I want to live and/or work in Japan! Do I need to be legally Japanese?
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| Japanese Alien Registration Card |
As this is New Year, I figured I'd start off by answering very simple, yet still good and often asked questions.
Do you need to be legally Japanese — as in "have Japanese citizenship?" No. That's way, way down the road and something you do after having lived in Japan for a very long time and you want to be here forever. It's not even necessary for living in Japan forever if you do want the rights or responsibilities it has or you don't qualify.
But you do need to be legal to live and work in Japan.
For almost everybody but a few special cases that are beyond the scope of this blog/site, this means working or living either full or just part time or temporarily on a fixed length contract as a legal visitor/tourist on one or more fifteen (15) day or ninety (90) day (depending on the country) "temporary landing permit" status(es) — which is the stamp you get in your passport if you come to Japan with a return ticket and without applying for a Certificate of Eligibility in advance — is illegal.
Admittedly, some people do it. But it's a big no-no, so if you're caught, be prepared to accept the consequences.
Also, just because you're permitted to live in Japan as a resident doesn't mean you're necessarily permitted to work (either part time or full time) in Japan. In particular, this means spouses who have accompanied their legally working partner and students at universities, technical schools, and language schools. It is possible to get exemptions and permission for work on the side as a spouse or student. But you must get official government permission in advance, even if you think it's just under the table pocket money.
Business people do not need to be concerned. It's perfectly okay to come to Japan to do meetings, training, meet clients, and even stay and work from your Japanese subsidiary temporarily. As long as you're not on the payroll of a Japanese company or earning money in Japan that it intended directly for you as salary and not your company and you don't overstay the length of your landing permit, you're fine.
There are many ways to qualify for permission to work in Japan, and the finer details of immigration to Japan are beyond the scope of this blog/site. However, in general, for young people that have no family connection (be it spouse, children, or parents) to Japan, you basically need to be considered a "skilled worker" in a field. For young adults, this usually means a four year higher education degree (there are exceptions, but they are rare). For older adults, it means the same thing or many years in your career proving you're a proven professional. Furthermore, the work you can do is restricted. For instance, if your 在留資格 (residency status) is 技術 (engineering), you're supposed to work in the field of engineering in Japan.
Some countries (not the United States) do have a "working holiday" program with Japan for youths that allow non-skilled part or full time (i.e. bartender) labor for a brief period.
Finally, there are many other ways to come to Japan of course (ranging from being a transfer from a global international company, starting a business as an entrepreneur, to being a journalist, diplomat, or missionary, etc), but we'll just cover the case that 90% of non-Japanese fall into for the sake of this simple FAQ blog post.
So if you're interested in coming to work and live in Japan, welcome! Most of this blog won't (and maybe will never) be of need to you for many years, so you'll probably want to consult other blogs for more details regarding starting off in Japan. All of us, however, started this way (we all first immigrated at one time years ago), so perhaps some day this blog will be of service to you in the future.
Good luck and Happy New Year!
