J Passport, Work, and Travel by Nissei

Here's my situation -

- I am a second generation Japanese-American whose parents are both Japanese Nationals.

-I have American and Japanese passports.

- I was born before 1984. I am 26.

- I am working in Japan as a Japanese National (no foreign work visa), and I came into Japan with a Japanese passport.

In regards to the last situation, why? The truth is that it's very difficult for foreigners to even get a work visa because they are required to have Japanese sponsorship before hand (don't ask me why, this makes no sense!), and a lot of organizations/companies require a work visa even before interviewing. As a Japanese national, then, I avoided that rather impossible aspect. It would appear that only marriage and employment-near-the-end-of-school are the only feasible ways to get work in Japan.

My line of work requires that I would go to a lot of developing countries that needs visa sponsorships from either the US or Japan... but I am not quite sure if I should go to the US or Japanese embassy.

If I were to use the former, then I would exit Japan using a US passport, and re-enter with a Japanese passport.

If it's the latter, then I'm worried that I'd be stuck with an endless array of bureaucratic headaches, and I'd like to play it safe.

Any thoughts or opinions?

My line of work requires that I would go to a lot of developing countries that needs visa sponsorships from either the US or Japan... but I am not quite sure if I should go to the US or Japanese embassy.

If I were to use the former, then I would exit Japan using a US passport, and re-enter with a Japanese passport.

If it's the latter, then I'm worried that I'd be stuck with an endless array of bureaucratic headaches, and I'd like to play it safe.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Visa's come from the country you are visiting, not by another 3rd party country, so the issue of using either your Japanese Passport, going to the Japanese Immigration or US Embassy should not be an issue.

For example you need to visit Vietnam, you go to the Vietnamese embassy not the US embassy or Japanese embassy.

Either case, you wouldn't need to use your US passport to exit Japan, you can still use your Japanese Passport to exit. There's no way the other country is going to care, as long as you have an appropriate visa to enter their country, they don't care if it is a Japanese or US passport.

What I'm saying is, You're visiting X Country, why would X country require a US Visa or Japanese Visa? It makes no sense, X country would require X visa from X Embassy.

US Visas are only good for entering the US, and Japanese Visa sponsorship is only good for entering Japan, not X country.

The truth is that it's very difficult for foreigners to even get a work visa because they are required to have Japanese sponsorship before hand (don't ask me why, this makes no sense!)

It makes perfect sense.

You need a company to sponsor you in order to get a work visa. It doesn't necessarily have to be a Japanese company (eg a foreign company with a Japanese branch), as long as they meet the immigration requirements to sponsor visas.

If you didn't require a sponsor to work in Japan, can you just imagine the number of people that would flood into the country? Just like the US requires legal sponsorship for Work Visas. If they didn't there wouldn't be the large problem of Illegal immigration would there?

Minus the illegal immigration into the US from South America, the US and most other countries in the world require somesort of sponsorship for a Visa to enter their country to enter and work (legally).

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Sorry but back on topic to be clear. The US would only issue Visas to people coming to the US, the Japanese would only issue visas to people coming to Japan. Neither would issue visas for you to visit a 3rd party "X" Country, they don't have the authority to do so.

So if you are required to visit developing countries, you visit that developing country's embassy to get a visa.
Not the US Embassy (there is no Japanese Embassy if you are already in Japan), but that point is mute.

I agree with John, it makes perfect sense for a foreign national to require sponsorship in order to work in a country legally. It is a requirement of most countries, not only Japan.

I also agree that the US Embassy and Japanese Embassy (you won't find one in Japan!) have nothing to do with the visas you need to visit developing countries. I have visited quite a number of developing countries, flying out of Japan, and for my Indian travels I went to the Indian Embassy to get an Indian visa, for Vietnam I went to the Vietnamese Embassy, for Nepal I went to the Nepali Embassy, etc. My home country's embassy had nothing to do with the process in any case.

The only thing to consider is that visas are cheaper for some nationalities than others, or you may get a longer stay with one of your nationalities than the other. Otherwise, as John says, the point is moot.

You would not want to present your American passport to Japanese Immigration, as you would have no record of entering the country with it, is that right? That would be just asking for trouble.

When you depart from Japan, you have no choice but to use your Japanese passport. If you try to use your US passport, they will treat you as an illegal immigrant (no visa) until you show your Japanese passport; at that point, they'll give you your departure stamp on your J-passport and maybe give you a little scolding.

Once you land in the developing country, then you have the choice of which passport to present (of course, it's the one with the visa).