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Used to live in Japan for more than a year. Heard about this visa a few weeks ago while traveling to said country. Since they don't give you a residence card,

• shiroiushi 2y ago
  >Since they don't give you a residence card They don't? Then what use is the visa? You cannot live here without a residence card. As a non-citizen, you're actually legally required to carry your residence card with you whenever you're in public, and present it to a police officer upon request. Something doesn't seem right here. Edit: apparently you can live here, without a residence card, in a temporary apartment, for up to 6 months with this visa. Just be sure to carry your passport everywhere you go.
  • tjpnz 2y ago
    Technically you would be expected to bring your passport everywhere you go.
    • shiroiushi 2y ago
      That's for foreign tourists who have a visa stamp in their passport. So I guess for these digital nomads, that would work too, as long as they don't overstay whatever date is on that visa. It's not going to help them find a place to live though: they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here.
      • lIl-IIIl 2y ago
        The author was able to get an apartment and shared the website and the reddit thread be used to find it.
        • shiroiushi 2y ago
          I see now. Looking at the site, those kinds of apartments are called "monthly mansions"; I stayed in one when I first came here before I could find a real apartment. These places are very small, and furnished, so perfect for someone only staying 3 or 6 months. But they're quite expensive for what you get. But if you're only staying 6 months, it's perfect.
      • Klonoar 2y ago
        > they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here. Eh, Tokyo has plenty of monthly apartment rentals that are effectively corporate rentals that you can do without a residence card. (I used to do this before having an actual visa there) It's functionally better than a hotel, insofar as it doesn't read or act as one.
        • shiroiushi 2y ago
          True, and it generally has better amenities than a hotel too: a kitchen (though tiny), fridge, microwave, stove (no oven though), clothes washer, maybe a vacuum, etc. Also importantly, a mailbox, so you can receive deliveries (and in newer places, there's an automated delivery box system).
          • tayo42 2y ago
            > stove (no oven though) Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought that was typical for Japanese homes?
            • shiroiushi 2y ago
              Yes, unlike Americans who apparently absolutely need to bake a whole turkey on a regular basis, Japanese don't normally bake stuff at home, so Japanese homes (at least in the big cities) don't normally come with built-in ovens. There's no space in Tokyo apartments for the comically-large ovens that are common in America, and the cuisine people make here doesn't normally need one, just a stovetop. For baked goods, people usually just buy them at the grocery store or bakery or other specialty shop.
          • themaninthedark 2y ago
            They have ovens...just super tiny and meant for fish only https://www.yamada-denkiweb.com/category/202/006/001/ https://www.yamada-denkiweb.com/category/202/006/001/
            • shiroiushi 2y ago
    • csomar 2y ago
      Tip: a photo of your passport and the stamp will most likely do in most circumstances. Much better than risking taking your passport with you all the time.
      • Pooge 2y ago
        Bad advice. Photos are not accepted and police will expect you to carry your passport at all times, just as you're supposed to carry your residence card at all times if you have one.
        • csomar 2y ago
          Not sure why people want to stick to a rule that could get them in real trouble. I am speaking from real experience. The police is very unlikely to want to arrest/take you to the station for not having your passport. On the other hand, if you do lose your passport and you have a slow/far embassy then you are in real trouble.
          • makeitdouble 2y ago
            The police will stop you for any random reason, including walking alone in the street at an unusual hour or just to check your bike. From there, if you have nothing to officially prove your identity you might totally spend a while at the station, and potentially have them kindly escort you to your home so they get a look while you're looking for your passport. All of this is just mild inconvenience, except it will happen a lot more frequently than losing one's passport. PS: For the real trouble relative to passports, an embassy can reemit an emergency passport within a day, and you can probably reemit the visa at an immigration branch. It's not fun for sure, but I'm not sure it's real troubles.
            • deleted 2y ago
              [deleted]
            • csomar 2y ago
              > The police will stop you for any random reason, including walking alone in the street at an unusual hour or just to check your bike. Parent was talking about Japan not the US. In most of the world, the police will leave you alone unless they have to intervene. In Japan, they’ll probably want to really help you and not add an arrest to their record. > From there, if you have nothing to officially prove your identity you might totally spend a while at the station, and potentially have them kindly escort you to your home so they get a look while you're looking for your passport Again, highly an American perspective where the police is fishing for arrest reasons. The rest of the world doesn’t allocate much resources to the police so they bus around people without very exigent reasons.
