Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

asia.nikkei.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–317 of 317 posts

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#311

Post by makeitdouble »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #130
makeitdouble wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more about taxes. If you apply for a working visa you can be flagged as having revenue generated while in the country, so you'll pay an income tax on it. The other side of it is visa overstay: it's more financially viable for working people to overstay their visa, where pure tourist have to go back at some point. Terrorists will be flagged whatever they do, as international money transfers are already heavily sc…

Any idea of how much the tax might be in Japan? And how does it affect taxes in the US?

On the tax amount, if you're interested in the details:

https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/individual/12006.htm

I didn't go through all of it, but I'd expect it to be a tad less that 10% of the gross income.

If you're a US resident, I think you pay them as well on that same income ?

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#312

Post by nerdbert »

herbst wrote: post #88
elzbardico wrote: post #51

In most countries you can't do any kind of work while in a tourist Visa, but this was never enforced, because it was so exceedingly rare for not to be on governments radar. But once it became more prevalent, it creates the problem (on governments view, especially post 9/11) of having a bunch of foreign folks living for months and receiving money from abroad for god knows which reason. This creates the problem for law…

When I was in Thailand about 7 or 8 years ago they just recently raided a co-working coffee and jailed the 'nomads' over night (as far as I remember) there was also regular talks about what to tell and not tell border patrol and official visa places. Most people I met just paid taxes 'at home' or were generally lost in limbo financially but there always was an awareness about this being illegal.

> When I was in Thailand about 7 or 8 years ago they just recently raided a co-working coffee and jailed the 'nomads' over night

That was because the authorities did not understand how co-working spaces operated, and had concluded that the foreigners in there were employees of the space's owner.

They have since said that they will not repeat that, and have been true to their word so far.

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#313

Post by nerdbert »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #118
oldtownroad wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m asking because I visit Japan on a tourist visa and I have never encountered this rule. I’d like to learn more about it from official sources. The purpose of a digital nomad visa is to allow for a longer stay.

> I’m asking because I visit Japan on a tourist visa and I have never encountered this rule. I’d like to learn more about it from official sources. Unfortunately, I don't think this a specific rule which makes it hard to point to a source, but you simply aren't allowed to work in any form if you are in Japan on a tourist visa, and from the government's perspective, this obviously includes remote work. If you want som…

> you simply aren't allowed to work in any form if you are in Japan on a tourist visa

You will never get the Japanese government to say this, if "any form" includes incidental remote work. And "incidental" is undefined and they aren't going to want to be pinned down on that either.

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#314

Post by _Tev »

msikora wrote: post #219
somenameforme wrote: post #112

Most aren't aware of the situation Japan is in today because of the world we all grew up in, where Japan was at one point nearly the largest economy in the world. Japan has been in between a recession and stagnation for 30 years. Their GDP was higher 31 years ago than it is today. [1] Their GDP/capita is $33,950 with most wages well below that. They hit a record high for average wages in 2022 of ¥311,800 - about $2,1…

What blows my mind is that Japan's GDP per capita (PPP) as reported by World Bank is now lower than 4 formerly comparatively "poor" former Easter Block countries: Czechia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia. And just one place above Poland. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?most_... WTF happened in Japan? All the above countries have their own demographic collapse as well BTW.

Czechia did not have demographic collapse, and actually got fair bit of immigration from other Slavic countries, mainly Slovakia & Ukraine (pre-war, post we got even more obviously).

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#315

Post by rldjbpin »

Shank wrote: post #81

It's exciting to see progress, but I think 180 days is too short for this to be worthwhile for people who really wanted this. They've leaned heavily into the "nomad" part, but the issue is more of practicality. This visa doesn't come with a Residency Card, which means that getting a traditional lease in Japan is going to be difficult. For 6 months, you'll be on an uphill battle with some services like housing, which…

this perspective works for those who can get similar duration for tourism because of their strong passport.

meanwhile some european countries gave short visit visa as short as a couple weeks, while charging hundreds of euros for the entire process.

then all of a sudden it seems very generous in comparison.

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#316

Post by aidenn0 »

somenameforme wrote: post #308
exoverito wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If current rates continue, which is a big assumption, then Japan will have 106M people by 2050 and 75M by 2100, which was roughly the population before WW2. Japan is already one of the most densely populated areas in the world, so further population growth may not be the greatest idea. They already have good standards of living, great infrastructure, high societal trust, low crime, a competent government, etc. Europe…

This isn't quite accurate. The population projection graphs you see [1] are based on UN numbers which have the Japanese fertility rate skyrocketing [2] relative to past trends, presumably based on the assumption of some sort of successful social policy. That's why the collapse starts to smooth out in the graph, which is not what you see from a constant rate. Fertility rates, at a constant level, are brutally exponent…

> Fertility rates, at a constant level, are brutally exponential systems which do not 'slow down'.

If fertility rates are correlated to your ancestor's fertility rates, then a decline can "slow down" just because the remaining people of fertile age will be disproportionately from families with higher fertility rates.

Re: Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'

#317

Post by honeylemonnuin »

Shank wrote: post #81

It's exciting to see progress, but I think 180 days is too short for this to be worthwhile for people who really wanted this. They've leaned heavily into the "nomad" part, but the issue is more of practicality. This visa doesn't come with a Residency Card, which means that getting a traditional lease in Japan is going to be difficult. For 6 months, you'll be on an uphill battle with some services like housing, which…

Thank you for your comment. I'm interested in this program too and agree with you that 6 months maybe too short to move and rent an apartment there. I assume most place have at lease 1 year contract, right? I would like to give them my comment too. Can you please share where can we give them feedback when they open for public comment? And will it possible if we ask them to let us apply for residency card?

Thank you

Post reply on HN