Japan to introduce six-month residency visa for 'digital nomads'
asia.nikkei.com
asia.nikkei.com
I think this would be very appealing if it was a 1 year visa at minimum, but comparable visas (e.g., the Taiwan Gold Card) are up to 3 years. I'm not terribly upset at the lack of Individual Number or Residence Card, but the length is definitely something that makes it unappealing except in the most nomad-of-nomad situations.
Apparently they'll be opening it for public comments in the second half of February. They said that they based the 6 month time period on questions they asked foreigners about how long they would want to stay -- so maybe this is the time to push for a longer period of time.
It's similar with the recent 1-year South Korean F-1-D Nomad/Workation visa for Canadians, who get 6 months as tourists anyways. I'm going through the application process since U.S. citizens only get 3 months as tourists, but the hassle is only really worth it for the residency card.
If they allow dependents (like the Korean one does) and allowed for 1 year with the option of extending up to 2, we'd be packing right now.
I suppose it's less cost to do it this way, but it sure seems like a "digital nomad" would have no problem going somewhere else for a week (Korea, Taiwan), and coming back.
(edit: I could be wrong about the 2 stay max. It might be higher. I'm pretty sure I entered Japan more than 2 times in a single year on a visa-free waver, but I don't know if there's some window that applies.)
That may have been what I was thinking, I recall on my first trip there, they were pretty strict and wanted to know exactly where I was staying I even had to show them on the map. For my wife's tourist visa we had to apply to a travel agency that was a liaison with the Japan embassy (The Japan embassy required it, you couldn't apply directly in her country) and the process was very tedious, we had to include a day-by-day itinerary, and all kinds of documentation. All that to say I guess when I hear that Japan is strict about something, I just take that as it's not worthwhile to try and get around it.
[1] Both are countries with lots of unskilled folks who desperately want to work in Japan.
The three main things JP passport control are looking for are asylum seekers, people over and people that are illegally working under the table and not paying into the Japanese tax/retirement system.
I would also expect, pessimistically, that the housing for foreigners on this visa will, if offered, be significantly more expensive than normal housing on the expectation that foreigners can afford it. Maybe this won't be the case, but I think it will definitely make an already-annoying problem harder.
One month thanks for letting me rent here fee Two months deposit One month fee to the agent First month’s actual rent
And most contracts are two years but you can cancel with one month’s notice in the second year. If you cancel in the first year, that’s another one month penalty.
No one’s going to be renting a normal apartment for six months.
Thank you
From the first looks of it, it seems it expects me to work there for a company and not 'nomad'?
Properties in rural Japan are VERY cheap (like 20k USD). It makes sense to just buy summer house there. It is pretty good life to spend summers in Japan, and winters somewhere at south.
If you're lucky, the only problem will be that the house is very remote, and you need a car to get there. That alone is a substantial problem on a 6-month basis if you don't have residency. But realistically, houses that are in move-in state in an area where you'd actually want to live cost far more than $20k.
I like hiking, remote location is the feature for me. Not everyone has to live in Tokyo. I will buy a bike and rent van when needed.
Japan is a cheap developed country, with low crime. Not many places like that.
> Not everyone has to live in Tokyo.
LOL, I'm not even remotely talking about Tokyo. I'm talking about 2nd- and 3rd-tier cities. If you find a $20k house in Tokyo, it's going to be unlivable, and so far outside the city that you won't believe you're in Tokyo.
Honestly, $20k is low even for a well-maintained place in a small town. Most likely, any house at this price point, anywhere, is in a flood zone or at serious risk of mudslide, filled with junk, and/or requiring seismic/electrical/plumbing improvements before you can move in.
Mudslides are great point, thanks.
That may have been possible under the 90 day tourist visa (though I think that one may explicitly bar job hunting), but 90 days disappears surprisingly quickly and the flight out and back in to get the second 90 day period is a nuisance.
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.
Next - they're dying off. They hit their inflection point in 2009 and they've been shrinking since [3]. They've lost more than 5million people since 2009. And the "fun" thing about fertility collapse is that the decline will never stop. Their population will keep shrinking down at the 'equilibrium rate' (decided by fertility rate) until they start having babies, or go extinct. The exact same will happen to every other country with sub-replacement fertility rates.
This, IMO, is an effort to try to attract a certain type of immigrant largely for the purposes of revenue generation.
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[1] - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?location...
[2] - https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01631/
[2] - https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/japan-populat...
1) Yes, the economy is stagnant. But it's interesting to think about it from the point of view that Japan disproves the idea that a growth economy is the only way. Here is a country that increases worker efficiency and has a really high standard of living, but doesn't do it in a hyper growth kind of way.
