CoE / Visa question

7 comments

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

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   **CoE / Visa question**

   I am an American hoping to move to Tokyo from November 2024 – April 2025. The purpose of my trip is to explore Japan via the rail system but have an apartment in Tokyo that would serve as my home base.

   I’m interested in Japanese cuisine and the arts, specifically music. I am a DJ and I would be interested in trying to play gigs, but I don’t speak much Japanese (currently taking online classes).

   My questions are:

   Will I be able to rent an apartment for 6 months without a visa?

   Seems a CoE can cost as much as $1000 USD. If I can stay for up to 90 days without a visa, can I fly to Hawaii for a day ($450 plane ticket) and then fly back to Tokyo for the other 3 months?

   Is it farfetched for me to obtain a working visa as an entertainer/DJ? What about a working visa as a cook or dishwasher at a restaurant?

   Would it be better to aim for a general visa such as a cultural activities / student visa and seek out opportunities that would better suit my purpose?

   Or is all of this crazy and I should just go with a program like TEFL and teach English?

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2. You’re better off renting an airbnb tbh.

3. You ain’t getting a coe without a local employer sponsoring it.

4. >Will I be able to rent an apartment for 6 months without a visa?

   Probably not, you’ll have much better luck with things like airbnb, sharehouses or companies like Sakura House (which I guess is kind of an apartment rental but with no lease and much more expensive)

   >fly back to Tokyo for the other 3 months?

   Visa runs, while possible are often not recommended as they’re in a bit of a grey area and you could be denied entry. For you very first time it’s quite unlikely that you will run into any troubles but worth keeping in mind the possibility.

   >Is it farfetched for me to obtain a working visa as an entertainer/DJ? What about a working visa as a cook or dishwasher at a restaurant?

   I would say relatively so.

   For the Entertainer/DJ, you would have to already be renowned to a certain extent and have a Japanese sponsor invite you in. So this depends on you, are you already an established and successful DJ?

   For the restaurant work/dishwasher jobs, no visa really exists for cheap labor positions because they can easily be filled locally.

   >Would it be better to aim for a general visa such as a cultural activities / student visa

   I’m not sure what you mean about general visa. Both of those visas are for very specific purposes and one of them doesn’t even allow you to work while the second one does but only part-time.

   >Or is all of this crazy and I should just go with a program like TEFL and teach English?

   For a short stay? Honestly I’d say this is probably the best.

   The English-teaching industry here is kind of awful and I would not recommend making a career out of it, but it’s perfect for shorter stays.

   The only issues are that you will generally not get a work visa for anything less than 1 year, finding a job in the first place with the employer knowing you’re gone in a a year can be hard and you will need a bachelor’s degree to meet the immigration requirements for the visa.

5. >Will I be able to rent an apartment for 6 months without a visa?

   You’ll be limited to short term options aimed at tourists. Check the housing wiki of this sub for some links.

   >Seems a CoE can cost as much as $1000 USD.

   Maybe a lawyer would charge that much, but immigration itself is significantly cheaper. Closer to $50. But the trick is that you need a domestic sponsor.

   >Is it farfetched for me to obtain a working visa as an entertainer/DJ?
   You would need a specific contract with someone in Japan to qualify. So yeah, pretty far fetched.

   >What about a working visa as a cook or dishwasher at a restaurant?

   Generally speaking these are not jobs that qualify for visa sponsorship.

   >Would it be better to aim for a general visa such as a cultural activities / student visa and seek out opportunities that would better suit my purpose?

   You seem to be a bit confused. You need to have specific plans in place first, and then you apply for the CoE/visa to enable those plans. If you want to be a student you need to register for a specific program at a specific school, get accepted, and then they apply for your CoE.

   >Or is all of this crazy and I should just go with a program like TEFL and teach English?

   If you don’t need the money then just come for 90 days as a tourist and have a good time. If you really want to stay a bit longer visit Seoul for a weekend (or a week, it’s a beautiful city) and then come back for another month or two.

6. Probably easier to do it properly in two installments of 3 month each while just renting an Airbnb or something. Is there a reason it all needs to be done in one go?

7. There is a long stay tourist visa. [https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page22e_000738.html](https://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page22e_000738.html)

   You don’t need an employer for this. You probably would have some trouble renting an apartment but there are some long stay serviced apartments you can rent by the month. This would not be a low cost option.