“Should I live here, in Japan?” That thought crossed my mind almost as soon as I landed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. So I began my very first, brief and spontaneous trip to any Asian country, in February of 2024. I’m sure I wasn’t the first or last tourist with such ideas either!
As soon as I returned home to Berlin, Germany, I started scheming up ways to accomplish the move. However, after a few days of browsing through job boards (including, of course, TokyoDev), examining visa requirements, and observing discussions about life in Japan on Reddit, reality started setting in.
Relocating from one country to another is always a daunting task, though I’ve done it a couple of times already. Moving to a different continent, where you are unfamiliar with most of the customs, the language, the work environment, and even food etiquette, is life-changing on a whole different level.
After eight years in Berlin, I’d grown roots in a city known worldwide to be an attractive place to live. My friends and family also lived close by. I had just accepted a great job opportunity after a turbulent bankruptcy had shut down my last employer. Moving to Japan on a whim was too much of a risk.
Plus, visiting a country as a tourist is significantly different from actually living in it. I needed more time to judge whether I should take the leap to move there or not. Now, how could I make that work?
What didn’t get me to Japan
My first thought was to work remotely and use the 90 days permitted by the tourist visa. Yet working in Japan on this visa is a gray zone at best and a practice I would stay away from. In fact, the US Embassy in Japan strictly advises against this:
Persons found working illegally are subject to arrest and deportation.
Persons believed to be entering Japan without a working visa but who intend to work here can be denied entry into Japan. This means that you will not exit the airport and will be required to return directly to the U.S.
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.
I therefore revisited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visa page and looked at other options. Two possible opportunities for others, the Working Holiday and Cultural Activities visas, were not going to work for me. The first, because I (sadly) had passed the age of 30, and the second because I was uncomfortable at the thought of draining my savings to visit a language school without working in the meantime. Seeing no other suitable option, I capitulated for a while.
Introducing the Digital Nomad visa
Luckily for me, things were about to change. Fast forward to April 2024, when the Japanese government introduced the Digital Nomad visa. This visa allows visitors to legally work remotely from within Japan, albeit with stricter requirements than many other nations offering a similar permit. Those requirements are:
- Must be a national of an eligible country
- Must be insured against death, injury, or illness for an amount larger than 10 million yen or more for the length of their stay
- Must show an annual income of 10 million yen or more
10 million yen is equivalent to 67,000 US dollars or 61,000 Euros at the time of writing. This amount makes most workers around the world ineligible, despite the yen currently being quite weak. Additionally, the visa restricts the period of stay to a maximum of six months, making it much shorter than visas offered by other popular digital nomad destinations such as Thailand, Portugal, or Spain.
I had a lot of questions that the brief Japanese Immigration webpage about this new visa did not answer (you might find answers to those in the FAQ section below). Nevertheless, thanks to the weak yen, I was privileged to meet the income requirements. No longer defeated, I started investigating this new way to accomplish my goal of living, at least for a while, in Japan.
Receiving permission to work remotely
The first step was actually getting my relatively new employer on board with me working from a whole different continent for so many months. Fortunately for me, my company had taken a remote-first approach since its inception, so I already had the freedom to work remotely from anywhere in Germany, a benefit that I find to be priceless in a tech industry plagued by arbitrary return-to-office mandates. However, I was still a new hire and on probation, so I bided my time.
Once I had successfully completed my probation period at work, I approached my boss, asking if I could work for six months in Japan. To my surprise, he agreed without hesitation, barring any issues with HR. The latter confirmed that, since I would be working fewer than 183 days outside of Germany, no tax or contractual problems would arise. This was something I had not considered before; I’d only thought that the visa might be too short for my objective of trying out life in Japan. It appears, however, that the six month duration has some benefits.
Planning my arrival date
The next question was, when should I aim to arrive in Japan? My first issue was that I wasn’t sure how much time was needed to acquire this visa. There was no mention of processing time on the official Japanese Immigration website.
I browsed a few mega-threads on Reddit about this, hoping to find an answer. It had only been three months since the rollout of the Digital Nomad visa, after all. I saw one or two replies advising people to submit the application at least three months before the date of intended arrival in Japan.
I’d hoped that the waiting time would be less, but now I aimed to arrive in Japan around the 1st of December, which left almost four months for the application to be completed and accepted.
Starting the application
With my company’s blessing secured, I proceeded to start filling out the visa forms and gathering the required documents to drop off at the Japanese embassy.
