Hi everyone. This topic has been discussed several times before, but I had an interesting response at the immigration office earlier about whether or not this is allowed, and I am concerned by what I was told.
I am on a student visa in Tokyo and have permission to engage in activity other than that permitted under the status of residence (資格外活動の許可). As a student in Japan, I get paid as a research assistant for part-time work (8 hours a week) and hope to also do some online tutoring for an American company as an independent contractor, which would still bring me to a total amount of work under 28 hours. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I understand that so far this does not break any rules.
When I talked to a representative at the immigration bureau about this, I was asked about how much income per month the tutoring job would bring in. After factoring in the USD-yen conversion rate, I let them know it would be around 200,000 yen. Perhaps it’s my subpar \~N3 Japanese, but it seemed like they were a bit concerned about the amount I was earning and suggested I seek more advice.
So **TLDR;** I’m wondering if I am breaking any rules or could get in trouble for the following:
1) Making a “high” amount of yen while on a student visa (working under 28 hours a week)
2) Doing online tutoring for a US company as an independent contractor.
Thank you all for your help!
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by Substantial_Neck8991