Happy new year everyone! I have challenge I'm working through and wanted to seek advice from the brain trust..
Short version: how is anyone here living part time (about or <half the year) in Japan and the other half in the US?
More details: I'm US based, mid career, with a Japanese spouse and family. Inlaws are getting older and we've been thinking forever to move to Japan to be closer to them in addition to other reasons (closer to family/quality of life etc).
I've had some job offers from Japanese companies but the offers have been 20%-50% of my current pay and it's honestly a non starter. So my current thinking is to move into a US based mainly remote role that pays USD, purchase or rent a place in Japan near the family, and spend less than half the year there (as not to be a tax resident of Japan). I will definitely consult a tax professional on that part but that isn't my main focus at the moment.. I can't be the only person who is in a similar situation so I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Is anyone here doing something similar or have a better suggestion on how to accomplish this? Thanks in advance for your input!
by m79plus4
13 comments
Sounds like you could be eligible for the nomad visa. This will allow you to stay and work remotely in Japan for up to 6 months in a year. I would research and see if you can meet all the requirements.
Last time I talked about this visa, I said that you could keep getting it once per year, as long as you met the conditions. Someone else said this was incorrect, but I never found a concrete answer.
If your main concern is taxes you should probably ask over at r/Japanfinance. We’re mostly concerned with the logistics and visa issues here.
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Make sure you consider not just personal taxes, but your company’s tax liability for having an employee in Japan as well. Also consider things such as data protection, etc that could inhibit the kind of work you can do from overseas.
This is my dream scenario, hoping to get an English speaking remote job possibly from Australia
I’m on a spouse visa working remotely for an American company. I worked with them in Canada previously and then requested the move to Japan. They approved, utilizing an EOR to hire me in Japan.
I thought about the 50/50 lifestyle before too. But I couldn’t afford a place in Vancouver to begin with lol so we went with Japan 100% for now. Maybe once we save some money we’ll consider buying something in Canada to live in half of the year, likely during the Japanese summers when it’s hella hot.
I’m currently doing this via two 90 day tourist visas and staying roughly 5 months out of the year in Japan. I’m retired so I’m not eligible for the digital nomad visa. I’d double check to make sure that your current job allows you to be working outside of the states due to tax implications.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re planning on renting, it will be rather difficult getting a normal rental contract without a proper visa so you’ll likely need to get a short term rental and those are usually much pricier than market rate. I haven’t done much research into purchasing property, although it’s probably something I’ll be looking into the near future as these packing everything up with me every time I leave or come back gets a bit tiresome.
You should definitely consult with a tax professional. If I remember correctly, there is no ‘half-year’ residence rule to become a tax resident in Japan. It’s a common misconception. And any work physically performed in Japan (even remotely for the US) as a non-tourist resident is subject to Japan income tax (can’t work as a tourist though in Japan). Of course, there’s the US/Japan DTA agreement and such but it gets real complicated real fast.
I live in the US most of the time but spend 1 month in the winter and 3 months in the summer in Japan. My wife is Japanese and we bought a condo in Japan. I make a little money in Japan and got a 5-year work visa. I’m able to do this because I’m a university professor and we have summers and 1 month during winter off; and I got a visiting position at a Japanese university which doesn’t have significant responsibilities.
I’m not sure what your question is exactly, but I can say that it’s a great situation for us. Like you, my wife has family in Japan so she’s very happy. I also happen to love Japan and really enjoy being here. Then weak yen, and low cost of living, make it very doable if you are drawing a decent salary in the US, especially if you are dual career, which we are. I was honestly shocked at how inexpensively we could buy a condo in an urban center (Yokohama) compared to the US. And property taxes basically don’t exist compared to the US, which is great.
One thing I’d suggest is learning Japanese as well as you can, if you don’t speak and read it already. It will make your life in Japan easier and happier.
This is my plan for barista retirement.
From a visa standpoint, since you obviously can’t work on a tourist visa, your options are either that newer digital nomad visa or spousal visa. Though, I have no experience with either to tell you the work it takes to obtain those on a yearly basis.
More importantly, if you were to take on a fully remote US role, whether you can work remotely 6 months out of the year is something I feel would really depend on the company, its HR policies, and your relationship to your immediate team of the remote role you obtain.
To give you an idea, I work for a fully remote US company. I am fully remote, but my primary residence is in California, and it is expected that I work from my stated address (for legal and tax implications). HR has a remote working policy regarding the amount of time allowed each year that employees can work outside of their primary residence, which is about a month (nowhere near 6 months). They also have a full-on relocation policy to a location where the company has a branch, but unless there is a business need for the employee to be there, they will not sponsor the visa (i.e. personal reasons to work in Japan = no sponsorship)
In my case, the one month limit outside of the primary residence is a bit negotiable with HR in going to Japan because I’m a Japanese citizen. However, negotiating up to half the year in Japan and doing that every year I imagine may raise eyebrows because primary residence is intrinsically tied at my company to pay band (even to the level of zip codes in the US). If you have a significantly lower cost of living, there is no incentive for the company to keep paying you that US salary. This is where I feel like it’ll really depend on the company’s remote policies.
Also, you really should look at the taxation perspective. I can’t imagine being in Japan for half of your time every year magically discounts you from having to pay taxes; while you are living in Japan half the time, you are effectively using public services and existing in a society built upon them…surely you are obligated to contribute.
On top of that, there is the conversation with management. You have to build some level of trust and be performing to have the conversation. Basically, ensure in some manner that the timezone difference will not affect the work. This is of course, highly dependent on team and relationship. For example, there are organizational factors like staffing of on-call hours for engineers running production services. I know someone who luckily convinced their managers to allow them to work from Japan for their US role (they also have a spousal visa), but their direct management simply would not concede allowing them to work APAC hours, so they suffer US west coast timezone work meetings in Japan.
Answer: Yes
Get the spouse visa. If you have too many 90 day stays, the border guard will sttongly suggest to get one.