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Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing?
- noja 7y agoIt's a taboo subject, because the Japanese aren't very open to non-locals.
- kbumsik 7y agoHave you been there lately? They are actually quite many non-local workers these days. Not sure they are treated well though.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- reflectiv 7y agoMy father works for a japanese oil exploration company, and has been for about 25 years. He just got back from a trip to give a presentation in Japan...first thing I hear when he gets back is how badly racist the Japanese are. I know it's just an anecdote...but it's been his experience in general over the years.
- mrkstu 7y agoThat is probably enough info to ID him- you may want to edit that in case of unintended negative repercussions for him...
- reflectiv 7y agoFair point, I've updated it.
- blackearl 7y agoI've been reading Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld recently (fascinating read about the yakuza's history in Japan) and it mentions that a large percentage of Chinese and Korean immigrants turned to gang life because they were considered a lower caste, like the burakumin (Japan's untouchables). Maybe things have changed since the 80s-90s?
- carti 7y agoNot drastically, it seems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan
- Fishysoup 7y agoThere are several foreign workers but they mostly work for established international companies with offices there. Few of these companies are Japanese (people do work for Japanese companies but usually outside Japan). It's not only about xenophobia, Japanese work culture is deeply hierarchical and seniority-based (the person who's been in the company the longest gets to run it, regardless whether they're any good at their job or not). Companies change their policies very slowly. They fear that foreigners would not understand this culture and try to disrupt it, for good or bad.
- burtonator 7y agoIt's also taboo for white people to call some non-white people racist but then we can't actually have a discussion about racism.
- foota 7y agoMy two cents here: non white people can certainly be racist, but racism is a structural thing, so it doesn't make sense to talk about racism by people that are not white, in the United States, since the structure isn't there. But I think it makes perfect sense to talk about it in other places.
- moretai 7y agoSo what is a dislike for another race called?
- mytailorisrich 7y agoRacism is a not a "structural thing", and neither is it about whites or non-whites. Everywhere you go on Earth you will find racist people, whatever 'race' they are some will be racist against other 'races'. Specifically regarding your point: there are people who are black and racist in the US or any other country.
- fzeroracer 7y agoRacism absolutely is a structural thing. This can include things such as redlining in the US or more on topic, Japanese banks refusing to work with foreigners and the treatment of the Ainu in Japan. There's a very important distinction to make between those that write the laws and those that don't.
- blackearl 7y agoDoes Japan really want foreign entrepreneurs? It's always been very conservative and while they may be polite to foreigners, that's very different from allowing non-Japanese to expand a business there. I think it's ingrained in the culture, and some of these bridges Tokyo is building might be too little to catch up to SK or Germany.
- masklinn 7y ago> Does Japan really want foreign entrepreneurs? It's always been very conservative My understanding is they're also very financially conservative, I think it was pinboard who was talking about his experience as an independent entrepreneur?
- mariuolo 7y agoI also remember this guy's perspective: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan
- techstrategist 7y agoPatrick (Patio11) wrote (still writes occasionally) extensively about his experience running his business from Japan.
- masklinn 7y agoIndeed, that's who I was thinking about rather than pinboard, sorry 'bout that.
- akvashi 7y agoWork culture for me honestly
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- notrealpersonq 7y agoLet them release my man Carlos Ghosn first.
- magduf 7y agoThis is a fair point. Carlos seemed like he did some really questionable things as head of Nissan, but it all seemed to be things that should have only been pursued in a civil case, not criminal. Instead, it seems like Nissan has used Japan's criminal justice system to punish him, and in quite a harsh way too. The guy is most likely guilty of some things, but the punishment he's experienced has been really out of proportion, and that's not going to be attractive to others who might look at Japan as a place to start a business or get involved in corporate politics.
- anon73044 7y agoHe deserves jail and worse for cancelling the 200SX successor
- incahoots 7y agoLike others have stated, the Japanese are very much xenophobic to outsiders. The idea of bringing a business to Japan seems unique but you aren't going to get any community support like you would in western countries. Personally I view Japan has a oddity. A first world country that short of some tech and Toyota/Honda produce little to nothing for trade. Everything is imported which could land you into the red if the powers at be stop playing nice in trading with Japan.
