Hi all,
After years having to settle for living in my shitty country while my goal has ever been moving to Tokyo and becoming a Japanese taxpayer, I’m now exploring avenues to finally attain that goal. I’m in touch with an immigration lawyer and I’m in the preparations phase.
I’m fluent in Japanese (I’m a freelance translator who works mainly with it after all), I’ve already lived there for a year and a half while I was studying to get the N1. So I’m not exactly inexperienced (I also have sufficient work experience in the Humanities field to make up for a degree should my higher education diploma not be accepted).
Problem is finding who among my Japanese clients would be willing to sponsor my visa/hire me, or forgo that avenue and start a business and simply keep doing what I’m doing now but under a new, fancier name.
So I have some possibly weird questions I haven’t found the answers to:
1) From what I’ve seen, the majority of Japanese companies are reluctant to hire foreigners who haven’t already got a valid visa and don’t already reside in Japan (I’m still overseas) because they would have to handle all the immigration procedure, so they want a really good reason to hire a non-Japanese to justify the hassle. But what if I could afford a lawyer to handle all of that in their stead, at no cost for them? Would it make it easier for them/solve their objections? Or is it simply normal to hire a lawyer in these cases so it wouldn’t change much?
2) I would have the financial means to try and get a business holder visa. But setting up a business plan couldn’t be further from my current skills and I’m also not comfortable with the level of scrutiny that would put me under despite being pretty compliant. Has anyone ever gotten a business visa, then downgraded to a sole proprietorship after a reasonable amount of time? Is that even possible or would get you side-eyed? Is a business holder visa even such a ‘good’ avenue? Or it’s simply not worth the hassle when you’re not that keen on bookkeeping/being your own boss?
3) I know that opening a sole proprietorship is not an option for someone who isn’t currently residing in Japan, but I do have the equivalent a sole proprietorship going on in my country (VAT number and all). Is ‘moving’ an existing sole proprietorship from your country to Japan a thing?
Many thanks to anywone who wants to answer!
by ShariRVek