2) Yes, Japan is super, super xenophobic compared to other countries. This is contrasted with it being one of the top tourist destinations on earth. I think things like digital nomad visa could be a small step on the way to closing this dichotomy. It's clear that one of the easy levers Japan could pull to alleviate their economic issues would be to allow more immigration, and I think the world's facination with Japan and Japanese culture is such that they could pull it off.
People ought to be able to move where they're most happy / productive. One consequence of that may be that a place turns "into cosmopolitan London". But that's hardly a horror.
A few friends and I like your home better than ours. It's much nicer and safer than where we currently live, so we move into a few open bedrooms.
Now that we outnumber you and your family, we vote to change things in the common areas more to our liking. Some changes are small and happen over time, others more jarring and immediate. You like some of these changes in some cases, but sometimes quite the opposite.
Is it a foregone conclusion that this situation is for the greater good? If so, should your family be pressured or forced to accept?
Who has the power to make that determination?
After all, you were only there first so what gives you the right to prevent others from moving in?
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Personally, I can see the argument for both sides.
It's got all sorts of baggage and expectations pertaining to homeownership that don't carry over into migration. I feel it'd just be better to address the problem space directly and ask what specific problems you observe/predict with immigration.
The problem I'm inferring from your comment here would also seem to apply to families moving from Chicago to Boston. And what's funny is that people actually do complain about this (our mayor is from Chicago), but it's for nonsensical reasons in my experience.
Fair enough. Not everyone enjoys naked cosmopolitanism. I don't live in New York City for a reason (I did at one point), and I don't live in the downtown of the city I live closest to (also did at one point, where I watched it change into something else). There are aspects of a nation that go beyond mere economic data, and longing for those things to remain stable and constant is a normal feeling and belief. When people talk about immigration as a mechanism to "solve" some problem, those other aspects get glossed over, usually pejoratively by calling everyone who doesn't agree with mass immigration a "racist" or a "bigot". Talking about Japan is an evocative example because it's so culturally distant from the west in ways that are obvious and stark. Thinking it wise that it changes to echo the mishmash that the west is becoming, in order to make some numbers in a spreadsheet go up, is in my estimation the more extreme position to stake out than simply observing that perhaps not all uniqueness was created equal. There's also the housing problem, where, for some reason, people pretend that this is the one instance in which the laws of supply and demand do not apply and large numbers of immigrants don't have an impact on the cost of housing.
>The problem I'm inferring from your comment here would also seem to apply to families moving from Chicago to Boston.
People complain about this because where you are from is a signal about having skin in the game. It's why politicians advertise their family ties to the place they are running to represent. I don't live in Boston, and am not that familiar with Mayor Wu. Maybe she'll run the city into the ground, maybe she won't. But if she does, she can always just go back to Chicago.
Of course it failed - the attractiveness of Austin, in part because of its distinct character, left it facing widespread 'migration' of a sort that the city was unaccustomed to dealing with, and it increasingly just looks like any other city. Identical to how if Japan starts opening the flood gates there will be all these people moving there because 'wow, Japan's so weird and unique' and soon enough e.g. Tokyo will look like any other city.
It could well be "better", by some metric or another, for Austin, Tokyo, and everywhere else to be basically the same, excepting some window dressing. But it sure creates a much more bland and less interesting world.
By what measure?
If I had to guess, the causal arrow points the other way.
Japan for tourism? Can't recommend further. Amazing country to visit, clean, safe, good food. They will be educated towards you in big cities like Tokyo etc.
Japan for living (specially if you're from an economy which they perceive as lower/poorer)? Avoid at all costs, you'll be treated as subculture forever.
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.
Also, regarding sibling comment about relevance of PPP metrics: I challenge you to come to Czechia or Poland - the quality of life can really surprise you. Those are, for example, the two countries with the lowest unemployment rates in EU. We have nice apartments and houses (with photovoltaic panels and heat pumps, mind you), drive nice cars, have good healthcare and free higher education.
Unless I get a $1M+ per year offer from a FAANG in Silicon Valley I feel like no country in the world can offer me a significantly better standard of living.
Most of the Soviet Bloc type nations you named had reasonable fertility rates under the USSR, only collapsed once the USSR collapsed in 1991, and are inching back up again. Japan, by contrast, never had a particularly great fertility rate post-war. Then it just collapsed in the 1970s and simply kept going down. [1]
Fertility rates just determine so much. With a good fertility rate companies grow naturally because their market size is constantly naturally increasing. And vice versa for poor fertility rates. It also determines the overall age distribution of a population, such as how in Japan now 10% of the population is over 80. When an ever larger chunk of your population is leaving the labor force with not enough people to replace them, and then an even smaller taxpayer base to provide the social benefits necessary to sustain these people in their elder years - everything just becomes completely unsustainable.
