Living in japan with an overseas income

Hi All,

Was wondering if anyone might have some input/advice around my following situation:

I'm currently employed full time by an Australian employer and am living in Australia, but am currently actively working from home permanently. Given this, i'm thinking about relocating to Japan on a semi long term basis ie. 6-12 + months (so would rather avoid a 3 month holiday visa if possible). Also note that I've actually just come back from Japan after being there on such a 3 month holiday visa.

I was just wondering if anyone might know if i might be eligible for any particular long term visa?

I've briefly looked at a Self Sponsorship visa, but i'm not sure it's something that would apply to my situation (and i think you may need to have a current working visa before you can even apply for it).

I'm guessing it might be a bit of a long shot, but perhaps someone might have some experience or be in a similar situation - if so, greatly appreciate any feedback!

Thanks!

Since you are not going to be employed by a Japanese employer, you will not be eligible for a work visa. Remote work did not exist at the time Immigration laws were established, and to this day there is no visa to allow you to just "live" in Japan long-term.

Japanese Immigration policy is to grant visa "if needed" - there is a student visa if you need to be in Japan to attend a school here, there is a work visa if you need to be in Japan to work for a company here, there is spouse visa for those with Japanese spouse and need to be in Japan to live with the spouse, etc.

If you are from Australia and are under 30, you are eligible for Working Holiday Visa (up to either 6 months or 12 months), but that's about all I can think of.

Thanks for your feedback AK. It's disappointing although not completely surprising. I guess I'll have to consider other options or else resort to holiday visas with a Taiwan / South Korea trip thrown in before the visa expires..

Be careful with repeated "visa runs," as they are called. Immigration tends to be suspicious if you spend more than 180 days in any one-year period, the logic being that if you spend more than half of the year, it can no longer be called "temporary" visitor.

resort to holiday visas with a Taiwan / South Korea trip thrown in before the visa expires..

It sounds so '80s or '90s...going to Korea and coming back for a new landing permission stamp...

Thanks to biometry and fingerprinting you won't be able to use that old trick. Even if you "lost" your passport and come with a new one, they will still be holding your fingerprints in immigration database...

BTW, I checked out Australia immigration website and what you wanted to do in Japan (working for a company without any office in the country) is not possible for a foreigner in Australia.
Fair enough, right?

Thanks for the info guys. It sounds like essentially i'm screwed.

Just to add, i actually did extend my stay in Japan by visiting Korea after the first 3 months and returning. Didn't seem to have an issue trying it once but I suppose it's risky to try and push it further.

It's the second time where you'll be denied entry.

Hi,
it's possible if your employer will help you. I'm working for a US company remotely and just got my engineer visa. I had to rent a small office here and establish a representative office that is used to sponsor my visa. I paid an immigration lawyer to register the office and take care of the application and all I had to do was provide some documents about the company such as a brochure, financials and certificate. So you can't do this by yourself but if your company cooperates it may very well be possible.
Good luck.

then you need to pay income tax in Japan.

Thanks Theurerd, that's really encouraging. Curious, were you able to organise all these items before arriving in Japan? Thanks again for your help!

I was already here on a working holiday, so I don't know how difficult this would be from outside of Japan. If you have an immigration lawyer they can probably take care of almost everything without you coming here. The only thing I think would be very difficult is renting an office. In my case the rental agency insisted to send the contract to our US office and have it signed there, so maybe it wasn't necessary that I was present but it probably makes things easier.

Thanks again Theurerd. Can I ask one more thing, how did you go about finding an immigration lawyer in Japan?

I think you can find many of them if you use google. In my case an acquaintance in a similar situation recommended someone (website is juridique.jp, they are specialised on immigration and incorporation stuff). Usually they will answer your first questions for free and give you a quote, so you can contact a few of them to find a good one. I found that many charge similar prices and they are all quite expensive but in my case I couldn't have done this without their help.