Not in this situation myself but there was a thread recently about how there are no minimum requirements to get the 1 year visa renewed other than income. Which makes me wonder; income for working at convenience stores or other such, 900y~1200y jobs comes out to be so minimal year after year, how do these people actually manage to stay in Japan year after year?
In my own experience, I’ve randomly ended up speaking with some people from Nepal working behind the counter in such stores and some of them have been here over five years. Just wondering how they do it?
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If they are here as spouses, students, or dependents they can be working a few hours at jobs like that (because they aren’t on a work visa)
They’re generally students or another non-work status.
Student visas are necessarily limited aren’t they? I went to language school for a short bit and it maxes out at 2 years. You could do something like college after that, or university, but still, there are upper limits to that. Not to mention that it’s a particularly expensive route since the lower-end part time jobs can in no way cover cost-of-living and going to college.
They could also be doing it as side work. My hubby works for a popular convenience star chain and has some foreign workers among his staff. I know at least one of them also works at a nearby ramen shop because we’ve gone there before and coincidentally been served by him
> people from Nepal working behind the counter … Just wondering how they do it?
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> [**Nepalese workers proving invaluable to labor hungry Japan**](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230912/p2g/00m/0bu/023000c)
>(Kyodo) — There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people from the small Himalayan nation of Nepal working in Japan over the past decade[…](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230912/p2g/00m/0bu/023000c)
Some (a lot) are “technical trainees” so they get 5 years. Not sure if there’s an option to extend beyond that.
Others are language school students and, to a lesser extent, university students.
language school 2 years, vocational school 4 years maybe
If you’re waiting for someone to tell you they’re working illegally then yeah, there are some who do that, but they’re a tiny minority. Convenience stores aren’t usually *that* desperate for cheap labor, and pretty much all venues for illegal employment offer better wages than a convenience store.
Theres lots of students from not only unis but also senmon-gakko and language schools. These jobs are easy to get into if your japanese isnt that good and provide some income so many students tend to do it.
I think its possible to get a visa if you become a store manager or someone higher that a regular worker. One of the people I used to know got a visa for becoming a sushi chain store manager so I dont see why you couldnt do the same with conbinis