
Japan wants foreign entrepreneurs, but what's missing? - protomyth
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/25/business/japan-foreign-entrepreneurs/
======
blackearl
Does Japan _really_ want foreign entrepreneurs? It's always been very
conservative and while they may be polite to foreigners, that's very different
from allowing non-Japanese to expand a business there. I think it's ingrained
in the culture, and some of these bridges Tokyo is building might be too
little to catch up to SK or Germany.

~~~
masklinn
> Does Japan really want foreign entrepreneurs? It's always been very
> conservative

My understanding is they're also very financially conservative, I think it was
pinboard who was talking about his experience as an independent entrepreneur?

~~~
mariuolo
I also remember this guy's perspective:
[https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-
japan](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan)

~~~
masklinn
Ah yes, that's who I was thinking about, I confused patio11 and pinboard
(sorry to both).

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kristianc
Japan is a pretty good cautionary tale for Britain (and to a lesser extent to
the US) on how shutting yourself off from immigration tends to go.

Japan was expected to become the next global superpower in the 1980s, and
instead has seen closing in on three lost decades.

It’s only now trying to catch up, politically, culturally and economically.

~~~
seiko988
Yet China is a global superpower and shut off from immigration

~~~
VWWHFSfQ
china has a billion people. they don't need immigration. japan's population is
declining

~~~
seiko988
The solution to people not having enough children is to have more children,
you could enlist people from abroad to help with the effort, but you could
also try to raise the birthrate using the existing population.

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cryptozeus
In their immigration policy there is no path to permanent residency or
citizenship. With so many other options around the world, why would immigrants
move to non English speaking country with not so friendly immigration
policies?

~~~
reustle
> no path to permanent residency

[http://www.immi-
moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/eizyuu.ht...](http://www.immi-
moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/zairyuu/eizyuu.html)

> or citizenship

[https://www.justlanded.com/english/Japan/Japan-
Guide/Visas-P...](https://www.justlanded.com/english/Japan/Japan-Guide/Visas-
Permits/Japanese-citizenship)

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noja
It's a taboo subject, because the Japanese aren't very open to non-locals.

~~~
kbumsik
Have you been there lately? They are actually quite many non-local workers
these days. Not sure they are treated well though.

~~~
reflectiv
My father works for a japanese oil exploration company, and has been for about
25 years.

He just got back from a trip to give a presentation in Japan...first thing I
hear when he gets back is how badly racist the Japanese are.

I know it's just an anecdote...but it's been his experience in general over
the years.

~~~
mrkstu
That is probably enough info to ID him- you may want to edit that in case of
unintended negative repercussions for him...

~~~
reflectiv
Fair point, I've updated it.

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hindsightbias
NHK English documentaries are very up front about problems:

Death of a Dream: Vietnamese Workers in Japan
[https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4001336/](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/4001336/)

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danielscrubs
You need to know Japanese, streamlined beauty standards, you need to work
crazy hours and it looks bad if you have switched companies in the past.

Get past these problems and non-japanese start to love it. They are not as
racist as many people make them out to be, most are just extremely frustrated
that english and being chubby isn't enough to be accepted.

------
echelon
Well damn, this is _exactly_ what I wanted.

I've been studying Japanese for years (taking the JLPT again in December).

I want to start a computational filmmaking startup, and Japan has some of the
best writers and media exports the world has to offer.

I really need to stop worrying and pursue this...

~~~
magnusdeus123
You totally should.

It's been a dream of mine to go spend time in Japan since I was quite young.
The dream has morphed; I have a serious relationship now, a good career and a
place to call home that I don't want to leave permanently. But the dream lives
on and we're planning to go there for six months in a couple of years to learn
the language intensively.

Don't let your dreams stay dreams.

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timoth3y
I'm a foreigner who has started a number of companies in Japan over the past
25 years. Right now is a great time to be starting a company here.

BTW, shameless plug for my podcast:
[https://www.disruptingjapan.com/](https://www.disruptingjapan.com/)

However, the idea of trying to get someone to move to Japan to start a startup
is kind of odd. Ideally, you should be near your customers.

Japan is a wonderful place to live, but there is much more they can do to make
things attractive to Japanese entrepreneurs, which will, in turn, make it
attractive to everyone, including foreign entrepreneurs.

------
reustle
I've been dealing with setting up a corporation over the past few months and
have some quick (5am) comments on a few of these points from the article.
Hopefully this is helpful to anyone considering doing business in Japan.

> Tokyo One-Stop Business Establishment Center (TOSBEC)

This resource is great and underutilized in Tokyo in the international
business scene from my experience. I've been doing my part to recommend it far
and wide, as it is very helpful with solid English support.

