Tourist Visa

Hey guys!

I arrived in Tokyo on November 28 on a tourist visa - I then left to go to Bali on January 16th (for a vacation within a vacation) and came back to Tokyo on January 21st and received another 90 days visa... which means I can stay on until April 21st.

I really want to be in Japan for events in early May and late August - is it possible to do another two visa runs? One run in April to Seoul + another one to Hong Kong in July?
I'm not working in Japan and would have return flights and an outbound ticket to Thailand when I returned in July.

Do you think this is possible or I would be turned away?
I'm an Australian passport holder and would have sufficient funds / accommodation booking to show.

My plan B would potentially be to go to Thailand in April (miss my event in May) - spend three months there and just return for a vacation in late August!

Any thought would be appreciated!

Thanks

There's always the chance Immigration could get suspicious with so many long stays in Japan. It's hard to say without being an Immigration officer. Perhaps contact the Japanese embassy in your home country.

There is no hard and fast rule about number of days spent in Japan. However, like above explained, once you do spend a large amount of days in Japan, immigration may begin to ask questions. I don't think you'll have an issue.

One of the regulars to these forums posted once that he had 270ish days in one year once in Japan in the 90 day visa program.

To help your cause, I would do more than 1 night visa runs. And also when going to places like Thailand (or other countries known for drugs), do not do overnighters also as this rings alarm bells that you have such a short stay in said country of interest.

Yes, you can do that under the visa waiver programme - there is no limit to the number of days allowed in the country. If you have genuine reasons to visit and travel there is no problem (and I was probably around 220-230 days/year rather than 270, but I was returning to New Zealand rather than hopping over to HK or somewhere else nearby).

As an Australian citizen be aware that if you hit too many days in Japan (183 to be precise) you may have to pay income on your Australian income in Japan AND income tax on that same income in Australia (double taxation - it's not cheap). Some countries have "tie-break" rules so be aware of those. Also expect some questions at immigration about your time in Japan and what you are doing.