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Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

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Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#131

Post by timr »

alephnerd wrote: post #123
timr wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. There was also a proliferation of Indian restaurants in the major cities, for the same basic reason. (Though I have to say that seems like a much harder road than operating a guesthouse for people from your own country, which is what I presume was the Chinese approach.) Since you can bring in relatives on this kind of visa, I’ve heard the expression “One curry pot equals three people” . There have been stories i…

Those "Indian" restaurants are primarily run by Nepali nationals.

Yeah, I’ve heard that. Also Bangladeshi. I think it’s a southeast asian mix, really.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#132

Post by mmooss »

aurareturn wrote: post #21
eloisant wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty crazy when you see that in developed countries, Japan in particular, population is aging and declining. Countries should be competing for the best immigrants, not closing their doors.

Countries should be competing for the best immigrants, not closing their doors. Don't mistake what the elites want with what working class people want. Elites want a higher population - even if they're immigrants - so the market grows bigger for their businesses. But immigrants come with many problems for the working class people. The elites aren't going to have a house next to immigrants. They don't feel the effects…

> a house next to immigrants

This assumes there is something wrong with immigrants. I've lived next to many immigrants. Almost everyone in the US is an immigrant or decended from them.

The problem is the hateful - they destroy the society and neighborhood.

> lower quality

Humans are not lower or higher quality - except arguably those acting on hate, who damage the social contract of liberty.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#133

Post by timr »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #102
timr wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. There was also a proliferation of Indian restaurants in the major cities, for the same basic reason. (Though I have to say that seems like a much harder road than operating a guesthouse for people from your own country, which is what I presume was the Chinese approach.) Since you can bring in relatives on this kind of visa, I’ve heard the expression “One curry pot equals three people” . There have been stories i…

I have to say though, the abundant authentic, high-quality and low-cost Indian and Nepalese restaurants across the country was a real quality of life benefit for people living in Japan.

I tend to be pretty sympathetic to anyone who does the insanely hard work of operating an actual restaurant.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#134

Post by toss1 »

nradov wrote: post #88
toss1 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The short answer is this an exemplar of the distinction between generating income by producing vs generating income by rent-seeking. Producing something, goods, services, useful information, etc. is a net plus for society, adding value for both the producer and the consumer, making the society overall richer. Rent-seeking is purely extractive - it extracts value from the consumer, and in the cases where the extractor…

Efficient capital allocation is a net positive for society.

"Efficient" for whom, over what time-frame, and by what definition?

"Efficient capital allocation" is another hand-wavey concept with no clear definition which is far too often used to justify fundamentally evil results, up to and including arguably the most massive and fundamentally stupid strategic blunder in history.

The USA was the worlds remaining superpower and was democratic.

But based on "efficient capital allocation", the USA decided it was more "efficient" to offshore its "fungible" labor to cheaper Chinese workers. This gutted entire regions and sectors of the economy, literally destroyed the middle class which formed the basis of stability in the country, and handed to an adversarial authoritarian regime both numerous choke-points on it's economy and defense capabilities and technological advantages sufficient to turn it into a serious peer-threat. On top of that, the gutting of the economy brought about conditions for a full-on assault in democracy in the USA.

You seriously need to rethink your "philosophy" based on glib quips.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#135

Post by rayiner »

nicbou wrote: post #110
rayiner wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since you can bring in relatives on this kind of visa, I’ve heard the expression “One curry pot equals three people”. Family reunification is a gaping loophole in any skilled immigration law and developed countries need to seriously limit it. The New York Times did a good podcast on how uncapped family reunification ended up being a loophole that totally overturned all the limits and compromises in the 1965 immigra…

I wouldn't call it a loophole but a compromise. If you want to attract skilled labour, you must allow them to bring their dependents. They come as a unit.

It’s not just dependents. It includes parents and siblings of both the skilled immigrant and their spouse. And, transitively, cousins, etc.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#136

Post by cedws »

klausa wrote: post #55
cedws wrote: post #35

As a Brit living in Japan (non-resident) I think they should protect themselves at all costs, lest what happened to my country happen to theirs. If the business visa was abused, that abuse should be stopped, not just allowed to happen like we would do.

