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How and why I built Japan Dev

japan-dev.com

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Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#141

Post by edge17 »

wenc wrote: post #77
Grimburger wrote: post #4

This was incredibly well-written and an enjoyable story. Congratulations on pushing through and getting traction. Something that resonated: > We had to put 5 million JPY (~$45k at the time) in our business bank account and leave it there. For... some reason. Living in Asia I've come across this bizarre government obsession with "money in the bank" when dealing with them: "You need $15k in a bank account to apply" "Ok…

IF you try to understand it from the regulators perspective, it totally makes sense. You see, the law is written for legibility, not for variation, and rightly so. $15k cash in the bank is easier to understand than $300k in ETFs. Your $300k ETF might be stable or it might fall below the value of $15k over 6 months (not likely but government officials are not in the business of investigating the stability of individua…

FIPs?

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#143

Post by anonymoushn »

adventured wrote: post #74
stewx wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of 2019, Tokyo was far cheaper in terms of monthly rent than some major American cities. Rent in Tokyo for a 2BR apartment: $1,903/mo Rent in NYC for a 2BR apartment: $2,909/mo Rent in San Francisco for a 2BR apartment: $3,631/mo Src: Deutsche Bank https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD000000000049...

Tokyo is routinely ranked among the ~5-10 most expensive cities in the world to live in: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/world-most-expensive-citi... https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2022/06/29/these-...

Tokyo is substantially cheaper to live in than most cities tech workers would live in in the US.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#144

Post by SapporoChris »

fomine3 wrote: post #140
Asooka wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that imply that living in Japan for 6 months costs 30 million yen?

Govt want to check balance amount is constantly over(near) 3000 rather than temporary have. This visa is for richer people to stay.

Agreed. I was specifically told there is no obligation to spend the money. The money just needs to be in the bank.

There are also many other visas available, a two year student visa is probably one of the easiest to acquire, but it does require attending a certified school and the visa is invalidated should you stop attending school.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#145

Post by solarmist »

vsareto wrote: post #79
Varqu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's probably because this is a proven business model and if you niche-down enough, you will be able to serve the audience better than the bigger competitors. The biggest problem though is still bootstrapping the demand side (job seekers) of the platform (supply side is fairly easy, as you can even handpick the initial jobs). We ( https://swissdevjobs.ch & https://devitjobs.uk ) started with articles how to migr…

I guess an aggregator of these sites would be pretty handy. Especially if it had a narrative feature to ask what the user wanted to do, then pointed you to the niche job site.

Probably not. I can't imagine how it would be better than just a list of sites like that.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#146

Post by quickthrower2 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #42
quickthrower2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah line of credit would do the trick though. Then once you have cleared the hoop use it to invest!

When I bought a house I had to prove the 20% down was not via debt like a line of credit. Perhaps they would require something similar.

The problem with that is, once you have a mortgage, everything is in effect a line of credit until it is paid off.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#147

Post by Waterluvian »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #146
Waterluvian wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I bought a house I had to prove the 20% down was not via debt like a line of credit. Perhaps they would require something similar.

The problem with that is, once you have a mortgage, everything is in effect a line of credit until it is paid off.

Depends on your mortgage. Five years fixed at 2.99% means that it’s often smarter for me to invest the money in a GIC at 4.60% rather than pay it off.

(The risk of course being when I renew and it’s way higher)

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#148

Post by quickthrower2 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #147
quickthrower2 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that is, once you have a mortgage, everything is in effect a line of credit until it is paid off.

Depends on your mortgage. Five years fixed at 2.99% means that it’s often smarter for me to invest the money in a GIC at 4.60% rather than pay it off. (The risk of course being when I renew and it’s way higher)

In the US yes because of tax relief and better investment options? Here I pay nearer 4% mortgage (a 3% 5 year fix like your may have been possible with impeccable timing, just got off a 4.39% 5 year fix), in after tax money, get maybe tops 1% in the bank and have to pay tax on that 1% too!

Technically you can pay off some of the mortgage early, split a new loan account, borrow from that new account, and then use that to invest, and claim the interest of that against tax. So basically those with more money pay less tax, of course.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#149

Post by kaashif »

etdev wrote: post #131
Panther34543 wrote: post #118

Considering cost of living, what salary would someone need to maintain a similar lifestyle as a senior engineer making ~$170-230k while living in a major U.S. city? Some of the jobs on that site have salary ranges below 9 million Yen, which seems to equate to about $67k. Given that consumer goods are generally pricier in Japan, and that cost of living is generally quite high in Japan, that salary seems quite low.

Cost-of-living comparisons get complex, but I can give you my personal opinion. Let's assume SF vs Tokyo. To live the same lifestyle and have the same amount of disposable income as someone earning $170-230k in SF, you'd need to earn ¥12-18M or so in Tokyo. You can live in a nice apartment in the center of Tokyo and still save a lot of money as a single person earning ¥12M a year. Also the yen is super weak against t…

> To live the same lifestyle and have the same amount of disposable income as someone earning $170-230k in SF, you'd need to earn ¥12-18M or so in Tokyo.

The same amount of disposable income, measured in dollars or yen without PPP adjustment? That's a big gap and I don't think it can be made up with cost of living savings.

> So converting to dollars doesn't give an accurate value imo. As long as you earn and spend yen, what matters is purchasing power parity. Not the exchange rate.

If you ever want to leave Japan, then the value of your savings does matter. Your savings don't get PPP adjusted down if you move.

Re: How and why I built Japan Dev

#150

Post by unsignedint »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #51
trhoad wrote: post #6

> So we share your jobs on our site. A candidate applies. You interview them and decide to hire them. You notify us you hired them. We send you an invoice. You pay us a fee. I'm absolutely stunned that this works. > For one thing, our contract imposes a late fee for failing to notify us of a successful hire. And the fee increases every month that they don't tell us. This is a pretty good deterrent. Is it? It sounds l…

Japan is a high-trust society. I recently made a booking at a rather expensive inn (ryokan), whose T&C says there are high cancellation fees if you don't show up, but was not required to hand over credit card details or anything else than could enforce this.

You may see the shift in this though. There seems to be increasing cases for no-shows reported time to time in media, and thus, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more place would start requiring credit cards or deposits.
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