And, again, none of this will ever get better such as, for instance, when the older people start passing en masse. This is because fertility rate determines the ratio of distributions within a population. You can see this quite clearly in this [2] population pyramid. The only solution is for them to suddenly start dramatically increasing their fertility rate.
[1] - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?location...
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan#/media/F...
In all other contexts would you also say gdp per capita is a metric not worth considering? If not then I humbly question the value of your statement.
(edited)
At the risk of being out of my depth: You only need a few seconds to look at the per-capita list before finding yourself asking "wait, why is THAT country so high up?". Again, useful info can be inferred, but it doesn't put the country above others in other important lists, which is what people usually imply and use it for, on topics not strictly related to economy statistics.
I guess I would avoid updating my beliefs too strongly when a measurement I generally find quite useful (in this case gdp per capita) does not perfectly map onto a more nuanced view of the world! As you say, it's only a single data point.
"To be eligible for the new status, applicants must have an annual income equivalent to 10 million yen ($68,000) or more"
which means the newly created Digital Nomad class needs to have 2x the average GDP/capita in income?
Many nations have high standards for immigration relating to income, wealth and professional qualifications. There is absolutely nothing hush hush about it, not even remotely.
You definitely don't live in the progressive parts of Europe. You're not allowed to say here you only want certain kinds of well off immigrant at the expense of other less well off migrants, otherwise you might be called a N*zi.
All I can say as a white Polish immigrant in Germany is that I was hit by the “Nazi club” as it’s called here a hundred times in my lifetime. No matter how mild your statement might be the Nazi insinuation comes fast. My superpower is that I can actually defend myself by saying that my ancestors were killed by Nazis, while native Germans can’t, but such a defense shouldn’t be necessary to begin with.
Not out loud, anyway. The Dutch have an immigration system that very much benefits well off immigrants (see the 30% rule vs agricultural immigration schemes), but yeah Wilders is considered ultra-right wing for wanting to kick out all the lower class immigrants (saying that they are all "Moroccans" doesn't help matters). Unfortunately despite him saying the quiet part out loud he got 25% of the Dutch voters to agree with him in November.
Here's a half-decent list: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/citizenship-by-invest...
I have no strong opinions immigration which is a hot topic currently but I do want to clarify that your assertion is incorrect.
Other paths to immigration exist as well.
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-...
I think that's a deliberate misinterpretation. It obviously means 'low functioning' autism rather than someone who's awkward in adulthood but otherwise leads a normal life.
Unless you qualify for asylum, then all bets are off and these rules are waived.
As for a digital nomad, if you're business is secure enough that you're comfortable traveling full time or as a standard aspect of your life, you're likely making more than $68,000 Pre-Tax.
I don't think this is an incredibly high dollar amount, seeing as several major cities in the US have a minimum wage of nearly $41,000 a year.
And this particular visa is aimed at people that are employed overseas, so they're not even gonna take any high paying jobs from the population
For example the German city of Düsseldorf is very welcome to Japanese business, and it resulted in a lot of infrastructure like Japanese schools, kindergardens, cultural institutions , Japanese chamber of commerce, restaurants, doctors with Japanese translators, a temple, as well as a huge yearly Japanese festival.
In the 90s almost all of the Japanese living in Düsseldorf were managers, i.e. paid well.
There is no crime, they cause no trouble, they usually just don’t speak German because they live after a 1-4 year business stint. They are very liked among the local citizens.
Meanwhile when Turks try to build a mosque chaos ensues. But the Turkish population is not a bunch of rich nomads.
or is this just a concern about “crab mentality”?
The tl;dr is if you drop 5000 people earning 2x the average salary into a neighborhood, the prices of everything goes way up. Rent, food, entertainment, locals get priced out very quickly.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65485908
seems like a tourism issue? that and extremely low wages compared to cost of living. If the government functioned for the people, i imagine it would be trivial to place severe limits on short term tourism rentals, but they have chosen not to do so.
Wouldn't this be more of a Ship of Theseus scenario than outright extinction?
These population projections also ignore the many factors that may change. As the population declines, more opportunities may open for young people, leading to increased family formation. The culture may evolve in response the lopsided demographic pyramid, causing increases in the fertility rate. People are already predicting AGI in the next couple decades, which will render most people unnecessary anyway. These classical analyses around demographics will probably become increasingly obsolete.
of those, most will be old. Population before WW2 was a much healthier mix of old, working age and children.
