Hello.
I’m British and currently living in New Zealand and have recently got married to my Japanese girlfriend which now makes her my Japanese wife.
I am eligible to apply for my NZ passport in a few months and once that has processed, we are both ready to leave NZ and live somewhere new. Obviously, Japan is a strong contender, but I don’t speak Japanese and from research online seems like English teaching isn’t a long term career path.
If I were to find a job that is completely remote and then move to Japan (on a spouse visa) – are there any limitations on my potential move to Japan? Such as;
**• Time-period/length of stay?**
**• Access to healthcare/emergencies**
**• How would I pay tax?**
**• Would I need a Japanese bank account?**
**• Anything else I need to consider?**
It would be great to hear any first-hand accounts of anyone that’s managed to set-up remotely in Japan, looking on LinkedIn there seems to be quite a few roles listed as remote but interested to see if anyone has made it work?
Thank you.
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Working remotely Japan – 2023**
Hello.
I’m British and currently living in New Zealand and have recently got married to my Japanese girlfriend which now makes her my Japanese wife.
I am eligible to apply for my NZ passport in a few months and once that has processed, we are both ready to leave NZ and live somewhere new. Obviously, Japan is a strong contender, but I don’t speak Japanese and from research online seems like English teaching isn’t a long term career path.
If I were to find a job that is completely remote and then move to Japan (on a spouse visa) – are there any limitations on my potential move to Japan? Such as;
**• Time-period/length of stay?**
**• Access to healthcare/emergencies**
**• How would I pay tax?**
**• Would I need a Japanese bank account?**
**• Anything else I need to consider?**
It would be great to hear any first-hand accounts of anyone that’s managed to set-up remotely in Japan, looking on LinkedIn there seems to be quite a few roles listed as remote but interested to see if anyone has made it work?
Thank you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>which now makes her my Japanese wife.
Which means you’d be elligible for the ‘spouse of a Japanese national’ status of residence. On this status of residence you are not restricted in whatever work you intend to do. You can renew this status of residence for as long as you and your wife continue to live together in Japan (or until you decide you’d like to flip to permanent residence, which you’d be able to do after living in Japan for one year and being married for 3 years).
You would of course be required to sign up for the national health insurance plan (as well as the pension plan) just as any other resident would. Depending on how you’re employed this may be something handled directly by you or by your employer.
If you’re in Japan and working, then you’d owe Japan taxes on the income from your work. Depending on where your employer is located there may be tax treaties in place to protect you from double taxation.
You would definitely want a Japanese bank account for domestic matters. Things like paying rent are usually handled via bank transfer, which can get extremely expensive if you’re trying to do an international bank transfer every month for it.
​
>If I were to find a job that is completely remote and then move to Japan
You would need to make sure you are completely open about your intentions to move to Japan during the hiring process. For many companies ‘100% remote’ still requires that you are in a specific country because of domestic labour laws (both in the country that the company operates in and Japanese laws) and other considerations.