<story><title>Japan eyes startup visa program</title><url>https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Japan-eyes-startup-visa-program-to-lure-foreign-businesses</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ThrustVectoring</author><text>wait, as a non-citizen of Japan you are allowed to sponsor yourself for a work visa? That sounds, uhh, strange.</text></item><item><author>patio11</author><text>&lt;i&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t start a side business on a regular work visa.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know YC&amp;#x27;s question &amp;quot;How have you ever hacked a non-technical system?&amp;quot; This is my answer to it. You  &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; start a side business on a regular work visa &lt;i&gt;if&lt;/i&gt; the character of your business matches your status of residence &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; you don&amp;#x27;t intensify the business to the point where it is undeniable that it is a &lt;i&gt;business&lt;/i&gt; as opposed to employment, e.g. by hiring full-time employees.&lt;p&gt;So, for example, if you were an engineer, and you happened to run a software company on the side, you could convince the Ministry of Justice to accept the argument that you were employed as an engineer by the 個人事業 (sole proprietorship) of you, which (since you have an engineering status of residence) doesn&amp;#x27;t require their pre-approval, and then (while establishing a record of e.g. tax paying and similar) bootstrap that into a renewal of your status of residence with yourself as the sponsor, and from there roll on to either a management&amp;#x2F;investor status of residence or one of the other more stable options.&lt;p&gt;For totally-not-a-lawyer gloss on this I&amp;#x27;m happy to chat with anyone; you can make reasonable assumptions as to why I am fairly confident that the MoJ can be convinced to allow this.</text></item><item><author>laurieg</author><text>Japan&amp;#x27;s immigration system seems heavily set up to encourage young people to come, work and then leave.&lt;p&gt;This startup visa is good for getting a toe-hold on Japan but only targets people out of country.  If you live in Japan already (so you might already speak the language and have helpful local knowledge) there aren&amp;#x27;t any great paths to starting a business without permanent residency. You can&amp;#x27;t start a side business on a regular work visa. If you change your visa to manage the business and the startup failed you are likely to be &amp;quot;directed to return to your home country&amp;quot;, losing all the residence time you have accrued so far.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been working as an engineer in Japanese startups for the past few years and I&amp;#x27;m kept on 1 year visa renewals.  On a one year visa you can never apply for permanent residency.&lt;p&gt;And on top of this, there is the 5 year &amp;quot;technical trainee&amp;quot; visa, which is a means of getting manual labor in the country temporarily without having to publicize it.  All the people on this visa do not have university degrees so after their 5 years are up they must return home and have no chance of residence in Japan (outside of marriage).&lt;p&gt;Of course, Japan is free to set its own laws.  If you look at them the message is clear: &amp;quot;Japan wants your work and taxes, but it doesn&amp;#x27;t want you&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cgarrigue</author><text>A friend who is freelance translator sponsored herself when renewing her work visa (previously she was a colleague of mine and our company sponsored her at that time, but since becoming freelance she&amp;#x27;s not employed by anybody but herself). She just had to produce proofs for each the recurrent contracts she&amp;#x27;s got so she can show that she&amp;#x27;s earning enough money. So yes, sponsoring yourself is possible, but it requires a lot of paperwork to prove you have the mean to live in the country.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know how much difficult it is start your own business in Japan, for this Patrick is clearly the most knowledgeable person here, but once it&amp;#x27;s done, you just need to give yourself a salary to be able to renew your visa.</text></comment>
<story><title>Japan eyes startup visa program</title><url>https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Japan-eyes-startup-visa-program-to-lure-foreign-businesses</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ThrustVectoring</author><text>wait, as a non-citizen of Japan you are allowed to sponsor yourself for a work visa? That sounds, uhh, strange.</text></item><item><author>patio11</author><text>&lt;i&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t start a side business on a regular work visa.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know YC&amp;#x27;s question &amp;quot;How have you ever hacked a non-technical system?&amp;quot; This is my answer to it. You  &lt;i&gt;can&lt;/i&gt; start a side business on a regular work visa &lt;i&gt;if&lt;/i&gt; the character of your business matches your status of residence &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; you don&amp;#x27;t intensify the business to the point where it is undeniable that it is a &lt;i&gt;business&lt;/i&gt; as opposed to employment, e.g. by hiring full-time employees.&lt;p&gt;So, for example, if you were an engineer, and you happened to run a software company on the side, you could convince the Ministry of Justice to accept the argument that you were employed as an engineer by the 個人事業 (sole proprietorship) of you, which (since you have an engineering status of residence) doesn&amp;#x27;t require their pre-approval, and then (while establishing a record of e.g. tax paying and similar) bootstrap that into a renewal of your status of residence with yourself as the sponsor, and from there roll on to either a management&amp;#x2F;investor status of residence or one of the other more stable options.&lt;p&gt;For totally-not-a-lawyer gloss on this I&amp;#x27;m happy to chat with anyone; you can make reasonable assumptions as to why I am fairly confident that the MoJ can be convinced to allow this.</text></item><item><author>laurieg</author><text>Japan&amp;#x27;s immigration system seems heavily set up to encourage young people to come, work and then leave.&lt;p&gt;This startup visa is good for getting a toe-hold on Japan but only targets people out of country.  If you live in Japan already (so you might already speak the language and have helpful local knowledge) there aren&amp;#x27;t any great paths to starting a business without permanent residency. You can&amp;#x27;t start a side business on a regular work visa. If you change your visa to manage the business and the startup failed you are likely to be &amp;quot;directed to return to your home country&amp;quot;, losing all the residence time you have accrued so far.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been working as an engineer in Japanese startups for the past few years and I&amp;#x27;m kept on 1 year visa renewals.  On a one year visa you can never apply for permanent residency.&lt;p&gt;And on top of this, there is the 5 year &amp;quot;technical trainee&amp;quot; visa, which is a means of getting manual labor in the country temporarily without having to publicize it.  All the people on this visa do not have university degrees so after their 5 years are up they must return home and have no chance of residence in Japan (outside of marriage).&lt;p&gt;Of course, Japan is free to set its own laws.  If you look at them the message is clear: &amp;quot;Japan wants your work and taxes, but it doesn&amp;#x27;t want you&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>coinme</author><text>This is possible in Singapore too. It’s technically the business that is sponsoring you.</text></comment>