The visa application form was quite standard, yet two fields, “address in Japan” and “phone number in Japan,” proved difficult. I had not looked for a place to stay in Japan yet, and I wouldn’t get a local phone number until I was in Japan.
I went to Reddit again, hoping to find someone who had encountered the same problem. Unfortunately for me, there were no answers about this particular issue. Quite the contrary—the few Redditors genuinely interested in the visa also had a plethora of other questions that nobody seemed able to answer with confidence. The limited number of replies is an indicator of how new and relatively obscure this visa is. If the length were extended or if there was a possibility for renewal, perhaps there would be more interest from the digital nomad community.
Opting to ask the authorities themselves, I called the visa hotline that the embassy recommended on their website. However, the person on the other end wasn’t yet aware of the Digital Nomad visa, despite it having been rolled out three months before. While I empathized with them knowing nothing about this seemingly mysterious process, I was still stuck with a half-empty application form. I decided to use my German phone number for the respective field, while leaving the address field blank for the time being.
I then continued with the document that required me to state my planned activities and places I intended to stay. Once again, I wasn’t sure what to fill in here. This time, I decided to be pragmatic, so I copied this example description from the document: “Based on the employment/sales contract with (Company name) in (Country), I will work remotely for XX hours per week, including meetings and document preparation.” I then listed Tokyo as my city and prefecture.
Collecting proof of income
Next, I had to gather the documents to prove my income. Since I am a full-time employee, I could just deliver my tax statement for the last year and call it a day. However, since I was laid off in December, I was fearful of running into trouble for using a document that showed me having a small gap in employment.
I decided to use the proven method of “the more paper, the better” that bureaucracy loves. I added the tax statement, my current work contract, and my last three payslips, which proved that my annual salary would exceed the 10 million yen threshold. It is worth mentioning that I submitted all documents as they were, with some in German and others in English. Please note that they only returned my work contract, so be sure to save copies of the papers you hand in.
Getting travel insurance
Finally, I had to deal with the travel insurance required for those six months. This proved to be tricky, as I didn’t feel comfortable booking a flight until I knew for certain that my visa would be approved. However, booking a trip is a common requirement before being able to apply for insurance.
In my case, I was lucky that my German public insurance company, TK, and its travel insurance subsidiary, Envivas, were willing to offer a policy with an unlimited amount of coverage for the dates I was free to specify. I was now finally ready to hand over my application.
Visiting the embassy
As soon as I had gathered all the documents possibly needed for the visa, I headed to the Japanese embassy in Berlin, which is conveniently a few bus stops away from my home. I didn’t need to book an appointment: I could just show up.
I was the only person there on a Wednesday in August, shortly before noon. A kind employee greeted me right away, immediately taking a look at the stack of papers I had just handed her. While she sifted through the papers, I asked whether she could give me an estimated timeframe for when my visa would be processed. She nervously replied that they had not issued a single digital nomad visa yet, so she wasn’t able to give me an answer!
I was unknowingly a pioneer who, barring a rejection, would probably be among the first in Germany to receive this new, mysterious document. She assured me that they would be in touch via email if they had any questions.
Waiting for the visa
Weeks passed without receiving any word from the embassy. In the meantime, I looked for an apartment in Tokyo. Unfortunately, because I would not be a resident, I could not opt for the cheaper accommodations reserved for those staying a year or longer in the country. This Reddit thread was helpful in my hunt, and I ended up booking an apartment through Hmlet.
Finally, at the beginning of October, about six weeks after sending in my application, I received an email indicating that my digital nomad visa had been approved. The joy I felt was inexpressible. I felt that my experience of truly* living in Japan would become a reality, and December couldn’t come fast enough.
Will I truly be a resident?
*Why the asterisk on truly above? While spending six months as a digital nomad in Japan will undoubtedly give anyone a much better insight into living there, I personally don’t think it is equivalent to a person moving to the country long-term.
For starters, you will be working for a company not based in the country, so you will miss out on a big part of the work culture. You’ll also be missing out on the chance to meet your coworkers and get to know new people.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you are legally not a resident. This means that you will not have a residence card and will have difficulties signing any contracts or agreements that require one. When your visa ends, you will not be able to renew your visa and continue to stay in Japan as a digital nomad.
Other preparation
I have been diligently learning Japanese since May, so I can converse at least to a limited degree with non-English speakers. I’m hoping this also shows prospective acquaintances that I’m not just a working tourist spending six months in the country, but somebody actually making an effort to integrate and perhaps settle there in the future.