Who will cater to all the old? Who will pay for the social safety net programs?
As for predictions, I remember about 10 years ago making fun of somebody who wanted to get a class C (commercial trucking) license. It seemed like the most idiotic idea imaginable at the time. Self driving vehicles had already been proven viable and surely it was imminent that nobody would be driving themselves around, let alone truckers where companies would love to ditch those relatively hefty labor fees. Relevant link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmoid_function
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[1] - https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JPN/japan/population-g...
[2] - https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/JPN/japan/fertility-ra...
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.
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 enforcement of having to separate nomad workers from more shady characters that have exactly the same "signature": long term stays, getting regular money from above, not doing the usual tourist stuff that people that have money and free time enough to stay in a foreign country for months usually do.
So, for law enforcement purposes, it makes sense to have an specific kind of Visa for those "working tourists", so they can pre-filter this population and get back to a smaller working set of persons of interest without the added noise of "working tourists" (digital nomad as a term is incorrect, after all, true nomads would be working locally)
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.
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.
I live in Switzerland now and barely spend more in a lazy month than I did in 'super cheap thailand'
As travelling(!) nomad with an effective tax residency in Switzerland other than living cost and food there aren't as many actual saving options.
Vs being stational in a country with low tax and a cheap long term rental. For ME the difference isn't very high.
The other possibility is that you are simply spending more in Thailand. I’ve seen some DN who have the same expenses because they get used to going out ever night. But this is an apples to oranges comparison.
However: I eat good and healthy if possible. I love the street food there, but not 2-3 times a day. I am a coffee junkie, coffee to go is generally more expensive as there are no or only expensive imported options in 7/11 and coffee shops are oriented at tourists.
I definitely didn't waste money, didn't have any money to waste. All I am telling is that Travelling(!) In a cheap country can be just as expensive than staying(!) Long term in a expensive country
QED. That is bloody true.
Not to sound confrontational, but you must be horrible at managing your trip spending.
However i still paid taxes, health care, a mobile contract, banking, etc in Switzerland.
The actual savings should be in living and food. On short term I rarely rented below $800/month for a single room flat. (Vs $1000 for a old house in Switzerland) for food I have to cook myself now Vs. Eating out twice a day in Thailand.
Without actually moving and centering your life to a cheap country (and giving up on a lot of luxury and safety) you dont easily safe money.
Digital Nomading was an absolute luxury for me. Not a way of saving money (at least looking back)
“Normal” meals in Thailand are food stalls, $2 per meal if not less.
If you’d eat out twice a day in Switzerland, you’d go bankrupt.
Same with renting. Short term leases in Switzerland would be astronomical in price.
The way you air-quoted “super cheap Thailand” implies that it isn’t cheap to live there at all. It is, as long as you don’t go out of your way to spend extra.
I gotta disagree here, that's what low-skilled staff eat on their lunch break. It's usually not very tasty or hygienic (depending on what you order), so westerners only eat this once or twice to try it out before learning their lesson. Then they stick to restaurants which cost $5-12 per meal.
Your average western expat spends 30 euros per day on food in Thailand, if they eat out. I know this because a friend did a survey.
- Cheap first meal: $2-$3 - 2-3 Espresso from Supermarkets: $4 - Coffee or tea to go: $3 - Water: $1 - Eating out: $6-$30
So my average day in Food was about $16 - $41 per day. I rarely spend this much in Switzerland when buying only organic food and mostly from farmers. I save a lot on coffee by having a proper coffee machine.
However I recommend anyone to find their place and lifestyle and look as far as possible!
That's because the laws exist to protect local jobs.
Since nomads aren't 'stealing' local jobs, the laws serve their purpose despite them being broken all the time.
All bets are off if a nomad decided to bar work or waiting at a restaurant! (or any other profession that takes a job from a local).
So I guess terrorists/bad actors won't get the idea to apply for this Visa to fly under the radar then?
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 scrutinized and under a working visa you still have to declare your work.
Overstaying a visa is likely a criminal offense depending on the length of the overstay, these people still have to leave the country, they're going to get caught and flagged. At a minimum they'll be prevented from re-entry but chances are there could be real punishment.
In terms of taxes, I really really doubt it, a DN is not taking a locals job, their clients & business are all out of country, their accounts and transactions are all overseas. Just figuring out what they owe and how to pay it in Japan would completely put people off using the Visa and I really doubt the Japanese government would think it worth the hassle for six months.
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 ?
https://www.inc.com/magazine/202309/eric-hagerman/how-mikkel...