> Corporate bank account

I finished setting up my corporation in Japan in April, and it is now
essentially December and I do not have a corporate bank account yet. Getting
denied many times from various banks, always being told that they cannot tell
us the reason why due to "policy". also, it can take anywhere from three to
five weeks to process your application. My accountant, lawyer, etc cannot
quite figure it out for certain. It recently came down to a few potential
factors around me not being on the business manager visa (on another work
visa), even though we've seen success doing it as that before. Banking has
been my biggest holdup thus far.

> Private office

to secure a visa from your own business, you need a private office. You must
have a private door, with your company name listed on it. there are multiple
businesses which support this around the city, but you will pay at least 600
USD per month for a shoebox office with no windows or AC control, if you want
to be in a reasonable neighborhood. There is also a semi-requirement that your
bank must be within 5 km of your headquarters, AKA your office. So if you will
be going there frequently, which you probably will be since online banking
here is practically useless, you will not want to be traveling far.

So, you will be spending 600 USD per month on an office. You will also be
spending 2,000 to 3,000 USD per year on an accountant to handle your corporate
taxes. the standard rate for setting up a corporation, is around 4,500 USD to
5,500 USD. If you can't read Japanese kanji forms, which is all you are going
to find that many banks and most government offices offer, you're going to
need to pay a translator. If you are sponsoring your own visa, you need to
deposit at least 50,000 USD into your bank account to support your visa. This
money can be used elsewhere after it has been deposited, but is still a hurdle
for some.

You are looking at a minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 USD for setting up a
corporation over your first year, assuming you follow the standard path
(excluding the 50k deposit)

I've been doing my best to document everything along the way during this
process, and it is not over yet. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you
have more questions or a curious about more details.

~~~
jacquesm
After 'working' with Canadian immigration for a couple of years to get my
status secured I gave up. Any country that doesn't value what its immigrants
bring to the table deserves to be ignored.

Given that your route seems to be full of friction why do you persist? Is
there some unique element to your business that requires you to be in Japan?

Consider me impressed. Canada was easier than what you describe and yet, I
couldn't stomach it after a couple of years of being given the run-around.

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benguild
After having done this myself, I figure that even for a Japanese native this
must be tedious without having done it at least twice before.

When we closed down our company... a native helped us submit the paperwork to
close out our local bank account with an online bank. It took SIX MONTHS of
sending the same form back and forth with corrections to finish it, haha.

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opportune
I think I remember writing about this before, but it's also unclear what
comparative advantages a startup in Japan offers you outside of two things:
easy access to the Japanese market if you think their consumers/businesses
will be the largest market for your product, and world-leading expertise in
robotics (and some other things). I guess you can also live in some huge, nice
cities without absurd cost of living too. Not sure if those are worth all the
operational and cultural difficulties for most people, relative to other
places.

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akvashi
Work culture for me honestly

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jhanschoo
Regarding the out-of-print book mentioned, Making Common Sense of Japan,
there's a scanned pdf of it on Library Genesis.

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ctocoder
It is missing acceptance.

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notrealpersonq
Let them release my man Carlos Ghosn first.

~~~
magduf
This is a fair point. Carlos seemed like he did some really questionable
things as head of Nissan, but it all seemed to be things that should have only
been pursued in a civil case, not criminal. Instead, it seems like Nissan has
used Japan's criminal justice system to punish him, and in quite a harsh way
too. The guy is most likely guilty of some things, but the punishment he's
experienced has been really out of proportion, and that's not going to be
attractive to others who might look at Japan as a place to start a business or
get involved in corporate politics.

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incahoots
Like others have stated, the Japanese are very much xenophobic to outsiders.
The idea of bringing a business to Japan seems unique but you aren't going to
get any community support like you would in western countries.

Personally I view Japan has a oddity. A first world country that short of some
tech and Toyota/Honda produce little to nothing for trade. Everything is
imported which could land you into the red if the powers at be stop playing
nice in trading with Japan.

~~~
hikarudo
> A first world country that short of some tech and Toyota/Honda produce
> little to nothing for trade. Everything is imported

Japan does not export "some tech and Toyota/Honda". It exports a LOTS of
vehicles, vehicle parts, integrated circuits, machines, etc. Japan is the 4th
largest exporter in the world.

Also, a country that doesn't export much cannot import much, or else how could
the country afford it?

edit: typo

~~~
carapace
Not mention Japan's massive cultural exports, e.g. Godzilla, Nintendo, anime,
samurai and ninjas, you could go on and on.

~~~
echelon
If you look at the list of most valuable media franchises, Japan is king.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-
grossing_med...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-
grossing_media_franchises)

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-
grossing_vid...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-
grossing_video_game_franchises)

