A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan

#61

Post by raleighm » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 12:14 PM UTC

noobermin wrote: post #37

patio11 wrote: post #7

From my understanding, lawyers working with non-Japanese-speaking clients charge a premium. This is true for essentially all professional services in Japan (and, relatedly, can be true for renting depending on how one goes about that), and it is not driven entirely by costs. Partly, this is simply "You require something which is much harder to deliver than standard services; this restricts your labor pool by > 98% he…

Isn't it the same for any foreigner in any country? The US tries to be multicultural in some respects but not being able to speak English hampers you quite a bit too.

Yes. You can get some things done in Tokyo using only English. You can get nothing done in NYC using only Japanese.

Re: A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan

#62

Post by raleighm » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 12:15 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #54

noobermin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it the same for any foreigner in any country? The US tries to be multicultural in some respects but not being able to speak English hampers you quite a bit too.

Suppose you are in the United States and your last name is Tanaka. You interview an accountant and ask for a proposal for bookkeeping and accounting for your software company. Suppose the accountant comes back with a proposal which quotes you including a line item for Japanese translation. (This is quite unlikely, but roll with it.) You tell the accountant "Uh, thanks, but: we'll be working together in English." "Oh…

Fortunately not my Tuesdays in Japan. I've been here seven years and never seen behavior like that. Sorry you've had such bad experiences.

Re: A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan

#63

Post by kalleboo » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 12:52 PM UTC

Cyph0n wrote: post #11

sogen wrote: post #3

Visa cost: ¥5M Y

What? Why would anyone migrate to Japan then? You'd think that they'd have started relaxing the requirements, given the low birthrates and shrinking labor pool.

Business Visa applicants are a minority in any country. For a typical work visa, it's actually unusually simply to immigrate to Japan (all you need is a degree and a job offer). See how easy it is to immigrate to your country with just a degree and a job offer.

Japan just doesn't have a road for unskilled immigration (compared to the US with the green card lottery and all the illegal immigration, EU with all the refugee immigration). They had a program for nurse internship but apparently botched/sabotaged it.

Re: A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan

#64

Post by hkjgkjy » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

Arkaad wrote: post #58

Cyph0n wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Why would anyone migrate to Japan then? You'd think that they'd have started relaxing the requirements, given the low birthrates and shrinking labor pool.

Germany, Italy, Spain have similar low birthrates than Japan you know. They probably have less labor pool issues though.

For Germany, it is easily solved by getting a lot of good labour from Spain and Italy. That equation works out less favourably for Italy and Spain, though...

Re: A Story Of Starting A Business In Japan

#65

Post by mantas » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

laurieg wrote: post #49

jpatokal wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...they're just unwilling to actually do anything about it. Allow immigration? Make it possible for women to have careers after childbirth? Stop funding increasingly ridiculous infrastructure boondoggles and give tax cuts to consumers instead of zaibatsu? Hire and promote based on talent, not seniority and what school you graduated from? Nope nope, it's all too muzukashii. I've been visiting Japan regularly for 20 ye…

What do you mean by "allow immigration"? If you have a degree and a job you can come work and live in Japan. Japanese immigration is not that restrictive. My native country, the UK, has far more hoops to jump through to get permission to work. The social changes are a much bigger challenge. If your family sees you as a bad mother for working while raising children then financial incentives and back to work schemes wi…

I guess he mean poor immigrants vs rich expats. The only relatively poor immigration they welcome is ESL teachers. Aside from that.. If you can make it in Japan, you can live well anywhere else.

There's very little of euro/us style poor 3rd world kind of immigration. Even if one would get a visa, they'd have a really really hard time finding a job. Strip club bouncers is very limited market.