> people who were eligible for the business manager visa are no longer elgibile with zero warning or grace period granted
To be clear, they can continue to run their business for the duration of their visa. It is not an immediate order to leave the country. That is a false statement.
You are right that a significant change was made to the business manager visa. Old rules: 5M JPY was required as "minimum capital". New rules: 30M JPY is required. The primary reason for the change was to close a loophole that many mainland Chinese used to get a business manager visa to move their family to Japan. (There is no group of people less liked by Japanese people.)
I agree: They should have added a carve-out for legitimate small businesses. Alternatively, they should have created a programme to lend money at a reasonable interest rate and X years to become compliant. There are many non-Japanese restaurants that are run by first generation immigrants from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. However, the actual number of small businesses that have been "forced to leave" as a result of this change are as yet unknown.
There were a few very noisy folks that the mainstream media reported about over and over. However, they should try to borrow money from friends, family, or a bank. Personally, I contacted one of them via WhatsApp to offer to lend money to make the 30M JPY requirement, but I never heard back. After that, I assumed that they were "blowing smoke" (bullshit). Interestingly, for all the ones that were very publicly complaining about the changes (that I saw), none of their businesses have closed. I guess they made it work.
> 30 years worth of money to live on
I won't repeat myself here, but I answered that concern here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49864179 > What about the people who have worked for 10 years , paid all their tax, not broken the law, but don't have 30 years worth of money to live on, do you think they should be rewarded with the rejection of a PR? On what grounds is that fair?
The financial situation of the Japan central gov't is the same or worse compared to ten years ago. They don't want to grant permanent residence to people who are less than middle class. It is very likely that these people would consume in public benefits during retirement
far more than they ever paid into the system. I think Japan is being financial prudent about what foreigners they allow to "stay forever". So, yes, I agree: They "pulled up the ladder", economically speaking.
Another myth of the traditional (my term) ten year permanent residence route: It is not guaranteed to be granted even if you followed all of the known and public rules -- good salary, paid all taxes (incl social), no traffic violations/arrests, etc. They look at your integration into Japanese society. If your Japanese language is poor, they frequently reject. If you are unmarried, they also frequently reject. If you belong to no civic orgs or never volunteer, they also frequently reject. If you don't have multiple personal recommendations for PR from Japanese citizens and/or other PRs, they also frequently reject. There are many, many Reddit and blog posts about such rejections.
Finally, have these changes affected you? You seem very emotionally charged in your posts about the matter.