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Is you are on a tourist visa then you cannot work. Actively working as a nomad ok a tourist visa waiver is breaking the law. Of course, nomads often did come a

Is you are on a tourist visa then you cannot work. Actively working as a nomad ok a tourist visa waiver is breaking the law. Of course, nomads often did come and with in this status. They would exist in a grey area, arguing their with was more incidental in nature and bit the reason to be in Japan (just like replying to a few with emails while in holiday). The nomad visa is essentially formalizing this grey area. As other commentors have mentioned, it's not a particularly useful status as you don't get a residence card and you can enroll in national health insurance too. You'll also find it harder to find apartments to rent too

jalapenos 2y ago
Right so it's a compliance thing. Rather than just visiting on a tourist visa and relying on the fact that no immigration officer is going to come bust in your hotel door and yell "hey are you doing work on that laptop!", you go through a bunch of tedious bureaucratic hoops to get the assurance that they definitely for certain won't come inspect what you're doing on your laptop.
- djtango 2y ago
  People are being too individualistic here - Japan or any other country is never going to go after individuals who happen to work for remote companies or freelance while they globe trot working on tourist visas. But when companies like Shopify go fully remote, if they suddenly have a lot of employees who are frequenting Japan, they are painting a giant target on their back and exposing themselves to legal risk. A company is never going to expose themselves to this kind of legal risk so HR will very quickly (and understandably) clamp down on this. This is why even the most progressive "work from anywhere" policies tend to have fine print that amounts to "your country of residence and any home countries you can legally work in". This is then why we often see "remote" coming with all kinds of conditions like US remote or EU remote etc because the reality of legal compliance for HR is a huge headache. These nomad visas are a baby step in the right direction towards unburdening companies from this liability.
  - notpushkin 2y ago
    > This is then why we often see "remote" coming with all kinds of conditions like US remote or EU remote etc because the reality of legal compliance for HR is a huge headache. Could they just hire those individuals as contractors instead? It should be up to the contractor to ensure compliance then. (IANAL)
    - djtango 2y ago
      Some do but from observation lawyers/HR find reasons to resist this. The most likely explanation is there could be risk but there is zero risk associated with saying no so legal and HR say no to this arrangement because they don't want more work and legal and HR are cost centres so they can't magically pull budget out of thin air to appease some annoying digital nomads. A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either, which would be a giant headache for both HR and senior management. For example VCs prefer "headcount" over contractors for a number of reasons so there is pressure from the top to incentivise full time employees. Large multinationals have a lot of considerations around taxation (its always taxes...) These are some of the practicalities I've uncovered that provide inertia towards remote working
      - notpushkin 2y ago
        Makes sense, thanks! > A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either This could actually look like tax evasion (in countries with lower taxes for sole proprietors / self-employed people), so not a great idea in any case.
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      Well whole contractor status is very murky in many places. Either very strict like in UK. Or then you need all sorts of agreements in between, meaning that you might need to give cut to some third company. And then those companies have same problems. Even inside EU with freedom of movement spending more than 180 days in single country can lead to tax implications. Doing this globally is even bigger mess as ways of counting time might not be the same.
d13 2y ago
No one will ever know or care if you’re working remotely while in Japan on a tourist visa. Just AirBnB and get ordinary travel insurance. For a paltry 6 months this nomad visa seems like a massive amount of paperwork for no benefit.
- lIl-IIIl 2y ago
  Apparently they do, from the article quoting the US Embassy: Japanese Immigration officials are aware of the pattern of people staying for 80-90 days as “tourists,” spending a few days in Korea, Guam or some other nearby area and then seeking to re-enter Japan for another 90 days. Persons with such a travel pattern can expect to face questions at Japanese Immigration and may be denied entry with the suspicion that they have been or will work illegally in Japan. In that Japanese Immigration records are computerized, a “lost” passport does not serve to mask long stays in Japan.
  - notpushkin 2y ago
    I think it’s mostly for the visa runs, not the woking per se. (I would still not recommend it, especially not if you are planning on getting a permanent residence status later on.)
  - csunbird 2y ago
    Well, EU prevents this kind of workaround by restricting stays to 90 days within 180 days period, so leaving EU for a couple of days after a stay of 90 days and coming back to stay another 90 days won't work, you will go over your quota.
  - bamboozled 2y ago
    Imagine if they just had a sane immigration policy instead ?
    - jalapenos 2y ago
      I'm guessing your opinion is that western immigration policies, shall we say "unique" vs the rest of the world, are "sane". Maybe you're not aware on which side of the asylum walls you're standing.
onlyrealcuzzo 2y ago
What is the definition of work? If you mainly passively own a business in a different country, is that work? If you mainly passively manage your portfolio of foreign assets, is that work?
- hiatus 2y ago
  Seems like a question better directed to the relevant country's authorities.

