Hello!
I was planning on moving to Tokyo later this year on a tourist visa (3 months) but wanted to retain the ability to work from home for my work here in Australia (Tech Support). My friend recommended a share house (Borderless House) since it would be too hard to rent a temporary place for that amount of time.
I just wanted to know if anyone had insight into the following:
* Is WFH a thing in Japan?
* Since I’ll be needing access to a soft phone via the share house Wi-Fi during the day if it isn’t good enough are there any other options I have? E.g. Wi-Fi dongle from a Japan ISP, small work spaces to rent (have seen a few pop up in my city here)
* Since my hours would need to match work whilst overseas I would be starting work at 5:30am (but won’t be taking calls until 6:30am). It would depend on the house but with share houses has anyone had any issues in the past with very thin walls/noise?
* What are the average work hours in Japan? E.g. 9-5. I noticed whilst on holidays a lot of retail/food places aren’t open until 10-11 onwards, not sure if this also applies for offices in Tokyo.
* I still want to continue learning Japanese but due to the limited time (would only be available after 3pm and only be for 3 months max) I’d imagine there wouldn’t be language schools that I could attend. What are some of the alternatives? E.g. private tutors, night time language groups etc
1 comment
>I was planning on moving to Tokyo later this year on a tourist visa (3 months) but wanted to retain the ability to work from home for my work here in Australia
A tourist visa does not grant you permission to work. If you are receiving remuneration for your activities (it doesn’t have to be money… room & board count) then you are working. So if you want to retain the ability to work, you’d need to use a different status of residence. Might I suggest a working holiday?
The remainder of your questions are really non-issues. Work from home, while still not the norm here, is definitely a thing. There are plenty of internet options if you find your sharehouse internet insufficient. The noise of your calls would greatly depend on the house you’re in and the volume of your speaking voice. My office normal hours at 8am to 6pm although 9am start times are pretty common. I myself start work at 7am. There are plenty of language options available to you, start with checking what resources are coordinated by your city (often there are free language classes available taught by volunteers in the evenings and on weekends).