Extended stay in Japan

I am an American considering staying in Japan for longer than 90 days, however I will not be employed by a company physically in Japan. My current place of employment allows employees to work remotely via the internet, so my place of residence does not matter.

Does anyone know if it is possible to obtain permission to live in Japan without being employed by anyone in Japan?

I am going to have to go ahead and say no on that one. Look for some government jobs at us military bases that need civilians and you can live here under SOFA status and do your internet job at the same time....

This is a fairly commonly asked question. At the moment there is no visa which provides for people in your situation to stay for longer than 90 days. You have to go the usual route with work visa, student visa, spouse visa etc.

Scroll down and have a look at some of the other discussions on this topic too if you're interested.

Thank you for your answers! That is what I suspected. I have two more questions.

1) I will be travelling back to the states regularly. I will most likely not be in Japan for more than 90 days without having to fly back to the U.S.. Does the 90 days reset each time you leave and re-enter the country, or do they keep track of these things?

2) Is there a website for the military bases posting job opportunites available?

To answer your first question, you do get a new 90 day permit each time you arrive in Japan- you would only have to go as far as Korea and then back for this to happen. If you look fairly presentable then Immigration will probably give you another 90 days the second time you come in without asking too many questions. If you then stay another 90 days, leave, and try to come back in again relatively soon then Immigration will become very suspicious that you are working in Japan illegally and it is quite possible that you won't be allowed in again until a reasonable amount of time has elapsed.

I have heard that a max of 180 days a year in Japan is a kind of limit that is set, but I'm not sure if this is an official rule.

Once you experience a Japanese summer, if you haven't already, you probably won't want to spend that part of the year here anyway- very hot, humid and generally unpleasant. A lot of people I know who are able to work overseas as well as here leave Japan for several months at this time!

Mike if you are a US citizen and meet certain qualifications:
http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/?WT.svl=navsearch

Select JAPAN as a location.
Remember most of these jobs are US civilian jobs for the military, some of them very technical jobs.

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As for coming in and out on temporary visitor "tourist" status, usually from what I also hear if you rack up more then 180 days in a single year, Immigration will be very suspicious and might not allow you to re-enter. Even running a 90 day back to back is suspicious at times to them as well.