I’ve read about the different visas and such, and while I am interested in moving there for work along personal goals, the question in the title just poped in my mind the other day and can’t “decide” if it’s possible or not (Not taking into account the restrictions due covid, even).
So imagine you have a job like software development that can be remote, you are OK in that job, have a good salary, savings, investments and all that. So money wise, you have actually no much problem. Say you have a decent grasp of the language for simple day-to-day interactions, so language is not -really- a big problem either. Just for the sake of this question, let’s pretend it’s 2015 or something, so no pandemic.
In such a scenario, can you move to the country? If so, with which visa? I’m guessing you can’t, since you don’t fall in the usual categories and you can not take six months off work for a student visa, for example.
The reason behind this idea is that people from other countries often move to mine while working remotely, so I’m just curious if there is some kind of visa I’m missing or if they all live here on tourist visas.
Thanks!
4 comments
>people from other countries often move to mine
Which country is that? Japan is one of, if not *the* most restrictive when it comes to immigration (examples such as North Korea notwithstanding).
>In such a scenario, can you move to the country?
No, you’d need a domestic employer or some other tie to the country to get a visa.
There is no digital nomad visa, so you can’t “just move” here.
You’d need a sponsor in Japan.
It is possible to work remotely for a foreign company in Japan. It is possible to use a GEO or PEO (not sure of the exact difference), to act as your employer on record in Japan, your foreign company would then pay them, and they would pay you (this is very very simplified, and reality is likely not as straight forward)
This would include a big overhead cost, that most companies won’t agree to, and I’m not sure of any extra regulations regarding this sort of setup.
In the end it is not “just move”. It’s likely to be as big or bigger hurdle than just getting a job in Japan.
You can get only a short term visa (tourist)