- hikarudo 7y ago> A first world country that short of some tech and Toyota/Honda produce little to nothing for trade. Everything is imported Japan does not export "some tech and Toyota/Honda". It exports a LOTS of vehicles, vehicle parts, integrated circuits, machines, etc. Japan is the 4th largest exporter in the world. Also, a country that doesn't export much cannot import much, or else how could the country afford it? edit: typo
- carapace 7y agoNot mention Japan's massive cultural exports, e.g. Godzilla, Nintendo, anime, samurai and ninjas, you could go on and on.
- echelon 7y agoIf you look at the list of most valuable media franchises, Japan is king. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_media_franchises https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_med... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_video_game_franchises https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_vid...
- reustle 7y agoI've been dealing with setting up a corporation over the past few months and have some quick (5am) comments on a few of these points from the article. Hopefully this is helpful to anyone considering doing business in Japan. > Tokyo One-Stop Business Establishment Center (TOSBEC) This resource is great and underutilized in Tokyo in the international business scene from my experience. I've been doing my part to recommend it far and wide, as it is very helpful with solid English support. > Corporate bank account I finished setting up my corporation in Japan in April, and it is now essentially December and I do not have a corporate bank account yet. Getting denied many times from various banks, always being told that they cannot tell us the reason why due to "policy". also, it can take anywhere from three to five weeks to process your application. My accountant, lawyer, etc cannot quite figure it out for certain. It recently came down to a few potential factors around me not being on the business manager visa (on another work visa), even though we've seen success doing it as that before. Banking has been my biggest holdup thus far. > Private office to secure a visa from your own business, you need a private office. You must have a private door, with your company name listed on it. there are multiple businesses which support this around the city, but you will pay at least 600 USD per month for a shoebox office with no windows or AC control, if you want to be in a reasonable neighborhood. There is also a semi-requirement that your bank must be within 5 km of your headquarters, AKA your office. So if you will be going there frequently, which you probably will be since online banking here is practically useless, you will not want to be traveling far. So, you will be spending 600 USD per month on an office. You will also be spending 2,000 to 3,000 USD per year on an accountant to handle your corporate taxes. the standard rate for setting up a corporation, is around 4,500 USD to 5,500 USD. If you can't read Japanese kanji forms, which is all you are going to find that many banks and most government offices offer, you're going to need to pay a translator. If you are sponsoring your own visa, you need to deposit at least 50,000 USD into your bank account to support your visa. This money can be used elsewhere after it has been deposited, but is still a hurdle for some. You are looking at a minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 USD for setting up a corporation over your first year, assuming you follow the standard path (excluding the 50k deposit) I've been doing my best to document everything along the way during this process, and it is not over yet. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have more questions or a curious about more details.
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- kristianc 7y agoJapan is a pretty good cautionary tale for Britain (and to a lesser extent to the US) on how shutting yourself off from immigration tends to go. Japan was expected to become the next global superpower in the 1980s, and instead has seen closing in on three lost decades. It’s only now trying to catch up, politically, culturally and economically.
- bluedino 7y agoExcept the US has been pretty open to immigration for the last 250 years, while Japan is 98% Japanese.
- xyzzyz 7y agoUS has been pretty open to immigration at some points, and relatively closed at others. For the most of last 250 years, it has been mostly closed to non-white immigration, for example. With the exception of black Americans, the current racial and ethnic diversity in the US is a rather recent phenomenon.
- tonmoy 7y agoI don’t understand the point of “white” and race in this conversation. In fact the concept of “white” may be a rather recent phenomenon.
- wil421 7y agoTons of people hated the Irish for immigrating to the US. There are plenty of example of the hatred of Italians and Irish in the turn of the last century. Watch Gangs of New York for a taste of the bigotry. Irish and Italians are lumped into White and now we have comments like yours. Most of the people in the US are from Europe so of course they favored family, friends, and countrymen coming over.
- elgenie 7y agoThe US had no laws restricting immigration, period, until 1882. The national origin quota system didn't exist at all until the 1920s. Ethnic diversity has been part of the fabric of the US since before it was a country. Per census figures, the percentage of the population that wasn't born in the US was higher in 1910 that in it today. And, of course, the very concept of "immigrant from Europe or descended from them => white" is a lot more recent than 250 years ago. The Irish weren't considered "white" when they arrived en masse after 1820. Italians, Greeks, and various Slavs also weren't considered "white" when they arrived in the early 20th century. Suspicion of divided loyalties for a Catholic president was a big issue in the 1960 elections (JFK vs Nixon).
