Hello, I hope this post has found its rightful place, and as the title suggests I'll be relaying to you my personal experience of moving to japan using the J-Find visa.
On the surface, this visa appears to make things very easy to move to japan especially as a young person. And in some aspects, it really does. The J-Find visa is a relatively new visa which allows 1 year, renewable until 2 years, of residence in Japan. This allows lots of time for someone to move to japan, and move unto a more long-term visa such as the work visa. To be eligible, one must have graduated a global top 100 university within the last 5 years.
Firstly, Japan is strange when it comes to visa applications. Typically, someone in japan needs to apply for a certificate of eligibility on your behalf, which can be regarded as your right to apply for a visa. The J-Find visa on the other hand, does not have this requirement, and i was able to apply directly for this visa without a COE while in South Korea through a visa agency, as the embassy there does not deal directly with applicants.
Once you have your visa, you have around 3 months to enter japan, where you will be given a residence card at the immigration desk upon arrival. Be sure to fill in both the visit japan website for a customs QR, but also the physical arrival card, as immigration officers did not accept my customs QR code, perhaps because i was immigrating and not simply visiting.
For most official things like obtaining your residency certificate, registering your inkan, and applying for health insurance, all can be done on the same day at your local city hall.
Now for the caveats. The J-Find visa gets you through the door, but actually doesn't provide you any special or exempt status for anything else in Japan. It allows graduates to move to Japan primarily for job-seeking or setting up a business, but once you arrive you will face the following difficulties.
Firstly, you may have heard that it is difficult as a foreigner to find an apartment in Japan, namely Tokyo. It may be more difficult to find one that will let you apply from overseas, and now even more difficult when you want to immigrate to japan without a job or income. The J-Find visa requires only around 2000 eur in your bank account when applying, but real estate management companies reasonably are not interested in offering apartments to unemployed people. I was able to get lucky in this regard, using a statement of remittance from an overseas family member and help from a friendly real-estate agent to find an apartment. The vast majority that we applied to, quickly denied us for this reason if not for being overseas.
Secondly, at least some phone companies will tell you to have a bank account first before you can have a phone number, at least this was the case at AU Style in Shibuya-Square. I however was able to get an eSIM with a japanese number online from GoJapan, which signed me up for NTT Docomo. The problem with the former case, and which is my major issue right now, is that all banks in japan with exception of Japan Post Bank, requires you either to have a job at a company with an office in Tokyo, or to have lived in Japan for 6 months already. As a J-Find user, you are only left with one choice.
Finally, you may need your bank account quickly for signing your rental contract or other official business, but Japan Post Bank gives you 2 choices. Either you set an appointment typically 2 weeks in advance, or you apply online and wait 2 weeks for approval. You also won't be able to check the status of your application until your bank card arrives in the mail 2 weeks later.
TLDR; The J-Find visa allows for young graduates to emigrate to Japan quite easily, but without an income, you may struggle to find an apartment rental, open a bank account, and possibly obtain a japanese phone number.
by i_caught_the_bomber