Having a baby in japan

Hey I'm wondering how hard will it be to get a residency visa in Japan if my Japanese girlfriend is pregnant I wish to come back to Japan to live here as there are no jobs in Australia anymore just wondering if it's possible to stay in Japan if the baby were to be born there

If you are not married, no. As far as Japan is concerned, you may even not be the legal father of the baby.

Congratulations!

Like Firas said, your name will not be on the baby's birth registration as a father unless you are married. So it will still be difficult to get residency I suppose.

I had babies in Australia but also spent 2years with my Australian husband and kids in Japan recently. From my experience( and a few of my friends in the same situation), Australia is much much better place to raise kids for sure. People, environment, wages, Centrelink etc. As we were married with kids, it was relatively easy to get his visa, but still lots of paperwork.

It sounds like you lived in Japan before and maybe speak Japanese? If so, you'll probably be ok, but if you only "visited and loved Japan!" with limited language...visiting and living in Japan are two completely different things. It will be a lot of work for your girl friend, like....having two babies in the house.
Saying that, I'm sure you being there for your girlfriend and the baby would be a great experience and support.
Good luck!

It's pretty easy to get married.
You can get residency as parent of a Japanese national, but I think you'd need to be the primary carer.

how hard will it be to get a residency visa in Japan

There is no boyfriend/girlfriend visa/residency permit in Australia, why do you expect such thing from Japanese immigration?
Spouse visa is for married couples, if you are not married you will not get any visa/residency permit (just like it would happen to aussies with boyfriend/girlfriend in OZ). Marry her or forget about it.

Sorry Emy, but Australia does have spouse/de facto 820 801 (I think numbers are correct) visas for girlfriends and boyfriends.

But Japan does not have a similar comparable visa. You need marriage to bind a relationship in the eyes of Japanese immigration.

sure it's "pretty easy" to get married in Japan. Just sign a piece of paper. Committing to it isn't easy, right?
So, to answer to your question...If visa application is easy or not depends on if you two wanna get married or not....

Japan is still very traditional in many ways and de facto relationship is not recognized, so your girlfriend becomes a single mother on the paper. (If it's cool with her and her family. Some older generations care about 'keeping face')

Remember wages in Japan is not so great to support family, and government support is not as good as Australia. I'm not trying to discourage you to live in Japan at all, you'll make it work no matter what. But something that I personally feel after living in both countries with kids in international marriage relationship.