I'm sorry, you're simultaneously (somehow?) living here as a non-resident, and complaining about people _abusing the system_? That's pretty rich, gotta say!

It’s not rich to recognise your own ship is sinking and want others to save themselves from sinking theirs. I truly love Japan and the last thing I want is the same cultural dilution to happen here. Deport me if that’s what it takes. Japan must invest in itself and not give in to the temptation of unlimited cheap foreign labor.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#137

Post by cedws »

ekjhgkejhgk wrote: post #62
klausa wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, you're simultaneously (somehow?) living here as a non-resident, and complaining about people _abusing the system_? That's pretty rich, gotta say!

I think they're the kind of people who would argue that the "immigrants" should be kept out, but "expats" are ok.

Yes, a country should want to keep out people with negative fiscal impact and bring in people with a positive fiscal impact. Isn’t that obvious?

By all means bring in people to run businesses in Japan. Legitimate businesses, not visa mills. This increase in capital requirements stamps out the visa mills.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#138

Post by alistairSH »

everforward wrote: post #106
embedding-shape wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reality is that it takes a lot of work. You can outsource pretty much the entire thing, and just be a name on a paper, and receive money in your bank account, that's as close to "passive income" as you can get. Lots of people do this today, pretty common for landlords to do so in Spain for example, and I'm sure all around the world.

I tried this once and it wasn’t great. It was a single home, and in a college neighborhood (house was cheap, ergo rent was low). The rent paid the mortgage, but that was about it. Repairs were more or less out of pocket. I gave it up because I didn’t live locally and got raked over the coals on repairs a couple times. I finally quit because the property managers had an “emergency repairs” clause where they could do r…

Oh yeah, the management companies bill insane amounts. The beach house I mentioned in the sibling sub-thread - they'd bill $100 to change a lightbulb, stuff like that.

It only made sense as a medium-term investment - buy with cash, maintain for a decade (and maybe you're cashflow positive for part of that), then sell for a profit (hopefully).

Similarly, local to me, renting a house really only makes sense if you bought cheap (which for us normies means we bought it years ago, so the mortgage is cheap vs current rents).

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#139

Post by hylaride »

nicbou wrote: post #114
hylaride wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a contentious issue in Canada, too. There are legit reasons families may want to bring in certain extended family members (grandparents for childcare, etc), but it becomes a chain. Canada's elderly benefits are designed for people that have lived here all their lives, so it adds a strain to healthcare and other services. IMO it should be immediate family (spouse and children) and then maybe one should be able to…

> Canada's elderly benefits are designed for people that have lived here all their lives, so it adds a strain to healthcare and other services. In Germany, the benefits are tied to contributions, and after 45 years old, having some sort of pension is a requirement for getting a residence permit. That being said, Canada is also getting skilled workers it did not pay to raise, educate and train. It's getting a good dea…

I'm not complaining myself, but the system has broken down due to abuse (and outright fraud) of student visas, where the "students" then started working front-line retail and delivery jobs. We stopped getting the skilled workers and got a lot of fraudulent ones, and there was a path to permanent residency/citizenship, which then became a pipeline for their families.

There's been a crackdown as of late, but it's significantly impacted the perceived benefits of immigration here (and significantly increased south-asian racism). I know this problem wasn't unique to Canada (AU/NZ/UK all had similar issues) as many countries felt it was better to get these immigrants educated here where their credentials could be recognized, but they underestimated the demand via diploma mills.

Re: Foreign business owners are scrambling to raise capital to stay in Japan

#140

Post by broken-kebab »

embedding-shape wrote: post #73
nradov wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notion of earning "passive income" as a landlord is a total fantasy. The reality is that it takes a lot of work. Otherwise tenants, vendors, and property managers will wreck the assets and rob you blind.

> The reality is that it takes a lot of work. You can outsource pretty much the entire thing, and just be a name on a paper, and receive money in your bank account, that's as close to "passive income" as you can get. Lots of people do this today, pretty common for landlords to do so in Spain for example, and I'm sure all around the world.

>You can outsource pretty much the entire thing

This is probably the fantasy part.

Quality of maintenance, honest, doesn't take all the money - you can pick only 2 of these for your property operator. Actually, you have to be lucky to get 2.

If it works great and you aren't involved in solving constantly incoming troubles, you're earning peanuts.

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