years.

Kumar’s experience has triggered sympathy online. A petition calling for a more practical evaluation system, one that considers business history, tax contributions and employment records, reportedly gathered more than 53,000 signatures.

The wording of that appeal points to a broader complaint about how business immigration rules are applied. Supporters are asking authorities to weigh a company’s operating record and local footprint, not only whether it satisfies a stricter set of present-day benchmarks.

That distinction matters in Kumar’s situation because the public case around him is not built on a newly arrived entrepreneur trying to enter the market. It involves a man who has lived in Japan for about 30 years and kept a restaurant running in Saitama Prefecture for 18 years before his renewal was rejected.

Cases like this can leave existing visa holders in a narrow space between past approval and current standards. A person may have built a business, paid taxes and established family ties under one set of conditions, then face a renewal review shaped by another.

Prospective applicants face the same rules from the outset. Anyone planning to seek a Business Manager Visa now must account for the higher capital requirement, the staffing condition, the language benchmark, tighter tax scrutiny and the end of home-office acceptance before filing.

Existing holders face a different pressure. Renewal no longer rests simply on the fact that a business has been operating; it also turns on whether that business still satisfies the updated requirements at the moment authorities review the case.

Kumar’s dispute has become a focal point because it compresses several issues into one story: long residence, a local business, Japan-born children and an immigration system that has raised its thresholds. The online response suggests that many people see the case as a test of whether long-running businesses receive credit for continuity, tax payments and employment.

The practical effects are immediate in his household. Kumar said the visa denial means his family is being told to leave the country where his children were born and raised and where their lives are centered.

His words at the Tokyo rally carried that point in personal terms, not legal ones. “My children were born and raised in Japan, they only understand Japanese, their only friends are Japanese but we are being told to go back to India.”

In Saitama Prefecture, the dispute also threatens the future of a restaurant that Kumar has operated for 18 years. If the order stands, the case will not end as an abstract argument over visa criteria; it will close a business he says cannot survive without him.