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Japan eyes startup visa program

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#151

Post by neximo64 »

ArmandGrillet wrote: post #134
titanix2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but why would you ever want to move there to create a startup? Not only you have to deal with enterprise related problems such as fiscal instability (rules changes almost every years, see for example how the auto-entrepreneur status changed over time), the URSSAF, a bureaucratic and slow administration but you have also to deal with a lot of issues on a personal level such as insecurity, terrorism, frequent riots…

Did you ever work in another country? I work in Germany with colleagues from many different countries, and our country does not suck. The French post is one of the best in the World, train delays are the same in France as in Germany (shall we compare with the situation in the US?), the administration is a PITA but they actually try to help instead of killing you (+ the number of organisms to help startups in France i…

> Compared to the UK and USA, France is a safer place to create your startup right now if you are a foreigner.

In what way? You can't raise as much money. Your market is smaller, bureacracy is more (just to compare it costs £12 to make a company in the UK vs EUR 180 at a minimum in France), taxes are less in the UK & US, access to cloud computing is less available locally in France. You can get a visa in the UK and US too.. heck Australia too it's not as if France is special here. In fact on business terms, you're heavily disadvantaged in France.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#152

Post by whyagaindavid »

robk wrote: post #145
drieddust wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not just Japan. UK is another example of such behaviour. They killed HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrants Program ) in the name of curbing immigration. But at the same time allowed companies to transfer employees to UK for up to 5 years. So in my view they are no better. Guess what the very problem it was supposed to solved still exists and immigration is increasing. They are just not getting Highly Skilled immigrant…

Hsmp was great but today's Tier 1 Exceptional is arguably the most generous in the western world for tech talent. 5 years with a direct pathway to citizenship. No other in Europe offers a path to citizenship this fast if at all.

You can do similarly in Germany. Startup visa €5000 ->after 3 years get Permanent Residency for entrepreneurs->then 4-5 years depending on your visa/naturalisation officer apply for citizenship.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#153

Post by calcifer »

robk wrote: post #145
drieddust wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not just Japan. UK is another example of such behaviour. They killed HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrants Program ) in the name of curbing immigration. But at the same time allowed companies to transfer employees to UK for up to 5 years. So in my view they are no better. Guess what the very problem it was supposed to solved still exists and immigration is increasing. They are just not getting Highly Skilled immigrant…

Hsmp was great but today's Tier 1 Exceptional is arguably the most generous in the western world for tech talent. 5 years with a direct pathway to citizenship. No other in Europe offers a path to citizenship this fast if at all.

> No other in Europe offers a path to citizenship this fast if at all.

Netherlands does. Come here as a "highly skilled immigrant", learn the language and become a citizen in 5 years. If you marry a Dutch citizen (and stay married for 3 years), that number is reduced to 3.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#154

Post by matt4077 »

laurieg wrote: post #92

Japan's immigration system seems heavily set up to encourage young people to come, work and then leave. This startup visa is good for getting a toe-hold on Japan but only targets people out of country. If you live in Japan already (so you might already speak the language and have helpful local knowledge) there aren't any great paths to starting a business without permanent residency. You can't start a side business o…

From reading this policy, it seems there are two competing issues at stake:

- It seems necessary to attract the young & creative types. First, because everyone is doing it. And, second, because Japan has has a rather huge problem, not just with age, but with a general lack of anyone doing anything new and/or different.

- But Japan happens to be off the charts when it comes to the desire not to mingle with foreigners. It's not that visible, or in the news, because they're less likely to openly show it, or engage in violence. But foreigners are in even lower regard than young people.[0]

So you end up with this sort of policy, that has exactly zero chance of attracting anybody unless they see some specific opportunity in Japan.

[0]: Case in point: the EU admitted 1.4 Million refugees in 2015&2016. US: 210,000, Canada: 120,000. Japan: 9.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#155

Post by stealthcat »

jsemrau wrote: post #150
neya wrote: post #121

Just curious, anyone knows what's the advantage of starting up in Japan over say, Singapore? I know Singapore is predominantly English-speaking, you get all kinds of food and the laws are friendly to startups as well. If I'm an English speaker in Japan, there is a huge language barrier, on top of which there are also other minor nuances to be paid attention to such as: high rent (depends on your area), finding Non-Ja…

I have lived and created startups in Japan and Singapore. Japan is the much larger mature market compared to Singapore. If you can penetrate it you have good business for decades. But the barriers of entry are really really high. Both markets are expensive to live, but Singapore still has a huge influx on really cheap labor (~500 SGD per month) and cheaper corporate services (legal, accounting, shared co-working, etc…

Slightly off topic, what about startup, business and market in Malaysia?

