Looking to Move to Japan, Currently Working on Rotation as an American. Need Help!

5 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Looking to Move to Japan, Currently Working on Rotation as an American. Need Help!**

   Hey everyone,

   I have been traveling around Asia looking for a place to live and move from the U.S. I currently work a role in the Middle East where I rotate to and from the USA for 4 weeks on and off as an engineer. I have been to Japan multiple times and would like to move there full time. I do not plan on working in Japan but would like to buy a house or rent an apartment of my own long term. I know being from USA I can use the 90 day visa can would not live more than 180 days a year in Japan at anytime now but that could change in the future.

   A few questions that I have:

   – Is there any visas that I could apply for to make my stay more permanent and get a residence card?

   – Do I have to pay income tax in Japan (I know as an American I have to pay federal taxes no matter what)

   – Does a local Japanese sponsor help? I have lots of friends who could help that live in Japan and are Japanese.

   – What else should I be looking at? Should I be looking into a lawyer? Looking really where to start and if this even is possible.

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2. >I do not plan on working in Japan but would like to buy a house or rent an apartment of my own long term.

   Can’t do that. You need to have a working visa or get married. A work visa requires you to work in Japan. There are loopholes but if you had that kind of money your lawyers would be taking care of it while the captain of your yacht was on his way from another continent.

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   All residents are required to pay tax, insurance and pension. That is income adjusted and will be a total of 35% to 52% of your total global income. As an American, if you earn over $150k or source some of your income from the US, you pay tax in both nations.

3. >- Is there any visas that I could apply for to make my stay more permanent and get a residence card?

   You could go to school in Japan, though this option is longer than tourist, shorter than the others. You could marry a Japanese person. You could find an employer willing to sponsor your visa.

   >
   – Do I have to pay income tax in Japan (I know as an American I have to pay federal taxes no matter what)

   This can be complicated and really depends on your visa type. You are not allowed to work, even remotely while on on a tourist visa. If you have a longer term visa where you are considered a resident, then you will owe taxes on money earned while you in Japan regardless of where in the world the money was paid to you from.

4. The most permanent option aside from getting married is the Highly Skilled Professional visa which allows for 5 years. But you need a job here, you need sponsorship from a company that employs people here. Engineer visas are 1 year, 2 years and 3 years and kinda suck in comparison to the HSP visa.

   The only other way is to get a student visa and you actually have to show up for class. There’s also extended tourist visas if you have enough cash in your bank account but they historically have not wanted people to use those and work remote.

   There is a third option which is a self-sponsored “entrepeneur visa” which requires lawyers and forming a corporation here in Japan and renting an office and having quite a bit of cash. That’s how you “buy a visa” basically and you kinda have to intend to hire Japanese people and I’m not sure what happens if you never actually do that.

   The Japanese government is currently forming a “digital nomad” visa which would allow someone like you to live here for a year. So stay tuned. But it’s probably gonna take a while.

   Taxes, well, if you work here you gotta pay taxes. The US will give you a rebate on anything you pay here though.

5. >I do not plan on working in Japan but would like to buy a house or rent an apartment of my own long term.

   Property ownership does not confer any right to residence nor even right to entry.

   In principle before granting a foreign applicant a visa (or status of residence) immigration requires that the applicant have a primary purpose that requires they live in Japan.

   This primary purpose can be something general, such as to live with a legal spouse or reconnect with a documented Japanese heritage. But typically it’s for specific things such as attending a specific Japanese school or work for a specific domestic employer in a specific field of work.

   There is no status of residence you can get that will let you stay in Japan for more than one year without this primary purpose. If you have the cash in the bank (35,000,000jpy or more) then you can do the wealthy tourist status, which gets you one year (in two 6 month increments), and if you still have cash in the bank you can get this status over and over again (but you’ll never be able to get permanent residence from it).

   >Do I have to pay income tax in Japan

   It depends on the source of your income and how long you’ve been here. For non-residents and non-permanent residents (not an immigration designation… Different rules) then you’d only owe Japan taxes on domestically sourced income. Remote work while living in Japan is domestically sourced income, but if you’re traveling to the middle east to work and not working at all while in Japan then the income would be foreign sourced. You’d only owe Japan taxes on that once you become a permanent resident (have spent 60 of the last 120 months with Japan as your primary residence).

   >Does a local Japanese sponsor help?

   Yes, you will need a domestic sponsor for pretty much any status of residence. A spouse, a school, or an employer. The sponsor is the one tied to your primary purpose.