- hindsightbias 7y agoNHK English documentaries are very up front about problems: Death of a Dream: Vietnamese Workers in Japan https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4001336/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4001336/
- golemiprague 7y agoJapan doesn't want an influx of foreigners and rightfully so. It is a total failure in any nation state where they tried this experiment. Everybody declare that "diversity is our strange" but there is no proof for it at all, it is almost like a religious mantra that people mumble in order to justify the mess they have created. I used to believe this bullshit until I had the chance to live in Japan and to experience the huge advantages in an homogenous cohesive society.
- cryptozeus 7y agoIn their immigration policy there is no path to permanent residency or citizenship. With so many other options around the world, why would immigrants move to non English speaking country with not so friendly immigration policies?
- reustle 7y ago> no path to permanent residency http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/eizyuu.html http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/eizyuu.ht... > or citizenship https://www.justlanded.com/english/Japan/Japan-Guide/Visas-Permits/Japanese-citizenship https://www.justlanded.com/english/Japan/Japan-Guide/Visas-P...
- brobinson 7y agoIt's easy to get Japanese citizenship if you can qualify for a visa in the first place. I'm not sure why this falsehood is constantly repeated. Citizenship = 5 years, PR = 10 years
- echelon 7y agoWell damn, this is exactly what I wanted. I've been studying Japanese for years (taking the JLPT again in December). I want to start a computational filmmaking startup, and Japan has some of the best writers and media exports the world has to offer. I really need to stop worrying and pursue this...
- magnusdeus123 7y agoYou totally should. It's been a dream of mine to go spend time in Japan since I was quite young. The dream has morphed; I have a serious relationship now, a good career and a place to call home that I don't want to leave permanently. But the dream lives on and we're planning to go there for six months in a couple of years to learn the language intensively. Don't let your dreams stay dreams.
- ctocoder 7y agoIt is missing acceptance.
- charliebrownau 7y agoJapan like 99% of countries refuse to stop simping to women and give men/fathers rights Yet to find a single nation willing to * Remove DULUTH MODEL * Remove Pussy Pass * Remove double standards for women * Remove forced child "support" * Remove No fault divorce * Hold women to the same standard as White Western men * Hold jews to the same standard as white western Men * Hold imports/islamic/blacks to the same standard as white western men Simping and pandering to women goes past western culture and languages, its the multi national, multi language shared part of the World outside Middle East
- opportune 7y agoI think I remember writing about this before, but it's also unclear what comparative advantages a startup in Japan offers you outside of two things: easy access to the Japanese market if you think their consumers/businesses will be the largest market for your product, and world-leading expertise in robotics (and some other things). I guess you can also live in some huge, nice cities without absurd cost of living too. Not sure if those are worth all the operational and cultural difficulties for most people, relative to other places.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jhanschoo 7y agoRegarding the out-of-print book mentioned, Making Common Sense of Japan, there's a scanned pdf of it on Library Genesis.
- timoth3y 7y agoI'm a foreigner who has started a number of companies in Japan over the past 25 years. Right now is a great time to be starting a company here. BTW, shameless plug for my podcast: https://www.disruptingjapan.com/ https://www.disruptingjapan.com/ However, the idea of trying to get someone to move to Japan to start a startup is kind of odd. Ideally, you should be near your customers. Japan is a wonderful place to live, but there is much more they can do to make things attractive to Japanese entrepreneurs, which will, in turn, make it attractive to everyone, including foreign entrepreneurs.
- benguild 7y agoAfter having done this myself, I figure that even for a Japanese native this must be tedious without having done it at least twice before. When we closed down our company... a native helped us submit the paperwork to close out our local bank account with an online bank. It took SIX MONTHS of sending the same form back and forth with corrections to finish it, haha.
- danielscrubs 7y agoYou need to know Japanese, streamlined beauty standards, you need to work crazy hours and it looks bad if you have switched companies in the past. Get past these problems and non-japanese start to love it. They are not as racist as many people make them out to be, most are just extremely frustrated that english and being chubby isn't enough to be accepted.