Hello all, I reside in Japan recently as a contract employee.
During my free time, I always love to draw and and learn some game development stuff, just as a hobby. I want to know if I am possible to publish doujinshi (同人誌) or doujin game(同人ゲーム) online. Across the internet, I haven’t found any confirmed information regarding this.
I do saw some website stating it is needed to apply for outside visa activities permit (資格外活動許可).
May I ask is it possible for me performing the activities legally as a hobby? If yes, do I have to apply for any permit from immigration office?
5 comments
bro….it’s fine.
I drew doujinshi back in the day and sold at major events. The topic of visa never once came up.
I don’t think you need one, just do it. All you potentially have to do is 確定申告 if you get more than 200,000 JPY in a year from your sales.
Source: I do freelance translating outside my fulltime job. My visa is engineer/humanities/intl svc. I don’t have that stamp on my residence card.
Its a grey area. You can not get the permit 資格外活動許可 because for that you need actual contracts or work orders from japanese employers or clients. Its not meant for freelancers.
(source: I tried to take that permit for doing freelance translations as a 個人事業主, with lawyer and everything, and got rejected for that reason)
Unless you are a whole studio, doujinshi activity is just a personal hobby. You dont need a permit from Immigration to listen to music, go to the movies, draw fanarts or join an activities club. And if you dont make a lot of money is okay. If it is considerable big, as to be par to or become your main income for livelihood, then you fall in a grey area because its not a hobby anymore is a job and need visa, but you wont get a self-employed visa for it.
Physical sales, as they are only in events its very hard to prove it is a “job”. You can declare the earnings as if you sell things eventually on mercari. With online, when you can keep receiving money constantly, you might try to put is as a passive income “i made this game out of boredom and solely for a hobby, but later decided to share it for a fee online”.
Foreigners can do volunteering, spot particular gigs, and have passive income regardless of visa status (so you can do stocks and get dividends and sale profits), as long as its not big enough to become your main income, and as long it doesnt become a “business” (you can manage your personal assets on stocks and forex, but if you do it seriously, everyday or with funds from others for a fee, then that is more like a job)
(source: called the immigration information center)
Occasional irregular income is ok without any special permission (immigration gives the example of conference speaking fees). But if you’re doing what would normally be considered work (i.e. someone would expect to get paid for doing it) then you would need permission. How that’s interpreted in detail is a question for lawyers.