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Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/25 23:02
Hello to all,
I saw many questions similar to mine in this board, but didn't find exactly one that fit my situation so I'm going to just post a new thread.
I'm a full-time freelance worker, and soon I'm going to be in Japan for about 45 days on a temporary visitor status to attend some conventions related to my work (which incidentally has to do with Japanese language) and just, well, be for some time in Tokyo, visiting friends and enjoying local food as I'm sort of a habituee there and go visit the city every year. But I already know the day I'll leave and have a return ticket at hand.
I plan to keep working as I'm not much of a sightseer and prefer to just follow my daily schedule while in another place, and besides it's not a type of work I can drop and then take up again when I've got back to my country. Now my doubt comes from this: many of my clients are actually Japanese companies, but of course I'm being paid on my personal account in my country and pay all my taxes here, it's not like I'm illegally stealing any work from Japanese people who could do it in my place. I know all of these companies from years ago, it's just that I can't afford to stop working for over a month. Am I crossing some border here?

Of course I don't have any intention to mention words like "business" or "work" to any customs officer who asks 'cause it's not the reason I'm going there anyways (maybe networking, yes, but it'll be for after I've come back from Japan).

Thanks to everyone in advance!
by SRVK (guest)  

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/26 09:53
I can't really imagine any problem. You can come on a business trip to Japan and work during your business trip. That's what thousands of travellers do every day.
by LikeBike rate this post as useful

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/27 21:46
From my understanding temporary visitor status does not allow you do work in Japan, but if you are paided in Your country and pay tax there, I don't think anyone will know, and probably won't be consider illegal, also as long as your business is not setup in Japan you should be alright.

I could be wrong.
by kms899 rate this post as useful

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/28 05:09
I assume you do most of you work remotely on a computer? Correct me if I'm wrong. I see no issues in spending 45 days visiting friends and attending confrences and opening the laptop to get some work done.
by hakata14 (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/28 16:25
Yes, I do work solely on my laptop, and yes, my activity is of course not based in Japan. It's my customers that are mainly located in Japan, but like you said I don't think it should matter to anyone where I am on a specific moment. It's just that someone will know I'm there because I'll meet them at the convention. But I think they shouldn't have anything in contrary to giving work to me while I'm there...
I was actually asking because some of them were seemingly implying they won't give any work to me during my stay in Tokyo, but as long as I'm not getting paid on a Japanese account or by hand, I don't see any problem. (I worked regularly during a previous long stay as a tourist, but now they gave me this doubt)
Thanks for the replies so far anyway!
by SRVK (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/28 16:27
Just fill visit for business on the landing embankment
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/re-ed/EDcard_leaf_en.pdf

Foreign nationals can enter Japan as a temporary visitor provided the scope of their business activities is limited to
- Meetings
- Negotiations
- Attending seminars
- Fact finding missions
- Exploring business opportunities

by justmyday (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Continuing to work freelance while on a trip 2017/8/29 09:34
For your visit you are not "working in Japan" according to the "do I need a work visa?" category.

No problem.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

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