I've watched enough of those Border Security tv shows to know this is simply not true
So it's kinda like a "first-world" toy for now.
[0] https://medium.com/@oseraryo/latest-updadats-japans-digital-...
I don’t think that’s correct. A tourist visa doesn’t allow you to work locally but they do not limit working remotely for an overseas company. For example, if you’re on vacation in Japan from the US and an emergency happens at work, you can join a call without risk of deportation.
It would be another story if you published a movie shot in Japan while on a tourist visa.
There’s the belief we all apparently hold that tourism isn’t tourism if you take a laptop, but nobody can evidence such a rule because it’s apparently an implied rule: maybe we can get to the bottom of it by asking why, what explanation / reason would there be for such a rule? Why does taking zoom calls from your hotel room change the nature of your trip?
If you want to work remotely in a foreign country, you need to have the correct visa.
What distinction are you drawing?
Emergencies are all well and good, but turning up at the immigration desk and saying you don’t plan on working when you actually do will lead to trouble in a lot of places.
I know I broke the law on the way back from the station earlier as I did 61mph in a 60 zone. Just because I didn't get caught doesn't make it legal.
They obviously can't prohibit people from checking emails or taking work calls while on vacation, because that means the end of big-spending tourists.
Nobody has drawn a red line at a magic point along the continuum from one emergency work call during a two-week holiday, to 9 hours a day in a hotel room hunched over a computer. Where would it be, and why does that particular point maximize benefit for the host country?
And your statement is nonsense, murdering someone is illegal whether it's proven or not.
Defacto, going 61mph in a 60 is legal practically everywhere. De jure, it's not (the law is on the books).
Same as jaywalking. It's more of a law to pass responsibility in an accident (i.e. if you were jaywalking and got hit by a motor vehicle - you are at fault because of jaywalking. Jaywalking itself is very rarely prosecuted as a standalone thing)
The Temporary Visitor Visa is for activities not exceeding 90 days as follows: tourism, visiting relatives or friends, recreation, convalescence, attending a conference, participation in unpaid lectures, meetings, amateur athletic meetings or other contests, short business trips (e.g. market surveys, business talks, after sales service for machinery imported into Japan)
This category excludes profit-making operations and paid activities. [1]
Usually, paid work means just that.
The thing of course is that you do remote paid work it is unlikely that anyone will notice, especially if you indeed only stay for a few weeks. Plus if business trips are ok, then I suppose noone will care.
[1] https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/visaonline.html
> Single-entry short-term stay visa for the purpose of Tourism (for a period of up to 90 days) (Note).
> [...]
> If you wish to visit Japan for other purposes or for a long-term stay, please submit your application to the Japanese Embassy, Consulate General or Consular office with jurisdiction over your place of residence.
We/You can see remote work as not invalidating your claim, but that's just how we feel, not how it will be judged. To your larger point, the rules being mildly fuzzy aren't helping foreigners in general, it's usually more leeway for the authorities to pick and choose.
I mean, we can invent a lot of way to present it, it all comes down to how the immigration office interprets it (as far as I know, the only real test is suing them when they ask for the money)
That's also the whole reason for potentially introducing this new type of visa; if you were allowed to do remote work on a tourist visa, they wouldn't need to do this.
The purpose of a digital nomad visa is to allow for a longer stay.
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 some specific government opinion in writing saying that remote work is illegal under tourist visas under current law, after the government holds public comment, it usually publishes an interim report compiling the comments it has received along with analysis, and I imagine that in this case the report will note this, but right now I can't find an official document stating this. However, googling it, there are various opinions from law firms agreeing that it is illegal.
There is also no reason you would have "encountered" this because the only way you would be able to encounter it is if you somehow made the government aware that you were illegally working remotely and they deported you.
It's basically impossible for them to tell if you are working remotely though, so it's almost a moot point in most cases unless you specifically go out of your way to make the government aware.
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.
> Article 19 (1) Any foreign national who is a resident under a status of residence listed in the left-hand column of Appended Table I shall not engage in the activities set forth in the following items, with regard to the categories identified therein, except for cases where he/she engages in them with permission as set forth in paragraph (2) of this Article.
> (ii) A foreign national who is a resident with a status of residence listed in the left-hand column of Appended Tables I (3) and I (4): activities related to the management of a business involving income or activities for which he/she receives remuneration.
The quoted "Appended Table I (3)" (別表第一の三) says:
> Temporary Visitor
> Sightseeing, recreation, sports, visiting relatives, inspection tours, participating in lectures or meetings, business contact or other similar activities during a short stay in Japan.
