My family has a unique business in the US that sells a niche arts and crafts product having to do with flowers. I would like to explore the possibility of doing business in Japan because I believe that there is a market for this inside the large community of flower hobbyists.
About me. My wife and I are based in Hawaii and would like this opportunity to start a business and live in Japan. We have studied japanese, but not fluent maybe N4. Learned genki 1 and 2 during high school. We have been to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka over multiple trips. We are both 29 this year and don’t have college degrees. We of course both work in the business and would be comfortable doing marketing and online sales as a start in Japan and sales at hobbyists shows / trade shows.
I know that my best course of action is to get in contact with a law office that specialize in this type of immigration. But firstly, I would like to start my fact finding now. I’d also like to find out the feasibility of this opportunity by going to some trade shows, something we already do in the states.
Here are my initial questions.
Has anyone here had the opportunity to start a branch office or subsidiary company? If so what was the process like in your words? What businesses have been started in this community? Would it be possible to receive a type of business visa to visit trade shows in the current climate? Recommendations for immigration firms to get in touch with? What unforseen trouble did you face starting your japanese business? What startup costs did you have? Have you worked with import goods? How easy is it to gain trusted contacts? Have you worked on trade show circuits / are trade shows good business?
I want to thank you in advance for any insight!
3 comments
>I know that my best course of action is to get in contact with a law office that specialize in this type of immigration.
That is, in fact, your best course of action.
What you’ll be looking for is the Business Manager Visa. It’s not recommended that you try to DIY it, so… Yeah. Lawyer.
The short version is that you will require a ***minimum*** of 5 million yen (~$50k USD) to invest in the business. You would also need a business plan.
The fact that you have an existing business (with sales in Japan, no less!) will help a lot. One of the things they look for in the business plan is “Why Japan?” Being able to point at your current Japanese customers will make that question easy to answer.
As for your other questions, I can’t answer all of them, but I’ll do what I can.
>Would it be possible to receive a type of business visa to visit trade shows in the current climate?
Almost certainly not. In order to get any sort of visa right now you require a Japanese “host” to do some paperwork on your behalf. Trade shows won’t do that paperwork for guests. If you have an existing Japanese client/supplier who is a *business* they might be able to.
>What startup costs did you have?
See above. It’ll start at $50k and possibly go up from there based on the business plan.
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