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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

#131

Post by kmeisthax »

grecy wrote: post #59

> My first thought was to work remotely and use the 90 days permitted by the tourist visa. Yet working in Japan on this visa is a gray zone at best and a practice I would stay away from. In fact, the US Embassy in Japan strictly advises against this I’ve always wondered why countries care about this. If I’m employed in my home country, earning money there and paying taxes, what difference does it make if I happen to…

Well, they probably want to double-tax your wages[0]. But that's why the digital nomad visa class was established.

But the real explanation is mostly just that it's how the law was written. In general, laws are brokered agreements between those who are currently in power, so they have no principles. More specifically, when countries[1] started implementing categories-and-quotas based immigration control, they decided leisure travel should have its own category, and wrote a restrictive definition of a tourist into the law.

It's important to remember that at the time these laws were written, remote workers didn't exist. If you were entering a country and doing work, it was going to be for a local business, and that visa category had far more restrictive visas intended to privilege native workers over foreign in the labor market. Ergo, the tourism visa has to exclude any work at all. This separation was carried forward into the various reciprocal[2] visa-free travel arrangements that made it so you don't have to physically go to an embassy and file paperwork to get a tourist visa.

Of course, all of this is silly in the Internet age, but good luck convincing every country in the world to allow worldwide labor rights.

[0] Fun fact: the US taxes based on citizenship, not residency, so you will always be double-taxed as a US emigrant, even if you're not remotely working for a US company.

[1] I realize Japan is probably a bad example for this discussion, because they used to be completely closed to both immigration and emigration for over a century. This policy even has a name: "sakoku". In contrast, America used to have an extremely racialized immigration policy, which is what was replaced with the (deracialized) categories and quotas. Before that policy, we actually had a really liberal immigration policy.

[2] COVID-19 notwithstanding

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#132

Post by triceratops »

wdrw wrote: post #125
triceratops wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> go to another country for those six months > paying tax in my home country Don't you think you've answered your own question?

This makes no sense... consider these scenarios: A) You work for a US company, earn money from the US company, pay income taxes in the US, live and spend money (and thus sales taxes) in the US B) You work for a US company, earn money from the US company, pay income taxes in the US, but live and spend money (and thus sales taxes) in Japan Clearly (B) is better for Japan economically? I think these laws are mostly enfo…

> Clearly (B) is better for Japan economically?

Scenario B is amazing for the US. I don't see how it's clearly better for Japan. I don't know about you but I pay far more in income tax than sales tax. You spend money but you also consume government services and infrastructure while paying less in tax to Japan than a resident employed in Japan would.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#133

Post by ghaff »

GardenLetter27 wrote: post #77
djtango wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comp…

There are cases of this being enforced against individuals in the USA and UK after posting on social media though.

I have to assume that’s pretty rare but I probably wouldn’t post that I’m working remotely or use a co-working space.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#134

Post by CuriousCosmic »

dagw wrote: post #68
csomar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip: a photo of your passport and the stamp will most likely do in most circumstances. Much better than risking taking your passport with you all the time.

I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead. That being said having a photo of your passport and relevant stamps is good advice, but only to make it slightly easier to deal with all the hassel that comes if you do lose your passport.

In most countries you can get what is called a notarized or certified "true copy" of identifying documents (passports being one of them). The intent is for you to submit them with applications so you don't have to submit the original copy. Now how you get a true copy depends on the country. Canadian passports for example can only have true copies made by their embassy or immigrations offices.

Note that this doesn't include your passport stamp pages but Japan hasn't issued passport stamps for several years now and they just look up your passport in a registry instead. So for that purpose, a true copy should be effectively the same thing.

That's where it comes down to what is essentially a technicality but given they carry an embossed seal and signature with the words "TRUE COPY" on them, they look very official and officials are very rarely going to push back on it even if whether they are to be treated as a full substitute for a passport (for identification purposes) is technically a grey area.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#135

Post by diggan »

carlosjobim wrote: post #114
forgotoldacc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cas…

> 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. The parasites in this case are the landlords, not AirBnB. And they're the one driving the rent prices up, not the renters. Why does everybody refuse to a…

> The parasites in this case are the landlords, not AirBnB. And they're the one driving the rent prices up, not the renters.

What about considering both as parasites, just different methods for achieving basically the same thing: "More money for me".