None of this says "within Japan", which from my understanding is that it allows for the maximum interpretation of the law, i.e. "involving income or activities for which he/she receives remuneration [from anywhere]" with the noted activities in Appendix Table being the exception.
Either way, it depends on how immigration interpret the law.
[1]: https://elaws.e-gov.go.jp/document?lawid=326CO0000000319
[2]: https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/1934/e...
^1:
- (i) is not quoted here since it's about a mid-long term stay visa, i.e. work visa
- Paragraph (2) is about obtaining permission to receive remuneration (which is a different thing from (ii) quoted above).
Otherwise, they wouldn't hassle themselves to introduce a new kind of Visa that is geared towards exactly this kind of situation.
A working visa is very difficult to get in most countries and requires local sponsorship because of the risk to the local economy — you’re potentially taking a local job from local people. Tourist visas are easy to get because there’s no risk: a tourist arrives, spends money, leaves. A digital nomad is a tourist by every measure.
The reason tourist visas are short is to ensure people don’t move to the country without permission. A digital nomad doesn’t present a risk to the local economy so bumping their length of stay is safe for the local economy, hence, digital nomad visas.
Is that a definite interpretation of the law or just an in-practice one? I have had friends have issues are borders with this, albeit not with Japan. That countries feel the need to clarify this the world over tells me that this isn't totally settled.
It's just not possible to enforce that.
If you are a tourist who works for a foreign company while visiting a country, well I don't know a single person who has been actually deported for this. I know it can happen, but most places seem to not care much, and mostly care you're spending your money in their country.
I am a digital nomad myself for about 1/2 every year so I do have my biases though.
I think a big part of this is that it's basically impossible to find digital nomads. How would a country know if you're in a hotel room or coffee shop working on your laptop? If you don't tell anyone what you're doing, they aren't going to know.
Digital nomads also don't trigger the same "taking a job that a local could have" fear that drives a lot of immigration policies. As you note, you're just a person in that country spending money. However, you're also probably not paying taxes. I think there's a bit of a tension there. On the one hand, you're bringing in foreign money. On the other hand, you're using services just as a resident would and not paying all the taxes (you are likely paying some taxes like sales/VAT).
Ultimately, I think a big part is that countries haven't figured out what to think of digital nomads. Heck, companies haven't figured out how to feel about them. Companies still haven't settled on whether remote workers should be paid less if they move to a cheaper location.
The fact that these visas are becoming available means that governments are wising up to the fact that people have been working remotely on tourist visas and want in on it. They want to be able to charge for it, or set a limit on who can do it, or tax it.
Now that these visas exist, and immigration officers know that, it’s only obvious that they’ll start to ask ‘tourists’ if they plan on working remotely or not. You can lie all you want, but if they find evidence (two laptops, notebooks, equipment) then good luck.
What happened in the past is just that.
If they disliked the idea they wouldn't be creating new visas for the purpose, since that only makes it more prevalent and normalized.
There are legal gotchas and grey areas. I would guess the Japan visa is aimed at clarifying the matter for long stays, because there's certainly no shortage of digital nomads in Japan.
You can get away with a lot by being sneaky, but the companies are strongly officially opposed to it.
The fact that many companies are risk-averse and don't allow it doesn't mean it's not legal. Like I said, at least one FAANG (maybe more) is fine with its employees working remote internationally if they follow the rules.
Nobody gives a shit, as long as you're not staying long enough to be a tax resident and you're not making trouble.
The one famous incident, the 2014 Chiang Mai raid, came about because the authorities didn't know what a co-working space is, and thought that the foreigners were hired by the property owner to work there. None of them were deported for that.
Many many people are doing this already.
It'd be great if childcare/schooling was easier overseas, maybe even an opportunity for kids to get an early mind opening experience
For me it worked OK. I did remote contract work and was able to figure out work authorization. The cost of living was lower so double taxation wasn't a big deal. The timezone difference was the biggest hurdle, I burned out doing late zoom calls; had the difference been smaller I suspect it would have been even easier.
Changing schools and big moves is hard on kids. No way around that, certainly one of my regrets from that time. However their interest in other cultures and especially languages blossomed. For them it was mostly just an adventure we took. So different from life when I grew up.
So yes, digital nomads may pay taxes for schools.
Worth asking though. Your kids might end up at the equivalent of Aveling Park.
Imagine you sell digital products automated or something like that. You would have to literally shut your website down if you go somewhere on a tourist visa so you don't accidently make money.
You might think there are exceptions, but no there usually aren't.
And now imagine you actually live from a digital business you run yourself. You literally can't travel on a tourist visa.
