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Japan eyes startup visa program

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#161

Post by coinme »

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.

This is possible in Singapore too. It’s technically the business that is sponsoring you.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#162

Post by sdrothrock »

mistermann wrote: post #129
hardwaresofton wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noted this in a different comment, but Japan is very easy to live in. Japan's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness is that just about everyone in the society is in the same "lane" . This means you get a bunch of good and bad characteristics in the vast majority of the population -- politeness-by-default, general honesty, intense almost blinding nationalism -- it's a mixed bag. Also, if you're interested…

> Japan's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness is that just about everyone in the society is in the same "lane". This means you get a bunch of good and bad characteristics in the vast majority of the population. I've never heard it described this way before, it makes a lot of sense.

My Japanese girlfriend is always curious (from a distance) about America and what it's like there -- she sometimes assumes that it must be a terrible place because I chose Japan.

I usually explain that Japan and America have the same average quality, but Japan's peaks and troughs are fairly close to the average, while America's are much more extreme.

I don't know if that makes sense (and I'm not guaranteeing it's 100% accurate), but it helped her "get" how Japan is a bit different. :)

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#163

Post by throwaway31293 »

Why on earth would anyone move to Japan ?

You get treated like shit, get paid shit, do shitty work, and work under morons whose only qualification is the ability to speak Japanese and bullshit in English... and this for Machine Learning. I can't imagine the things one has to put up with for more vanilla jobs.

Moving to Tokyo must be one of the biggest regrets of my life. I'd look for Singapore or India even, compared to 'grorious Nippon'.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#164

Post by whatyoucantsay »

psergeant wrote: post #73
whatyoucantsay wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's safe. There are fewer homicides in the entire country of 125 million than just the city of Chicago each year.

Homicide rate seems a ridiculous rate to use; I suspect the homicide rate per 100,000 startup founders is a rounding error of — for example — road traffic accidents.

A low violence, high trust society has spillover benefits. Aside from not being likely to be murdered, you can expend much less energy on safety.

If your concern is just survival, then perhaps Japan's perennial rank at the top of WHO life expectancy rankings is something that would interest you.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#165

Post by mikekchar »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #157
mikekchar wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rea…

Fair enough. I agree with the literal statement too, but I think it's a bit misleading for people who don't get the context. For what it's worth, not very many people ask me where I'm from and when they do I say Shizuoka. Nobody has asked the obvious follow up question.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#166

Post by richardknop »

pembrook wrote: post #97
whatyoucantsay wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's safe. There are fewer homicides in the entire country of 125 million than just the city of Chicago each year.

Not a reason to choose Japan specifically. That is also true for pretty much every 1st and 2nd world country on earth that isn’t the US.

For homicides yes. You can live in Germany or some other European country where murders and gun crime are in single digits per year (haven't checked the latest number, could be higher than single digits but much less compared to US, you get my point).

But the difference compared to Japan is in more petty crime. Things already mentioned in this thread - you can't just leave your laptop on coffee table and go to the loo for 10 min. Or leave your bicycle in front of a store and go inside for half an hour.

As a European I don't think there are many (if any) places in Europe where you don't have to watch your back and be aware of thieves and other (potentially dangerous or at least inconvenient) dodgy street elements.

Add to that overall cleanliness (amount of homeless people shitting on streets, screaming obscenities on people walking by etc, in US and EU cities that will be quite normal, in most Asian cities this would be a rarity) and moving to a place like Japan can be attractive option for people.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#167

Post by yc-kraln »

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.

Are you daft? The EU-Blue card matches that in the worst case, and if you meet certain criteria, you can get permanent residency in as little as three years and citizenship in six. Every EU country.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#168

Post by rtpg »

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.

It's about ensuring you have money, not that you need an invite.

So if you're a freelancer with a bunch of active contracts they let you in.

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#169

Post by devnonymous »

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.

Ireland offers this too afaik and so does Germany (with the catch that you reach B1 level proficiency in German)

Re: Japan eyes startup visa program

#170

Post by kalleboo »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #46
paulsutter wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shinsei was easy to work with (for a business account), have English language online banking and telephone support. Never had an issue with foreign transfers. Does help to have a Japanese friend who can help when opening the account, etc, and it’s important to find accounting and legal help that speak English.

Shinsei is the most foreigner friendly bank in Tokyo, bar none. They're known for it, and they make their services convenient -- go there. Initially you might have some trouble with the Address/Phone Number/Bank Account requirements, because they're almost all required at nearly the exact same time, making some weird pseudo requirement stalemate but here's what you do: 1. Get a place to live (likely through some onli…

These days for phone numbers you can bootstrap that with a free VoIP account (only charges for outgoing calls) which doesn't require any form of ID.
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