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Yeah I also find it weird because "To be eligible for the new status, applicants must have an annual income equivalent to 10 million yen ($68,000) or more" wh

Yeah I also find it weird because "To be eligible for the new status, applicants must have an annual income equivalent to 10 million yen ($68,000) or more" which means the newly created Digital Nomad class needs to have 2x the average GDP/capita in income?

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
So they only want high earning workers from developed countries, basically the kind of immigrants every other country wants but doesn't dare say it out loud. What's wrong with that? Their country, their rules.
- kdmccormick 3y ago
  Nothing innately "wrong" but I can see it fueling resentment among working class Japanese towards these foreign, exclusively-wealthy digital nomads.
  - lurking_swe 3y ago
    resentment? why? won’t the nomads spend money in the local community on goods and services? You make it seem like they would be taking local jobs away, or taking housing away from the locals that earn 2x less. i’m struggling to see your perspective? or is this just a concern about “crab mentality”?
    - com2kid 3y ago
      Portugal has this very issue. A previous HN thread from a few weeks ago went into more detail about it. The tl;dr is if you drop 5000 people earning 2x the average salary into a neighborhood, the prices of everything goes way up. Rent, food, entertainment, locals get priced out very quickly.
      - lurking_swe 3y ago
        naive question - is the situation in portugal different from japan? i was unaware of the issue so i did some brief reading. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65485908 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65485908 seems like a tourism issue? that and extremely low wages compared to cost of living. If the government functioned for the people, i imagine it would be trivial to place severe limits on short term tourism rentals, but they have chosen not to do so.
  - ffsm8 3y ago
    It's usually the other waY around. The resentment generally builds if the low wage jobs are taken, leaving the least affluent workers without any prospects. And this particular visa is aimed at people that are employed overseas, so they're not even gonna take any high paying jobs from the population
  - eska 3y ago
    I think it at least depends on other factors as well. For example the German city of Düsseldorf is very welcome to Japanese business, and it resulted in a lot of infrastructure like Japanese schools, kindergardens, cultural institutions , Japanese chamber of commerce, restaurants, doctors with Japanese translators, a temple, as well as a huge yearly Japanese festival. In the 90s almost all of the Japanese living in Düsseldorf were managers, i.e. paid well. There is no crime, they cause no trouble, they usually just don’t speak German because they live after a 1-4 year business stint. They are very liked among the local citizens. Meanwhile when Turks try to build a mosque chaos ensues. But the Turkish population is not a bunch of rich nomads.
- standardUser 3y ago
  > basically the kind of immigrants every other country wants but doesn't dare say it out loud Many nations have high standards for immigration relating to income, wealth and professional qualifications. There is absolutely nothing hush hush about it, not even remotely.
  - boringg 3y ago
    Not sure about this comment - I think you need to put up examples here. I think your comment is historically true but not up to date with current policies.
    - standardUser 3y ago
      Canada, Portugal, Colombia, the US... we'd probably have an easier time making a list of nations that don't have a "pay to play" immigration scheme. Here's a half-decent list: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/citizenship-by-investment/ https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/citizenship-by-invest...
      - boringg 3y ago
        Canada has a large swatch of categories for immigration and does not have high standards across the board. I have no strong opinions immigration which is a hot topic currently but I do want to clarify that your assertion is incorrect.
        standardUser 3y ago
        My assertion, that most countries have criteria for immigration that involve income tests, asset tests, or skill requirements is absolutely true. Other paths to immigration exist as well.
        boringg 3y ago
        Your assertion is that those countries require their immigrants to go through those tests and pass and your it implies tacitly that this is for almost all immigrants who come through. However at most 50% go through that route (in Canada).
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- fxtentacle 3y ago
  The article says "Japan hopes its new visa status will attract [..] YouTubers earning advertising fees from overseas companies." and this is about digital nomads. To me, that seems weird because most digital nomads (and most YouTube personalities) aren't going to make that $68k limit.
  - chrisoconnell 3y ago
    I can't say for sure whether it is "most" or not, but I do not know a single individual that is a Digital Nomad that makes sub $100,000 a year that is employed by another company. As for a digital nomad, if you're business is secure enough that you're comfortable traveling full time or as a standard aspect of your life, you're likely making more than $68,000 Pre-Tax. I don't think this is an incredibly high dollar amount, seeing as several major cities in the US have a minimum wage of nearly $41,000 a year.
- philip1209 3y ago
  Japan seems conservative compared to New Zealand, which limits immigration for those with a range of disabilities - including autism spectrum disorder: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-a-visa-application/medical-info/acceptable-standard-of-health-criteria-for-visa-approvals https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-...
  - sonthonax 3y ago
    > Severe developmental disorders or severe cognitive impairments where significant support is required, including but not exclusive to: physical disability, intellectual disability, autistic spectrum disorders, brain injury. I think that's a deliberate misinterpretation. It obviously means 'low functioning' autism rather than someone who's awkward in adulthood but otherwise leads a normal life.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    That's a lot of countries which restrict migration from people with disabilities due to increased pressure on the welfare state. Reminds me of a famous case where a German family moved to Austria with their disabled child and the Austrian authorities were allowed to not register the child. Unless you qualify for asylum, then all bets are off and these rules are waived.
jimbokun 3y ago
How is that weird? They are trying to pull in people to spend more money in the Japanese economy.
GenerWork 3y ago
What's wrong with only wanting high earners to come to your country? Japan knows that high earners are definitely going to spend more and probably cause less trouble than lower earners.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

