This week my guest didn’t want to be named, because he’ll be talking about how much of a mess the new entrepreneur visa in Japan is. I was shocked to hear this stuff!

We will talk about:

How a 15-minute online form in other countries becomes a 2-month process with tons of pointless steps.
How and possible reasons why the information is really disorganised, and often only in Japanese (when this is a visa for foreign entrepreneurs to bring their business to Japan).
Different organisations in Japan all involved in the process of applying for the visa don’t talk to each other and don’t know whose responsibility different parts of the process are.
The people involved in checking your progress aren’t entrepreneurs and don’t support you, and just seem to want to check boxes rather than see your business succeed in Japan.
If you don’t have a strong commitment to starting a business in Japan, like family or a strong desire to be here, then there are other places that are better for starting a business, and the entrepreneur visa isn’t helping to change that very much.

Here’s where you can find some more information about getting a consultation from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website. Thanks to a member of the community for a website with a basic outline of the entrepreneur visa process here, and you can go to TOSBEC to get information on paper and through consultations.