Slightly off topic. But this Japanese program sounds totally dressing and covered in tape. If you work remote and are completely self sufficient is there any country that will just let you live there?
Japan eyes startup visa program
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Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#92Japan's immigration system seems heavily set up to encourage young people to come, work and then leave.
This startup visa is good for getting a toe-hold on Japan but only targets people out of country. If you live in Japan already (so you might already speak the language and have helpful local knowledge) there aren't any great paths to starting a business without permanent residency. You can't start a side business on a regular work visa. If you change your visa to manage the business and the startup failed you are likely to be "directed to return to your home country", losing all the residence time you have accrued so far.
I've been working as an engineer in Japanese startups for the past few years and I'm kept on 1 year visa renewals. On a one year visa you can never apply for permanent residency.
And on top of this, there is the 5 year "technical trainee" visa, which is a means of getting manual labor in the country temporarily without having to publicize it. All the people on this visa do not have university degrees so after their 5 years are up they must return home and have no chance of residence in Japan (outside of marriage).
Of course, Japan is free to set its own laws. If you look at them the message is clear: "Japan wants your work and taxes, but it doesn't want you"
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#93As an "entrepreneur" (closer to a freelancer/independent contractor, self employed through a company I created) that's currently living in Japan, a few notes: - Things get a lot easier when a Japanese person is involved. - Paperwork pain will be real, hire someone else to do it. Japan is almost completely about the appearance of propriety -- getting everything filled out properly is 90% of the difficulty. - Hire a ch…
> or you've got some cool projects for me to undertake, feel free to get in touch (see my profile or the gaisma page) vados@gaisma.co.jp Are you on the Hacker News Tokyo Slack forum? [1] @jason_tko (Jay Winder Make Leaps CEO who runs the Hacker News Tokyo community meetup that you mentioned - also on Meetup [2]) just launched it. You could join and introduce your self perhaps ... It's mainly an expat community but th…
Oh hey no problem, my attendance has been pretty few and far between so far! Slack's not really my style (I find it hurts focus sometimes), but I might pop in there actually just to say hi.
I (along with a different startup's CTO that I'm currently working with) somehow missed the recent meeting this week somehow, I thought it was going to be on thursday, and it was supposedly the biggest one yet :(
I dunno who is who on HN (and almost don't want to) but the two hosts do an excellent job of creating a fun, not-awkward, encouraging, yet semi-professional and restrained atmosphere and I appreciate how hard that is. Also thanks to the other people behind running it, as I assume there's one or two more people in the background that are crucial. Also one of hosts introduced me to the existence of tethers a full week or two before the hubbub this last week -- so that's cool -- that kind of knowledge is why I come to HN.
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#94>Based on the New Business Implementation Plan, Fukuoka City officials will conduct a review on the progress of startup businesses founded by entrepreneurs who utilized this system and received approval for his/her Business Manager residential status. There will be three review sessions during the six-month period, of which at least one session will be held either at the entrepreneur’s place of business or residence.…
Try opening a business bank account in Japan. Or any bank account for that matter. Be prepared to start every handwritten form over if you make even the slightest error, and I hope you’ve been practicing your kanji. No credit cards or foreign transfers until you’ve got a few years in your business. Capital requirements. It’s a whole different ballgame, for better or worse.
I remember being recommended Shinsei for banking.
"Oh great, they have an account setup app".
I go through the app, take pictures of my documentation etc.
"How easy!" I thought.
I get a call later asking me to visit a branch.
"Sorry, the app is only for Japanese" they tell me.
These kind of stories abound.
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#95Same story as always: you take the risk, invest your time and break up your life. If it works you are welcome to stay. If it doesn't work you get cut loose and you likely will take years to recover whereas the other side hasn't risked a thing. These kind of propositions only make sense if you have nothing to lose.
If your passport isn't from the right country you might have nothing to lose. If you have decided to move to some other country, and are looking for the place with the least legal headaches for immigration, _and have a college degree_, then Japan is probably the best on that metric. You don't have the uncertainty of the green card lottery (the permanent residency requirements are pretty well defined), no employer-bas…
This pretty much describes all countries aside from US
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#96Earlier 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.
Yes, very safe indeed. It can be quite fun when you are in your 20s, if you live in big urban centers (night life, etc.) - but it's also an impenetrable society. Not being Japanese will place barriers around you in many aspects of the society, sooner or later (even if you are fluent in the language). It's important to be aware of this.
Do you mind expanding on this? I’m curious about what barriers will be put up, as I’ve thought about moving there.
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#97Wait, what are the benefits apart from 'we let you stay here and do your business and here are some lawyers and maybe a good word here and there'? This is absurd.
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.
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#98>Based on the New Business Implementation Plan, Fukuoka City officials will conduct a review on the progress of startup businesses founded by entrepreneurs who utilized this system and received approval for his/her Business Manager residential status. There will be three review sessions during the six-month period, of which at least one session will be held either at the entrepreneur’s place of business or residence.…
Try opening a business bank account in Japan. Or any bank account for that matter. Be prepared to start every handwritten form over if you make even the slightest error, and I hope you’ve been practicing your kanji. No credit cards or foreign transfers until you’ve got a few years in your business. Capital requirements. It’s a whole different ballgame, for better or worse.
The largest bank in Japan was flabbergasted that I sweet talked them into getting a business bank account for Starfighter.
Some things I wouldn't agree with: Personal bank accounts aren't challenging given a medium term status of residence. Wire transfers should be trivial for anyone capable of running a business; you just have to ask and not sound like a drug lord while doing so. Credit cards are easily available, including to foreigners (surprisingly so from some issuers), though corporate cards are much harder. Capital requirements functionally don't exist anymore; you can open a 合同会社 with 1 yen and you can convince large banks to open a business bank account with e.g. 10万 as an opening deposit.
(For anyone starting a company in Japan who wants to talk banking stuff I'd be more than happy to; this is very relevant to my professional interests these days.)
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#99Japan's immigration system seems heavily set up to encourage young people to come, work and then leave. This startup visa is good for getting a toe-hold on Japan but only targets people out of country. If you live in Japan already (so you might already speak the language and have helpful local knowledge) there aren't any great paths to starting a business without permanent residency. You can't start a side business o…
I absolutely agree with the message you've arrived at and think you're right, along with the fact that they're free to set their own laws/determine their stance about the outside world.
One minor correction: I think you can become eligible for permanent residency with consistent 1 year visas -- from what I understand as long as the TYPE of visa is unchanged and you've had the same type of visa for 5-7 years it counts well towards the (quite recently developed) points system they use. Previously, I thought it was just 5-7 years of same VISA and you're in a pretty good spot, but turns out there's a point system now.
Here's the official documentation (japanese, unfortunately): http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/eizyuu.ht...
Re: Japan eyes startup visa program
#100Wait, what are the benefits apart from 'we let you stay here and do your business and here are some lawyers and maybe a good word here and there'? This is absurd.
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 from a culture perspective, it's quite possibly the most unique culture I've ever experienced. I'm not even normally interested in culture (just about every group has culture, things that make them different, and it's usually all interesting), but just the amount of seclusion that makes it almost impossible for a foreigner to be accepted in japan makes for some really interesting heightened culture differences/quirks.