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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

#31

Post by shiroiushi »

tjpnz wrote: post #22
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…

It's quite common for apartment blocks to forbid "holiday" rentals. Mine has visible signage about this in the lobby and the building manager also looks out for it. Your typical apartment owner has zero interest in all the trouble these arrangements bring.

That's for regular apartments. The blog author went to a monthly mansion, which are used for holiday rentals and other short-duration stays of a few months or so (such as people moving to a new city and needing a place before they can find a permanent apartment, or maybe people on temporary work assignments in a new city).

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#32

Post by naniwaduni »

djtango wrote: post #11
jalapenos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comp…

Also, while they're unlikely to spend resources toward going after individuals who happen to work remotely on a tourist visa, it's comparatively trivial to pull people out at entry (and that's going to be a regular and well-documented occurrence because the alternative of overstaying your visa is absolutely something countries with governments tend to care about).

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#33

Post by shiroiushi »

notpushkin wrote: post #24
DeathArrow wrote: post #18

Isn't Japan an expensive country?

It is a mixed bag: apartments can be pretty expensive, especially in Greater Tokyo area. Food is pretty cheap IMO. Taxis are prohibitively expensive, but railroad system is really really good and compensates for that pretty well. But people don’t go to Japan because it’s cheap – it’s just a really nice place to live for some.

Apartments even in Tokyo are still quite cheap compared to today's rents in major American cities, and not needing to own a car also cuts living expenses massively compared to living in the US.

Someone coming from a German city with good public transit might not think it's that cheap though. But a lot of digital nomads are Americans.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#34

Post by djtango »

notpushkin wrote: post #26
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…

> 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. Could they just hire those individuals as contractors instead? It should be up to the contractor to ensure compliance then. (IANAL)

Some do but from observation lawyers/HR find reasons to resist this.

The most likely explanation is there could be risk but there is zero risk associated with saying no so legal and HR say no to this arrangement because they don't want more work and legal and HR are cost centres so they can't magically pull budget out of thin air to appease some annoying digital nomads. A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either, which would be a giant headache for both HR and senior management.

For example VCs prefer "headcount" over contractors for a number of reasons so there is pressure from the top to incentivise full time employees. Large multinationals have a lot of considerations around taxation (its always taxes...)

These are some of the practicalities I've uncovered that provide inertia towards remote working

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#35

Post by forgotoldacc »

esperent wrote: post #23
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…

> 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 This really sounds like one of those not-quite-racist "problems with foreigners" that every country likes to pretend they have. Every "knows" it's a problem, there's no way to prove it right or wro…

It might be racism. But those thoughts aren't going to be undone with visas for rich nomads/tourists who'll stay for 6 months and dip. It's only accelerating justification for racism amongst locals.

And lumping any sort of economic concerns a country has into racism, then considering it something that shouldn't even be talked about because it's "racism", is how these issues start to snowball fast and more extreme racist reactions grow. A few European countries have taken hard right swings because people who said anything about immigration policies were shut down as racists. Now people don't even care about being called racist because the word is normalized. And that's a dangerous path to have started treading down. Japan is a country where being said to have some prejudice isn't something people will shamefully back away from; things could snowball much faster than in Europe.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#36

Post by yunohn »

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.

Well, the USA and EU are also equally (if not more) strict about not working on tourist or business visas. You have to get a work visa.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#37

Post by hardwaresofton »

Klonoar wrote: post #30
fxtentacle wrote: post #2

There's also the option of spending around $35k to purchase a Japanese business and use that to get an investor visa.

There's a world of difference in the level of effort between this and the digital nomad visa.

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 to live in.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#38

Post by notpushkin »

djtango wrote: post #34
notpushkin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Could they just hire those individuals as contractors instead? It should be up to the contractor to ensure compliance then. (IANAL)

Some do but from observation lawyers/HR find reasons to resist this. The most likely explanation is there could be risk but there is zero risk associated with saying no so legal and HR say no to this arrangement because they don't want more work and legal and HR are cost centres so they can't magically pull budget out of thin air to appease some annoying digital nomads. A company is also not going to let their entire…

Makes sense, thanks!

> A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either

This could actually look like tax evasion (in countries with lower taxes for sole proprietors / self-employed people), so not a great idea in any case.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#39

Post by creakingstairs »

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.

Getting a bank account via SMBC Olive was a painless experience for me. It can all be done an app and a phone call later confirming some details. I was not employed at the time.

Re: How I Got a Digital Nomad Visa for Japan

#40

Post by csomar »

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.

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.
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