• forgotoldacc 2y ago
  Getting a credit card as a long term resident alone is hard. Getting a phone number can be troublesome for some people fresh off the boat. One longstanding issue has been people who come to Japan expecting to settle down, then quickly realize it's not for them and take a flight home without telling anybody. Debts left unpaid and landlords not even contacted. People who come here with the intention of milking some cash and living in a "cheap" country have even less reason to be loyal to it. The consequence will be companies being even stricter, but parasites like AirBnB and similar companies making a killing off offering apartments 5x above normal asking price to rich nomads who will say "wow, it's so cheap!" without realizing they're being ripped off, and killing neighborhoods by driving rent prices up. Owners of multiple homes stand to gain, but typical companies have been doing the math for a long time and see nothing but losses. The general sentiment by locals towards this policy has been "So we're really becoming like Vietnam and Thailand, huh?", so the vast majority of people will not be welcoming nomads with open arms, or at all. There's already massive controversy over new apartments being bought up by foreign investors and locals being pushed farther out of Tokyo. People can downvote because they don't like hearing this. But it's the state of things here. It's a system forced against the citizens against their will. In a country with a noted history of centuries of distrust of foreigners, this visa scheme is not helping.
  • tjpnz 2y ago
    It's quite common for apartment blocks to forbid "holiday" rentals. Mine has visible signage about this in the lobby and the building manager also looks out for it. Your typical apartment owner has zero interest in all the trouble these arrangements bring.
    • forgotoldacc 2y ago
      They do. But lots of people buy homes just to rent them out. That removes a home from the market, and the competition pushes prices up. The problem isn't signage. Plus evicting/canceling a contract is an arduous process. It almost always favors the renter. And in the case of actually buying a home, there isn't much anyone can do.
    • 2y ago
• tjpnz 2y ago
  You won't be getting a phone number or bank account without one. You might also have problems getting prescriptions filled.
  • shiroiushi 2y ago
    In my experience, you need more than a residence card to get a bank account here: you also need a certificate of employment from your employer.
    • tjpnz 2y ago
      Shinsei sorted me out without one. But wouldn't surprise me for any of the "respectable" banks.
    • creakingstairs 2y ago
      Getting a bank account via SMBC Olive was a painless experience for me. It can all be done an app and a phone call later confirming some details. I was not employed at the time.
    • gwervc 2y ago
      No you just need your residence card, fill a form, sign (no hanko required) and you can open a bank account at the Post Bank. At least that's how it went 10 years ago as a student. It's easier to open an account as a foreigner there than opening an account as a citizen in France... (no appointment bullshit, no proof of residency asked)
      • Pooge 2y ago
        This is still how it goes. I became a client of Sony Bank (yes, that Sony) but they would accepted "financial resident of Japan" which means people that have either 1) a work contract or 2) lived for 6 months in Japan. It absolutely blows my mind why Japan Post is the only one to not have those restrictions.
      • shiroiushi 2y ago
        >No you just need your residence card... >no appointment bullshit, no proof of residency asked) Your residence card IS your proof of residency in Japan, hence the name. It even has your most up-to-date residence printed on the back.
• rootsudo 2y ago
  Pretty hard, there are some services like sakura sim card and another that just uses your passport, but the rates/services are pretty meh. But it is a softbank sim card, a JP number (thay may not be used for line verification sometimes) and the lowest priority data - meaning if you're in shibuya or shinjuku, sometimes you have no signal.
• morpheuskafka 2y ago
  There's at least one company (Mobal) that will give you a "real" (not VoIP prefix) phone number with a passport as a tourist, so that would work for DN too. The data part of their eSIM wasn't great but the voice part worked fine when I tried it. If you need health care it would definitely be a hassle at least if you don't have a lot of spare cash--you'd have to see if the mandatory travel insurance you purchased has some sort of direct payment arrangement with selected clinics. But it shouldn't be any issue to just receive the service and pay the full cash price, again same as a tourist. The real issue is going to be a bank account, which would primarily be needed if you tried to rent a "regular" apartment. The best workaround might be to see if the owner would take cash, up front if needed. You'd be within the "treated as nonresident" period at first anyway, so it would already be hard to get an account even with a residence card. If you don't need it for rent/utilities (ex. share house that takes online payments, hotel/airbnb, etc.) then you probably wouldn't want the hassle of opening and closing a local bank account anyway.
  • carlosjobim 2y ago
    Can't you do international wires to Japanese bank accounts for paying rent?
    • patrakov 2y ago
      I don't know for Japan, but it did work during my previous trip to the Philippines (November 2017 - August 2018). The only problem is that you will not be able to pay the exact amount if the source bank does not support the destination bank account's currency, which is quite often the case for Philippine peso. But JPY is quite popular; I have just checked that Raiffeisen Bank in Russia still allows selecting it online as a currency for a foreign transfer. It's too bad I won't be able to do the same online from my Metrobank account in the Philippines.
  • quacksilver 2y ago
    Look for 'Nomad travel insurance' and see if it fits your individual needs for health insurance I use one called safetywing, though thankfully have never had to claim and don't know if they are better or worse than their competitors. (posted as an example and not a recommendation or endorsement)