Speaking of acquaintances, it’s a given that meeting people in a new city is difficult anywhere in the world. Japan is not the exception, especially given the language barrier. I plan on attending tech meetups, as networking and meeting new people go hand in hand, but finding groups with similar hobbies is also a possibility.
Because always working from home in my Tokyo apartment would also be a bit too much, even for my introverted self, I’ve decided to visit a co-working space once or twice a week. Many hold events in the evenings, too. While renowned companies like WeWork or Regus offer a wide array of locations all over Tokyo, perhaps smaller, independent spaces are more up your alley. You can also check out this TokyoDev article on coworking spaces.
Conclusion
I’m not sure if six months will be enough for me to gauge whether I can imagine myself moving to Japan. I know some people decide that they don’t need a temporary period in the country to take the leap and start applying for jobs, and I salute their courage. Nevertheless, if you are on the fence like I am, and fulfill the requirements for this visa, I hope this new way of experiencing the country will also appeal to you.
FAQs
The Ministry of Justice recently released their own FAQ, which didn’t exist when I first started researching the topic. I will address the points raised in my article as well as some additional concerns.
Note that these responses are derived from personal research or experience. For definitive guidance, it is advisable to seek advice from the appropriate authorities or engage the services of an immigration lawyer.
What are the main requirements of the Digital Nomad visa?
To qualify for the Digital Nomad visa, you must:
- be a national of an eligible country
- be insured against death, injury, or illness for an amount larger than 10 million yen or more for the length of your stay
- show an annual income of 10 million yen or more
Is the JPY 10 million income requirement gross or net?
Gross.
How can I prove that I make more than the 10 million yen threshold?
Recent tax statements and similar documents where your annual income is shown to meet the criteria should be sufficient.
If you’re a freelancer, run your own business, or have been unemployed recently, then adding pay slips, contracts, etc. may help. The more statements and proof you can provide, the higher the chance your application will be accepted.
Do I have to pay income taxes in Japan?
Since you are not a resident, you will not be taxed on your income.
What if I can’t get travel insurance without booking my flights first?
First of all, ensure that you send your application at least three months before your intended stay in Japan. If you cannot find insurance without flights, buy a ticket for your intended arrival date in Japan. Make sure that the tickets are refundable or the dates changeable, if that gives you more peace of mind.
Did you fill out all the fields in the visa application form?
I left the address field blank and used my German phone number rather than the requested Japanese one. If the embassy requires further information, they will contact you.
I don’t plan to stay in a fixed place in Japan for the duration of the six months. Do I need to fill out more fields on the “planned activities” document?
It would probably be a good idea to list other places you will visit and live in during your stay. If you are only doing short trips, though, I don’t think it should be necessary.
How long does it take to get the visa?
I received my visa in about six weeks, but you should allow at least three months after the date of submission for your visa to be processed.
How can I find housing in Japan if I will be there less than a year?
I recommend perusing this Reddit thread for ideas and resources. I personally ended up booking an apartment through Hmlet.
If I move to Japan with my spouse on the digital nomad visa, are they allowed to work?
The documentation does not make this clear. If your spouse also qualifies for the visa, I would strongly advise them to apply independently of your own process.
I did not understand the “re-entry permit” sections of the Immigration FAQ on leaving Japan, e.g. for a short trip.
I actually have an email from the Ministry of Justice: “If you need to leave Japan for a while, you need to apply for a re-entry permit at the nearest Immigration Office, since you don’t have a residence card.” This means that you need to visit a regional immigration office and follow this procedure. I sincerely hope this requirement is changed, as digital nomads will not be keen on queuing up at the immigration office every time they wish to leave the country for a short trip.
Does the Digital Nomad visa grant residency in Japan?
No, the visa does not grant residency status, and you will not receive a resident card.
Can I renew or extend my Digital Nomad visa?
No, it is not possible to renew or extend the Digital Nomad visa. You must wait six months after the initial visa’s expiration date to apply for a new one.
What other preparation do you recommend before arriving in Japan?
I recommend studying Japanese, looking into meet-ups for your hobby or profession (such as TokyoDev’s tech meetups), and finding some co-working spaces.
Who can I contact if I have other questions about the Digital Nomad visa?
You may consult the Ministry of Justice’s Foreign Residents General Information Center:
- Via phone: +81-03-5796-7112, for VoIP and callers located outside of Japan.
Available on weekdays from 8:30 am to 5:15 pm Japan time.
Please note that they receive a large volume of inquiries, so you might have to try and call them several times until you reach someone. - Via email: [email protected]
You might need to wait several days for an answer.
For more information visit their contact page.
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