I am from Malaysia, but now studying in Japan. Not sure if it worth it to struggle starting a business or working in Japan after graduating.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#156

Post by rtpg »

qaq wrote: post #95
rtpg wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your passport isn't from the right country you might have nothing to lose. If you have decided to move to some other country, and are looking for the place with the least legal headaches for immigration, _and have a college degree_, then Japan is probably the best on that metric. You don't have the uncertainty of the green card lottery (the permanent residency requirements are pretty well defined), no employer-bas…

This pretty much describes all countries aside from US

My understanding is that it's not trivial to get a visa in the EU as well, due to it being Shengen Zone stuff.

Even for simple trips, my Chinese friends in particular have to jump through hoops.

I also remember a scandal in France a while back when the gov't decided it didn't like foreign students staying to work in France after graduating, so changed rules to make it harder for people to stay afterwards.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#157

Post by hardwaresofton »

mikekchar wrote: post #144
hardwaresofton wrote: post #53

As an "entrepreneur" (closer to a freelancer/independent contractor, self employed through a company I created) that's currently living in Japan, a few notes: - Things get a lot easier when a Japanese person is involved. - Paperwork pain will be real, hire someone else to do it. Japan is almost completely about the appearance of propriety -- getting everything filled out properly is 90% of the difficulty. - Hire a ch…

Another nitpick in an otherwise great post: > You will never be completely trusted as a foreigner in Japan, nor will you ever completely fit in. In my experience this is not really true (though if you read it literally, then it is ;-) ). If you speak, read, write and act like a Japanese person, then people will treat you as if you are Japanese. You will fit in. There are racist people in Japan, but not any more than…

I actually meant it literally -- you get extremely close to completely fitting in but the problem is, as soon as you travel to a place you've never been to or hang with people you've never met, you're back to step one and you feel like you're on the outside again. This dissonance grates on me (and I think it would on anyone), and there's no one you can really rightfully blame.

This is something that I feel the US really gets right -- once you're an American citizen, you're an American and that's that -- no one generally asks where you're from unless they're trying to get to know you. This might have more to do with how America was formed, because it just is a country made up of a lot of people from other countries in relatively recent history, but it makes sense that Japan can't really do this with how homogenous they are.

There's a ton of nuance, and mileage varies a ton from person to person in their interpersonal interaction in any country which is why I was so literal with what I said -- most people I've met would agree with the literal statement.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#158

Post by thedailymail »

azernik wrote: post #130
drieddust wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not just Japan. UK is another example of such behaviour. They killed HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrants Program ) in the name of curbing immigration. But at the same time allowed companies to transfer employees to UK for up to 5 years. So in my view they are no better. Guess what the very problem it was supposed to solved still exists and immigration is increasing. They are just not getting Highly Skilled immigrant…

What's different about Japan is that this is just about the only way to immigrate; Western countries typically have skilled guest worker programs in addition to more general immigration.

That's not really true. There are quite a few working visa categories for professionals in engineering, medicine, journalism, higher education, etc. in addition to the lower-skill categories for basic English teaching and "entertainment." The government has also introduced a points-based system that prioritizes visas for people with more skills/experience/income, and has been making it a lot easier to get longer-term visas and permanent residency.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#159

Post by sdrothrock »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #131
patio11 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't start a side business on a regular work visa. You know YC's question "How have you ever hacked a non-technical system?" This is my answer to it. You can start a side business on a regular work visa if the character of your business matches your status of residence and you don't intensify the business to the point where it is undeniable that it is a business as opposed to employment, e.g. by hiring full-time…

wait, as a non-citizen of Japan you are allowed to sponsor yourself for a work visa? That sounds, uhh, strange.

Yes. Essentially you prove you have the funds to do bootstrap and support yourself.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#160

Post by yorwba »

codedokode wrote: post #127
selectodude wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially in Japan. I don't think it's really possible for a native English speaker to ever become 100 percent proficient in Japanese.

Why is that? Except for Kanji, Japanese doesn't look like a difficult language because it doesn't have genders and inflections.

Japanese does have inflections. Specifically, verbs are conjugated: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Japanese_verbs#Conju...
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