Obviously, the landlords are the ones who raise the prices. But I think it'd be ignoring reality if you didn't consider the fact that AirBnb made all of this so much easier and simpler from the landlords. There are platforms that let you sync to many portals, and even see what weeks you should raise the prices to optimize for as much profit as possible. AirBnb and the other platforms are contributing to a constant, collaborative raise of prices.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#136

Post by tumult »

csomar wrote: post #81
dagw wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead. That being said having a photo of your passport and relevant stamps is good advice, but only to make it slightly easier to deal with all the hassel that comes if you do lose your passport.

> I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead. Unless you are involved with a particular interaction, they just want to check your visa status. A passport photo/stamp will do if their system is digitized. Arresting someone (except for the US where the police likes to arrest people) is a major hassle.

I am a resident of Japan. This is extremely bad advice. Do not follow this advice.

To csomar: you are willingly spreading harmful advice. Stop it. Stop making people reply to clean up your mess.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#137

Post by [deleted] »

Klonoar wrote: post #42
hardwaresofton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a world of difference in stability and perception. If you have $35k+ to dedicate to this (and note that it does not cost $35k, these are more like initial capital requirements), you should 100% go the investor route. People underweight how amazing it is to be able to pay less than $50k for the equivalent of a golden visa to a top 5 GDP nation that is well regarded, safe, has some opportunity and is generally easy…

Eh, I ran a business in Japan and have had that visa. I still tell most people who just want to dip their feet in that the digital nomad visa is totally fine and a good way to go. That stability and perception only matters if you _truly_ want to live here, and quite a number of people spend ~3 months here [1] and realize that it's got issues past the honeymoon period (like anywhere else). There's also no reason you c…

[deleted]

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#139

Post by themaninthedark »

shiroiushi wrote: post #46
Klonoar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here. Eh, Tokyo has plenty of monthly apartment rentals that are effectively corporate rentals that you can do without a residence card. (I used to do this before having an actual visa there) It's functionally better than a hotel, insofar as it doesn't read or act as one.

True, and it generally has better amenities than a hotel too: a kitchen (though tiny), fridge, microwave, stove (no oven though), clothes washer, maybe a vacuum, etc. Also importantly, a mailbox, so you can receive deliveries (and in newer places, there's an automated delivery box system).

They have ovens...just super tiny and meant for fish only https://www.yamada-denkiweb.com/category/202/006/001/

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#140

Post by franciscop »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #119
hardwaresofton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a world of difference in stability and perception. If you have $35k+ to dedicate to this (and note that it does not cost $35k, these are more like initial capital requirements), you should 100% go the investor route. People underweight how amazing it is to be able to pay less than $50k for the equivalent of a golden visa to a top 5 GDP nation that is well regarded, safe, has some opportunity and is generally easy…

> People underweight how amazing it is to be able to pay less than $50k for the equivalent of a golden visa to a top 5 GDP nation that is well regarded, safe, has some opportunity and is generally easy to live in. The Japanese are incredibly racist and xenophobic. Numerous businesses outright place signs barring foreigners (particularly russians, chinese, etc) Japanese citizens are almost always completely trusted by…

Some of those assertions are true, some half true, and some are twisting the truth so much that I'd like to note (been living here for 7+ years):

- The Japanese are incredibly racist and xenophobic

Half true, some Japanese are those, but not all and "incredibly" is stretching it a lot (also, it's not good to generalize a negative trait to a whole country, I wonder what that's called). There's also famously a lot of "positive racism" towards Westerners.

- Numerous businesses outright place signs barring foreigners

There's been a handful of places in a country with 120M people, and each and every one of those has made the news, exactly because of how rare they are!

- Japanese citizens are almost always completely trusted by police over anyone, say, white or black.

Sure, this is true.

- So Japanese who want to fuck with someone will bait them into a confrontation (or just outright lie) so they're arrested.

While I don't have any number against it, this feels like such an incredibly bizarre event that I'd like to ask for some sources since it sounds very unbelievable given my personal experiences.

- Japan has a nearly 100% conviction rate

Absolutely not true in that this statement is grossly misconstruing a narrative of "arrested => 100% convicted". ONCE the police decide to pursue a matter, then it's true, but they only do so with incredibly strong evidence. See wikipedias' notes: "If measured in the same way, the United States' federal conviction rate would be 99.8%." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#Japan

- With the worst prison conditions in the developed world

Fairly true, if we consider only the handful of countries that can be called "the developed world".

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