Entering Japan before visa begins?

Hi,

I'm a university student from the UK, and I have a placement to study abroad at the University of Tokyo, doing a research project for my master's degree in Chemistry. My visa application is apparently under the category of Cultural Activities, which I think is for 6 months. This time frame is just enough time for my project (from the start of October to late March), though I was hoping to arrive in September to settle in, and have sometime to sight-see before I have to start studying 9 to 5.

Is it possible for me to enter as a tourist initially (eg around early September)? I'm guessing I will have to re-enter the country if I do (this is no problem as I'd also like to visit South Korea while I'm nearby), but the visa form has a section to fill in past entries into Japan- is this just upon the time of application, or would travelling to Japan for a few weeks before this visa is due to start render it invalid?

Sorry for any confusion

As far as I know, if you have a valid visa in your passport, you can no longer enter visa-free: you have to "use" your visa. Also, you cannot really "settle in" if you are on Temporary Visitor status: you are not a resident, so you can't get a bank account and you are limited to tourist-oriented options for many things such as cellphone plans and accomodation.

By the way, why are you getting a visa in the first place? As a UK citizen, you can stay visa-free for six months. In fact I am not even sure you can apply for a non-work status like Cultural Activities for six months: since you are not supposed to be working anyway, Temporary Visitor should be sufficient for your purposes.

Ah thanks, that makes sense I suppose :)

And the visa is being worked out by the university of Tokyo, as I will be doing research and living there, so I'm sure they know what they're doing! If I want to stay for 6 months visa free, I have to apply for an extension of stay during the trip otherwise it's only 90 days so my degree will be screwed if it's not granted. Much safer to get a visa! Also cultural activities visas start at 6 months. I could see if I could get a longer one but the next one up is for a year, I'm not sure if they'd grant that if my planned stay is for 7 months.

Why don't you ask the university ?
they know the answer.

The extension is not guaranteed, even for people coming from countries which grant 6 months to Japanese people visiting (family experience). So I assume the university wanted to avoid a situation where their students/researchers don't get the extension; they might have been asked by the immigration why not apply for a visa in the first place for the whole duration if they know their students will be here for 6 months to begin with, and this way they save the students from the extension anxiety :)

Right, thn I guess for now you can just wait to see the duration of stay which will be mentioned on your visa. If it's just six months and you really want to stay longer than that, I suppose the safest way is to first enter with your visa and then either change your status to Temporary Visitor, or hop on a plane to a neighbouring country and re-enter visa-free. However, you'll need to see if it does not caue problems with the university if you are on Temporary Visitor status for some time at the end of your visit. You could also just do the sightseeing after your time at the university instead of before.

One downside of having Cultural Activities status during your stay is that you will not be eligible for most rail passes during that time (though there is the Tokyo Wide Pass).

1. your question is quite reasonable. someone already asked the same question to the university. they know the results. ask the university of Japan. I am sure they will take care.
2. your visa is almost 100% guaranteed. I think this is one of the program between your country's university and the university of Japan. your university guarantees you to the university. the university guarantees you to immigration.
from the standing point of immigration, they have no worry of your overstay.
your situation is not the same (totally different) to other visa applicants who apply student visas by entering language schools (often posted here).