So they only want high earning workers from developed countries, basically the kind of immigrants every other country wants but doesn't dare say it out loud. What's wrong with that? Their country, their rules.

kdmccormick 3y ago
Nothing innately "wrong" but I can see it fueling resentment among working class Japanese towards these foreign, exclusively-wealthy digital nomads.
- lurking_swe 3y ago
  resentment? why? won’t the nomads spend money in the local community on goods and services? You make it seem like they would be taking local jobs away, or taking housing away from the locals that earn 2x less. i’m struggling to see your perspective? or is this just a concern about “crab mentality”?
  - com2kid 3y ago
    Portugal has this very issue. A previous HN thread from a few weeks ago went into more detail about it. The tl;dr is if you drop 5000 people earning 2x the average salary into a neighborhood, the prices of everything goes way up. Rent, food, entertainment, locals get priced out very quickly.
    - lurking_swe 3y ago
      naive question - is the situation in portugal different from japan? i was unaware of the issue so i did some brief reading. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65485908 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65485908 seems like a tourism issue? that and extremely low wages compared to cost of living. If the government functioned for the people, i imagine it would be trivial to place severe limits on short term tourism rentals, but they have chosen not to do so.
- ffsm8 3y ago
  It's usually the other waY around. The resentment generally builds if the low wage jobs are taken, leaving the least affluent workers without any prospects. And this particular visa is aimed at people that are employed overseas, so they're not even gonna take any high paying jobs from the population
- eska 3y ago
  I think it at least depends on other factors as well. For example the German city of Düsseldorf is very welcome to Japanese business, and it resulted in a lot of infrastructure like Japanese schools, kindergardens, cultural institutions , Japanese chamber of commerce, restaurants, doctors with Japanese translators, a temple, as well as a huge yearly Japanese festival. In the 90s almost all of the Japanese living in Düsseldorf were managers, i.e. paid well. There is no crime, they cause no trouble, they usually just don’t speak German because they live after a 1-4 year business stint. They are very liked among the local citizens. Meanwhile when Turks try to build a mosque chaos ensues. But the Turkish population is not a bunch of rich nomads.
standardUser 3y ago
> basically the kind of immigrants every other country wants but doesn't dare say it out loud Many nations have high standards for immigration relating to income, wealth and professional qualifications. There is absolutely nothing hush hush about it, not even remotely.
- boringg 3y ago
  Not sure about this comment - I think you need to put up examples here. I think your comment is historically true but not up to date with current policies.
  - standardUser 3y ago
    Canada, Portugal, Colombia, the US... we'd probably have an easier time making a list of nations that don't have a "pay to play" immigration scheme. Here's a half-decent list: https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/citizenship-by-investment/ https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/citizenship-by-invest...
    - boringg 3y ago
      Canada has a large swatch of categories for immigration and does not have high standards across the board. I have no strong opinions immigration which is a hot topic currently but I do want to clarify that your assertion is incorrect.
      - standardUser 3y ago
        My assertion, that most countries have criteria for immigration that involve income tests, asset tests, or skill requirements is absolutely true. Other paths to immigration exist as well.
        boringg 3y ago
        Your assertion is that those countries require their immigrants to go through those tests and pass and your it implies tacitly that this is for almost all immigrants who come through. However at most 50% go through that route (in Canada).
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
fxtentacle 3y ago
The article says "Japan hopes its new visa status will attract [..] YouTubers earning advertising fees from overseas companies." and this is about digital nomads. To me, that seems weird because most digital nomads (and most YouTube personalities) aren't going to make that $68k limit.
- chrisoconnell 3y ago
  I can't say for sure whether it is "most" or not, but I do not know a single individual that is a Digital Nomad that makes sub $100,000 a year that is employed by another company. As for a digital nomad, if you're business is secure enough that you're comfortable traveling full time or as a standard aspect of your life, you're likely making more than $68,000 Pre-Tax. I don't think this is an incredibly high dollar amount, seeing as several major cities in the US have a minimum wage of nearly $41,000 a year.
philip1209 3y ago
Japan seems conservative compared to New Zealand, which limits immigration for those with a range of disabilities - including autism spectrum disorder: https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-a-visa-application/medical-info/acceptable-standard-of-health-criteria-for-visa-approvals https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/preparing-...
- sonthonax 3y ago
  > Severe developmental disorders or severe cognitive impairments where significant support is required, including but not exclusive to: physical disability, intellectual disability, autistic spectrum disorders, brain injury. I think that's a deliberate misinterpretation. It obviously means 'low functioning' autism rather than someone who's awkward in adulthood but otherwise leads a normal life.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  That's a lot of countries which restrict migration from people with disabilities due to increased pressure on the welfare state. Reminds me of a famous case where a German family moved to Austria with their disabled child and the Austrian authorities were allowed to not register the child. Unless you qualify for asylum, then all bets are off and these rules are waived.

jimbokun 3y ago

How is that weird? They are trying to pull in people to spend more money in the Japanese economy.

GenerWork 3y ago

What's wrong with only wanting high earners to come to your country? Japan knows that high earners are definitely going to spend more and probably cause less trouble than lower earners.