jalapenos 2y ago

Right so it's a compliance thing. Rather than just visiting on a tourist visa and relying on the fact that no immigration officer is going to come bust in your hotel door and yell "hey are you doing work on that laptop!", you go through a bunch of tedious bureaucratic hoops to get the assurance that they definitely for certain won't come inspect what you're doing on your laptop.

djtango 2y ago
People are being too individualistic here - Japan or any other country is never going to go after individuals who happen to work for remote companies or freelance while they globe trot working on tourist visas. But when companies like Shopify go fully remote, if they suddenly have a lot of employees who are frequenting Japan, they are painting a giant target on their back and exposing themselves to legal risk. A company is never going to expose themselves to this kind of legal risk so HR will very quickly (and understandably) clamp down on this. This is why even the most progressive "work from anywhere" policies tend to have fine print that amounts to "your country of residence and any home countries you can legally work in". This is then why we often see "remote" coming with all kinds of conditions like US remote or EU remote etc because the reality of legal compliance for HR is a huge headache. These nomad visas are a baby step in the right direction towards unburdening companies from this liability.
- notpushkin 2y ago
  > This is then why we often see "remote" coming with all kinds of conditions like US remote or EU remote etc because the reality of legal compliance for HR is a huge headache. Could they just hire those individuals as contractors instead? It should be up to the contractor to ensure compliance then. (IANAL)
  - djtango 2y ago
    Some do but from observation lawyers/HR find reasons to resist this. The most likely explanation is there could be risk but there is zero risk associated with saying no so legal and HR say no to this arrangement because they don't want more work and legal and HR are cost centres so they can't magically pull budget out of thin air to appease some annoying digital nomads. A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either, which would be a giant headache for both HR and senior management. For example VCs prefer "headcount" over contractors for a number of reasons so there is pressure from the top to incentivise full time employees. Large multinationals have a lot of considerations around taxation (its always taxes...) These are some of the practicalities I've uncovered that provide inertia towards remote working
    - notpushkin 2y ago
      Makes sense, thanks! > A company is also not going to let their entire workforce of full time employees transition to contractors overnight either This could actually look like tax evasion (in countries with lower taxes for sole proprietors / self-employed people), so not a great idea in any case.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    Well whole contractor status is very murky in many places. Either very strict like in UK. Or then you need all sorts of agreements in between, meaning that you might need to give cut to some third company. And then those companies have same problems. Even inside EU with freedom of movement spending more than 180 days in single country can lead to tax implications. Doing this globally is even bigger mess as ways of counting time might not be the same.

d13 2y ago

No one will ever know or care if you’re working remotely while in Japan on a tourist visa. Just AirBnB and get ordinary travel insurance. For a paltry 6 months this nomad visa seems like a massive amount of paperwork for no benefit.

lIl-IIIl 2y ago
Apparently they do, from the article quoting the US Embassy: Japanese Immigration officials are aware of the pattern of people staying for 80-90 days as “tourists,” spending a few days in Korea, Guam or some other nearby area and then seeking to re-enter Japan for another 90 days. Persons with such a travel pattern can expect to face questions at Japanese Immigration and may be denied entry with the suspicion that they have been or will work illegally in Japan. In that Japanese Immigration records are computerized, a “lost” passport does not serve to mask long stays in Japan.
- notpushkin 2y ago
  I think it’s mostly for the visa runs, not the woking per se. (I would still not recommend it, especially not if you are planning on getting a permanent residence status later on.)
- csunbird 2y ago
  Well, EU prevents this kind of workaround by restricting stays to 90 days within 180 days period, so leaving EU for a couple of days after a stay of 90 days and coming back to stay another 90 days won't work, you will go over your quota.
- bamboozled 2y ago
  Imagine if they just had a sane immigration policy instead ?
  - jalapenos 2y ago
    I'm guessing your opinion is that western immigration policies, shall we say "unique" vs the rest of the world, are "sane". Maybe you're not aware on which side of the asylum walls you're standing.

onlyrealcuzzo 2y ago

What is the definition of work? If you mainly passively own a business in a different country, is that work? If you mainly passively manage your portfolio of foreign assets, is that work?

hiatus 2y ago
Seems like a question better directed to the relevant country's authorities.