Evening All. I recently learned that Japan began offering a new Visa called the Digital Nomad Visa. It is designed for those employed in their native country and having the ability to work remotely full time in another country–this Visa being in Japan. Yesterday I went looking to get details from the Japanese authority and found it lacking.
The limitation of working remotely is severely limited to 6-months in Japan with no renew option. To use the Digital Nomad Visa again one must be out of Japan for a minimum of six months and apply new. I'm trying to wrap my mind around what is lucrative or desirable about this Visa.
If my employer allows me to work long-term (even permanently) abroad why would one consider Japan using this Digital Nomad Visa? To what benefit would a worker classified as a digital nomad benefit from Japan? I get Japan gets your revenues from renting, utilities, eating, entertainment, etc., but then they already get that from long-term tourists not using a Visa.
Does Japan get to tax your income while in country? Is this the benefit? It is strictly a Japanese benefit and not a Visa-holder benefit? Really confused.
BTW, I'm too old to go job hunting when I am in my last decade of employment in the USA. I'd love to retire to Japan (so would the wife), but the fact is I (we) are not what Japan wants. They offer no retirement Visa and the demographic Japan is looking for seems to be centered on young laborers or other young individuals with academic credentials for 3-6 month/1/3/5 year working Visas.
If anyone can provide a reason why anyone would see a benefit as a Digital Nomad Visa holder versus using any of the other dozen or more VIsas Japan offers I would be curious to know. Cheers!
by swonthemove
4 comments
The advantage is you get to be in Japan and Japan doesn’t tax you for those six months of working as a digital nomad. Any longer and yup, you’d need to be on a regular work visa/start paying taxes/etc. And you can’t get a work visa working remotely for a foreign country. So if you’re not employed in Japan/married to a Japanese citizen/or eligible for WHV this is basically your option for being in Japan for longer than 90 days (yes, yes, exceptions for business manager visas, etc).
As far as I see it, there is no benefit over a normal tourist entry other than you can stay longer and continue to legally work remotely, which you cannot do on a tourist entry. You aren’t a resident so can’t get a resident card, which means you can’t open a bank account, can’t rent a normal apartment, etc.
You aren’t taxed on your income by Japan since it is 100% earned overseas and you aren’t a resident.
You guessed right it’s a PR stunt for the Japanese government and no real benefit other than being a longer tourist visa with strings attached. Japan can say look how forward thinking we are while changing absolutely nothing and getting free tourism spend from a relatively wealthy tourist class who will have to live like tourists for 6 months.
You’ll keep paying taxes where you’re currently paying them and while you won’t be liable for Japanese taxes you won’t be classified as a resident, which means you don’t have access to health insurance, pension and any other social safety features offered to residents here. It also means you won’t be able to get an apartment and phone plan and will have to rely on hotels and Airbnbs.
As for companies allowing work from anywhere in the world, it usually means in places where you have working rights already and for a limited amount of time to not trigger tax residency and open up the company to liability. A lot of people are subcontracting and freelancing instead to avoid liability in countries that look the other way but global remote work is a regulatory nightmare for companies to manage as for example US employees can be dropped on the spot whereas in Japan it’s a long negotiation often involving a 6-12 month payout and it’s very hard for companies to fire staff. If you were properly set up to work for a US company in Japan, Japanese law would apply so you see where this is going.
As for whether it’s worth it, most working professionals would consider it a practical joke.
>Yesterday I went looking to get details from the Japanese authority and found it lacking.
Welcome to Japan where new things are extremely slowly integrated and a pain in the ass to find info on.