Hello everyone! Hope you all are good! Pretty new in this sub group, but here goes:
Recently graduated from my university as a Master’s student in International Management! Been applying for jobs since 2022 September and honestly it’s currently super depressing with all the rejections and a few of them are like “we can’t hire foreigners at the moment” kind of replies. I have been applying to Business development, product design and product management roles, but no luck sadly.
At the moment, I’m writing my business plan for the start up idea of mine, but I have no idea on how to go about the VISA. If anyone has any suggestions, or any networking opportunities, it would be of much help!
Currently, based in Nagoya!
Thanks in advance :”)
2 comments
There are certain requirements for that visa like you have to raise 5M yen capital.
[https://english.visajapan.jp/toushi.html](https://english.visajapan.jp/toushi.html)
Each municipality usually has their own startup visa procedure and requirements. Some prefer certain kinds of businesses, while others, like Tokyo, have a larger selection of accepted business types.
The start-up visa is most often 6 months, and its purpose is simply for you to set up your business so you can upgrade to the real business manager visa, which is 1 year.
Because they expect you to have at least 5 million JPY in capital when you upgrade to the business manager visa, not having that amount already before you apply for the start-up visa is usually a cause for rejection. There’s also another route of having 2 Japanese employees, but usually start-ups can’t handle that.
So how do you apply? The short answer is to reach out to an administrative scrivener ( 行政書士 ) and have them handle it. You will first have to apply for a start-up acceptance letter from your municipality, then you will apply at immigration for a Certificate of Eligibility. The administrative scrivener will guide you through it and help you establish your company. I think I paid them about a million yen to handle everything for me, and the visa procedure takes around 6 months.
My source: I established a start-up company in Tokyo, and my knowledge comes from everything the administrative scriveners told me.