I can't legally leave the EU, more or less, as I have no control when and where I earn money. I also wouldn't travel so far for just a month or two so this is really speaking to me :)
Salary workers will still receive their paycheck even while on travel/holiday/vacation. Are they violating tourist visa restrictions? If a person checks their work email while on a tourist visa?
It's not realistic to expect a one-man internet company to be anywhere for longer than a few days without 'working' in a way or another.
There are thousands of people who run digital companies and travel all the time, including people who literally travel full-time as digital nomads with zero issues whatsoever.
I can almost guarantee you that if you left the EU and "accidentally" made money via your website you would have no trouble coming and going given that I literally know and have met people all over outside of the EU, who are from the EU and do exactly this.
Even in just this past week I've met like 3 people from the EU travelling full-time who run their own bussiness online while I'm located here in South America.
It's entirely possible if I needed a visa for some of the countries I've been to, I might have needed a business visa of some sort for customer meetings etc. But I've very rarely needed to get a visa for countries I've traveled to.
The US does seem to have a different visa for temporary business activities.
The bigger issue is that actually having a vacation where you don't work is unrealistic if you run a business by yourself, but is what the letter of the law demands for most tourist visas.
(Yes I know, nobody will ever know)
Are you a rich, white professional class person with a first-world passport? You have signalled that no one needs to bother with you. Things like visa regulations will be applied less strictly.
If you are from the wrong country or you are the wrong skin tone, your chances of having a bad time are much higher.
This applies not only to Japan, or countries like Thailand or Mexico, but also to the USA and Europe equally.
The only time I ever had an issue is when entering the united states, the immigration department gave me a grilling because my passport showed that I was clearly a nomad and they expected me to be working online.
Go ahead, take that holiday.
When I was in Thailand years ago a coffee shop was raided, and I heard some bad experiences of people being to stupid about their visa forms.
I never had issues myself, but it's not exactly unheard of.
About the visas people just were really stupid to be honest about their income (or lack of)
These "digital nomads" who would travel to Japan for work+sightseeing aren't taking local jobs and don't have a Japanese bank account.
Does Japan want to tax income produced within its borders, regardless of where one is actually a tax resident? Most countries I'm aware of treat people as tax residents if they reside there for more than 180 days a year.
I do agree that $68k as a salary requirement is fairly reasonable, though – but it's much higher than the "average" salary for a Japanese person.
US$68,000 is enough for a very comfortable life there.
People may not agree with the above, but that's what they want, and I can't blame them for wanting good for their country.
EDIT - you changed "poser" to "pretender" which was a small improvement. It's polite to make it clear that you've edited a comment if someone has replied.
Apart from the tourist aspect of it, the point of a digital nomad is to save money on rent, food and taxes, not to spend all your money in a foreign country.
Of course, a business hub, or a technological hub can attract digital nomads punctually, even if accommodations are more expensive.
Now Japan has a problem with its age pyramid and desertification of its country side. So it should be possible to attract digital nomad for longer and cheaper stays, even if they don't have a lot of money (to spend in Japan), at least that's good for the young body count, and perhaps they'd eventually fixate and have families. But again, this wouldn't be a six-month thing, they would have to add more incentive (free or $1-house in the countryside with minimal occupancy, good internet connection (I don't know if Japan has 100% territory fiber coverage) (that said nowadays there's Starlink), etc.
Spending money on living expenses, including rent, and touristy stuff is indeed spending money in the country. And if you are well paid then that may be more than the average local: the threshold for this visa is $68k while the average annual pay in Japan is apparently $41-45k.
"Digital nomad" can encompass many and any thing. It seems sensible to target higher earners if they can. It's not about how nicely you think you can live, it's about the benefits a country seeks in letting foreigners in.
Think of the ramifications of trying to regulate all the fuzzy definitions of what constitutes "work". What about someone writing their memoir? What about any kind of opus you're working on while on vacation (electronics, code, writing, etc)? What about needing to manage your business at home for an hour everyday? What about being on-call for work emergencies? What about meetings? Such a visa would easily make anyone an outlaw, which many people think is a non-issue, because the country doesn't enforce it, but is actually a big deal.
For example, a US B-2 visitor visa allows "tourism" and also specific business purposes such as "consult with business associates" or "attend a conference". What is prohibited is simply "employment", without making any distinction between remote or local employment. Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-...
Having traveled to the US a number of times and been asked by border agents, I've explained that although employment not being the purpose of my visit, I often work on my computer for my own business, in my own country. After a brief exchange to clarify that my activities in no way involved US businesses or clients, I was cleared. I agree with you that the rule might seem fuzzy, but based on the questions asked, the intent has never been.
