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How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

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Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#11

Post by djtango »

jalapenos wrote: post #7
laurieg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is you are on a tourist visa then you cannot work. Actively working as a nomad ok a tourist visa waiver is breaking the law. Of course, nomads often did come and with in this status. They would exist in a grey area, arguing their with was more incidental in nature and bit the reason to be in Japan (just like replying to a few with emails while in holiday). The nomad visa is essentially formalizing this grey area. As…

Right so it's a compliance thing. Rather than just visiting on a tourist visa and relying on the fact that no immigration officer is going to come bust in your hotel door and yell "hey are you doing work on that laptop!", you go through a bunch of tedious bureaucratic hoops to get the assurance that they definitely for certain won't come inspect what you're doing on your laptop.

People are being too individualistic here - Japan or any other country is never going to go after individuals who happen to work for remote companies or freelance while they globe trot working on tourist visas.

But when companies like Shopify go fully remote, if they suddenly have a lot of employees who are frequenting Japan, they are painting a giant target on their back and exposing themselves to legal risk. A company is never going to expose themselves to this kind of legal risk so HR will very quickly (and understandably) clamp down on this. This is why even the most progressive "work from anywhere" policies tend to have fine print that amounts to "your country of residence and any home countries you can legally work in". This is then why we often see "remote" coming with all kinds of conditions like US remote or EU remote etc because the reality of legal compliance for HR is a huge headache.

These nomad visas are a baby step in the right direction towards unburdening companies from this liability.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#12

Post by forgotoldacc »

Pooge wrote: post #3

Used to live in Japan for more than a year. Heard about this visa a few weeks ago while traveling to said country. Since they don't give you a residence card, I wonder how easy it would be to get a phone number and bank account. If some government officials didn't get information on this visa, how can we expect companies to have? They will look at your passport with dead eyes and think you are fooling them with a fak…

Getting a credit card as a long term resident alone is hard. Getting a phone number can be troublesome for some people fresh off the boat. One longstanding issue has been people who come to Japan expecting to settle down, then quickly realize it's not for them and take a flight home without telling anybody. Debts left unpaid and landlords not even contacted.

People who come here with the intention of milking some cash and living in a "cheap" country have even less reason to be loyal to it. The consequence will be companies being even stricter, but parasites like AirBnB and similar companies making a killing off offering apartments 5x above normal asking price to rich nomads who will say "wow, it's so cheap!" without realizing they're being ripped off, and killing neighborhoods by driving rent prices up. Owners of multiple homes stand to gain, but typical companies have been doing the math for a long time and see nothing but losses. The general sentiment by locals towards this policy has been "So we're really becoming like Vietnam and Thailand, huh?", so the vast majority of people will not be welcoming nomads with open arms, or at all. There's already massive controversy over new apartments being bought up by foreign investors and locals being pushed farther out of Tokyo.

People can downvote because they don't like hearing this. But it's the state of things here. It's a system forced against the citizens against their will. In a country with a noted history of centuries of distrust of foreigners, this visa scheme is not helping.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#13

Post by tjpnz »

Pooge wrote: post #3

Used to live in Japan for more than a year. Heard about this visa a few weeks ago while traveling to said country. Since they don't give you a residence card, I wonder how easy it would be to get a phone number and bank account. If some government officials didn't get information on this visa, how can we expect companies to have? They will look at your passport with dead eyes and think you are fooling them with a fak…

You won't be getting a phone number or bank account without one. You might also have problems getting prescriptions filled.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#14

Post by tjpnz »

shiroiushi wrote: post #10
Pooge wrote: post #3

Used to live in Japan for more than a year. Heard about this visa a few weeks ago while traveling to said country. Since they don't give you a residence card, I wonder how easy it would be to get a phone number and bank account. If some government officials didn't get information on this visa, how can we expect companies to have? They will look at your passport with dead eyes and think you are fooling them with a fak…

>Since they don't give you a residence card They don't? Then what use is the visa? You cannot live here without a residence card. As a non-citizen, you're actually legally required to carry your residence card with you whenever you're in public, and present it to a police officer upon request. Something doesn't seem right here. Edit: apparently you can live here, without a residence card, in a temporary apartment, fo…

Technically you would be expected to bring your passport everywhere you go.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#15

Post by shiroiushi »

tjpnz wrote: post #13
Pooge wrote: post #3

Used to live in Japan for more than a year. Heard about this visa a few weeks ago while traveling to said country. Since they don't give you a residence card, I wonder how easy it would be to get a phone number and bank account. If some government officials didn't get information on this visa, how can we expect companies to have? They will look at your passport with dead eyes and think you are fooling them with a fak…

You won't be getting a phone number or bank account without one. You might also have problems getting prescriptions filled.

In my experience, you need more than a residence card to get a bank account here: you also need a certificate of employment from your employer.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#16

Post by shiroiushi »

tjpnz wrote: post #14
shiroiushi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Since they don't give you a residence card They don't? Then what use is the visa? You cannot live here without a residence card. As a non-citizen, you're actually legally required to carry your residence card with you whenever you're in public, and present it to a police officer upon request. Something doesn't seem right here. Edit: apparently you can live here, without a residence card, in a temporary apartment, fo…

Technically you would be expected to bring your passport everywhere you go.

That's for foreign tourists who have a visa stamp in their passport. So I guess for these digital nomads, that would work too, as long as they don't overstay whatever date is on that visa.

It's not going to help them find a place to live though: they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#17

Post by tjpnz »

shiroiushi wrote: post #15
tjpnz wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't be getting a phone number or bank account without one. You might also have problems getting prescriptions filled.

In my experience, you need more than a residence card to get a bank account here: you also need a certificate of employment from your employer.

Shinsei sorted me out without one. But wouldn't surprise me for any of the "respectable" banks.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#19

Post by lIl-IIIl »

shiroiushi wrote: post #16
tjpnz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically you would be expected to bring your passport everywhere you go.

That's for foreign tourists who have a visa stamp in their passport. So I guess for these digital nomads, that would work too, as long as they don't overstay whatever date is on that visa. It's not going to help them find a place to live though: they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here.

The author was able to get an apartment and shared the website and the reddit thread be used to find it.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#20

Post by lIl-IIIl »

d13 wrote: post #9
laurieg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is you are on a tourist visa then you cannot work. Actively working as a nomad ok a tourist visa waiver is breaking the law. Of course, nomads often did come and with in this status. They would exist in a grey area, arguing their with was more incidental in nature and bit the reason to be in Japan (just like replying to a few with emails while in holiday). The nomad visa is essentially formalizing this grey area. As…

No one will ever know or care if you’re working remotely while in Japan on a tourist visa. Just AirBnB and get ordinary travel insurance. For a paltry 6 months this nomad visa seems like a massive amount of paperwork for no benefit.

Apparently they do, from the article quoting the US Embassy:

Japanese Immigration officials are aware of the pattern of people staying for 80-90 days as “tourists,” spending a few days in Korea, Guam or some other nearby area and then seeking to re-enter Japan for another 90 days. Persons with such a travel pattern can expect to face questions at Japanese Immigration and may be denied entry with the suspicion that they have been or will work illegally in Japan. In that Japanese Immigration records are computerized, a “lost” passport does not serve to mask long stays in Japan.

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