Can I legally do freelance (remote IT) work while on a 技術・人文知識・国際業務 visa and full-time job in Japan?

5 comments

1. Is the remote IT work for Japanese clients within Japan? If so then yes.

2. 1) Yes

   2) Not from a legal standpoint, but they may be able to piece it together for the reason below.

   3) That’s only for national income tax. Technically you still are supposed to report any amount under that threshold through a residential tax return, though few do this.

   It doesn’t interfere with the year-end adjustment- you just submit your final return after. But, if your employer is doing special collection (e.g your residence taxes are deducted from directly), they will see that you have some kind of income outside of them. They won’t necessarily be able to determine its source (or care), but there’s no way to avoid this unless you are on general collection, and generally employers are required to perform special collection when possible.

   4) In the past, Immigraiton did make me submit a permission application for a job within the same field but different kind of work but they weren’t particulalry bothered about me not doing that until renewal time. If you really want to make sure the job you want is covered, you can submit an application for a certificate of authorized employment.

3. 1) yes, but first apply for immigration because it is work which is not assigned as your main work on the visa

   2)You need to inform your employer. Because each company has different rules. Even if your company allows 副業, you need to first let your main company know with whom you are working (for example if you are working with a 反社会的company then that’s a problem) and for how many hours.

   3)you need to file taxes for even 1 yen. 確定申告 is for anything you earned as a business profit.

   4) i have.

4. > From what I understand, as long as it’s within the same “permitted scope” as my visa and I maintain my main job, I don’t need a “Permission to Engage in Activity Other Than That Permitted” (資格外活動許可). Is this correct?

   Yes.

   > My company does not explicitly prohibit side work (副業), and I don’t plan to work for any competing firms. So unless there are tax implications (see below), I would prefer not to disclose it.

   You don’t need to disclose it in general. If your company has a rule requiring you to then that *may* be enforceable at least in theory.

   > Does it interfere with 年末調整 from my main job?

   It effectively overwrites your 年末調整. You may need to re-enter the same information.

   > How do I make sure the city tax (住民税) for my freelance income doesn’t get reported back to my employer? I’ve heard this can happen unless I choose 普通徴収 when filing?

   Indeed, so choose that.

5. While a lot of people are just answering ‘yes’ for your first question, there is more nuance than that. Under your current visa, immigration can be very strict with their interpretation. Basically, in order for you to get any side work without permission, it would need to be the exact job description you currently do, not just something that is related to IT. (Before I get downvoted, as an example from the government website, if you’re a translator whose job is to translate from Japanese to English, you’d need permission to translate from Japanese to French, even though both jobs are translation work. Feel free to look it up if you don’t believe me.)

   For your other question related to taxes, if you earn over ¥200,000 you can file a supplemental tax form yourself during the correct period even after doing a 年末調整 and your work won’t know you’d done the side job. Obviously, your place of employment will eventually find out you are doing this in the following year when they take care of the next 年末調整 and they need to see your total earning for the year before.

   My advice is to play this straight and be open about it with both immigration and your current employer.