Starting a small business without spouse/PR?

6 comments

1. 1, What did you do while humanities visa? You must understand the logic of Japanese immigration. To them, your justification for changing your visa type must “make sense.” They won’t understand why you now want to open a hair shop if you were a baker for two years on a skill or humanities visa previously. Your new business must be related to what you were doing before (or having a related qualification/degree),

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   2, You must either make an investment of 5 million yen or hire two Japanese nationals as full time employees in order to apply for/change to a business manager visa. The case would be much easier if you invested 5 million yen, but you could invest less with a strong business plan and by hiring two Japanese nationals. It’s crucial to have a business plan that demonstrates how your business can be profitable and sustainable for at least the next 5 years.

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   3, Again, during the visa process, everything must “make sense” to the immigration. As you stated, you do not have $5 million to invest, perhaps you will only invest $3 million or less. However, regardless of the amount, you must explain how you obtained this investment money. You can’t just pull a few million yen out of thin air. If you saved with your monthly income, you must provide your complete banking record to prove it.

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   4, You said that you want to start a “very small” business, but how small? You must realize that having a proper business location and equipment is also very important in order to apply for the visa.

   An empty small store on a 3 month lease? NO,

   Your physical business location must be legit. If you are opening a store, it must be a real store with at least 1 year leasing contract. If you run a business that requires an office, you must have a proper office space with at least 1 year leasing contract as well.

   You might be able to use your home address as your business address, however, your home space must be large enough to have a separate “office area.” A small 1LDK will not be accepted, but if you rent a 2LDK and use one as your bedroom and the other as your “office area,” it may be possible.

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   That is critical to comprehend. The most challenging aspect of getting a business management visa is maintaining it. You will normally be granted a 1 year visa first, and then your visa may be extended for another 1~3~5 years based on the performance of your business (are you profitable? do you have enough employees? are all taxes paid on time? etc.). So, if your business isn’t practical enough, you might want to reconsider.

2. I hope you have money and/or prestige.

3. If I were you I’d spend the next 2 years saving money and researching about how to set up a business in Japan. Honestly, you’ll find it a lot easier when you a) have PR and b) have more money saved up.

4. You could always just get kojin kigyo, it’s sole proprietorship. You can register a name for your business like a company but you don’t have to actually do all the company documents like a real Godo Gaisha or something. No limited liability though. Not sure if it works for actual shops, I used it while I was a freelancer & I just had my office at home.

5. Get PR first.

   Directors visa or business managers visa is particularly onerous unless you have some backing, for example an overseas company wanting you to represent them in Japan.

   I switched from a humanities visa (I think at that point 15 years in Japan) to PR and now have two KK’s that I run, and basically would have been impossible without PR.

   Without more details on what you want to do, it’s hard to say how best to ‘test the waters’.

6. The requirements are different for biz manager visa depending on your business. You don’t need 2 full time anymore, 1 contract person is fine and you can have a home office but your retail so it will be different requirements. Contact TOSBEC, they will give you the starting information needed and it’s free