In the many years that I've traveled, it's historically been the same in any countries that I've visited. Even the ones where it's currently suggested that the issue might be blurrier (coincidentally after they start issuing nomad visas). Meanwhile, no one can tell you specifically what exactly constitutes a "digital nomad" and what makes them "not a tourist". I think it's unfortunate that instead of asking for more clarity from regulators, travelers are playing along by repeating the suggested tropes.
Almost sounds like the sightseeing trips are part of the visa
Especially in some parts of Japan, their obsessions with culture and heritage is very cool. Something like this is always cute to encounter, and it’s weird cause I thought it’s rare up until I visited Japan - https://x.com/kiyotoshi_y/status/1179243144363331585. That being said, I have Latino friends who hated those parts of Asia because they need “hot blooded friendliness culture”. Which is totally cool, to each their own!
Ultimately, the decision to visit a destination should be based on personal interests and experiences.
I for one am suspect at being able make a good friend that lasts forever in 5 minutes. That sounds more like power dynamics in that you had something to offer them then some kind of mutual friendship based on shared interests. That said to each their own.
Whereas I am guessing you had no expectation in Brazil and were pleasantly surprised. I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience though I stand by my statement to each their own. Tough to compare societies/populations/cultures based on a sample size of one.
And that's better because not of those income or insurance criteria apply.
So just some empty "look at us we're doing something (not really)" fluff.
These hurdles, along with many others, make Japan a difficult proposition for typical nomads.
Show up in a new country...
>Let me rent a place
No zairyu? See ya! (yes, there are sharehouses and places which allow foreigners for medium to long term stays, as well as expensive corporate housing type places, but you are limited to options such as these)
>That sucks. Well, let me get a local phone number because that's required for some services
No zairyu? See ya! (yes, there are now more MVNOs and services which will allow foreigners to get temporary Japanese numbers but at a higher cost)
>Alright, what a frustrating day, I'll go to the gym, and I'll bring a wad of cash to pay for my first 3 months membership until I get everything set up
No bank account? See ya!
Are these things surmountable? Of course. But even for foreigners who speak Japanese decently well (such as N2 and above, though N4 is still probably more than enough to navigate basic bureaucratic procedures), navigating these almost circular tasks is not any easier. Are these things that a nomad wants to deal with? lol, *highly* doubtful. Even for foreigners who can speak Japanese and who are studying in Japan or have a job at a Japanese company, there are many hurdles that take time to set up to get fully "situated" there.
Japan is not structured for short term knowledge workers. Heck, it is not structured for even most foreigners (enjoy being stopped on your bicycle by police for the sole reason that you do not look Japanese). Every year, the Japanese government comes out with new initiatives to attract knowledge workers, from the Fukuoka startup zone to the "blue collar labourer visa" to the "PhD visa". Yet they can never even come close to meeting quotas, because the hidden requirements of these visas, combined with friction/hurdles that still exist upon arrival, render all these attempts stillborn. These initiatives are done such that the Japanese government and government-controlled press can say "Look, we're trying!", without doing anything substantive.
Now, Japan *is* structured for short term labourers from Southeast Asia and countries like Nepal, but poor conditions in factory dormitories and having your passport seized upon arrival are not exactly the types of jobs that HN readers have in mind.
Don't get me wrong, Japan is a beautiful country to visit, with a rich history and culture. And if you are a foreign expat on a nice package, there is good money to be made. Students on semesters or years abroad? Probably fun, as well! But as a short term digital nomad? That's a huge ask. So many barriers that do not exist nearly anywhere else in the world for your typical digital nomad reader here. If you want to see Japan, it is probably best to just travel as a tourist. [Side note: even for long term foreign workers in Japan, the new laws passed in 2015/2016 are brutal for foreign income, high taxes on global assets, which caused a bit of an exodus of highly-paid foreign expats. Those taxes hit after 5 years spent in Japan as a resident, so your time is limited to 4.99 years if you want to avoid them. Not relevant to short term digital nomads, but just pointing out that, if anything, Japan is increasingly unfriendly to skilled foreign workers, not that other way around. There are *always* massive strings attached when it comes to "friendly" initiatives from the Japanese government.]
Additionally while digital nomads may sometimes be ignorant of local culture/tradition and that can be somewhat annoying, they typically don't cause problems when it comes to crime.
Now there are legitimate concerns with respect to housing with things like AirBNB's/under the table housing arrangements and causing the housing prices to increase, but while that is an issue to a local resident it is actually seen as a positive to the city itself when it comes to the economy.