Yugawara on a Digital Nomad visa

Residence cards go to mid- to long-term residents. The Immigration Services Agency's answer is that a digital-nomad stay is not mid- to long-term residence under the law, so no card is issued. The six months are not extended. The status itself is on the designated-activities page.

The Ministry of Justice explains landing examination for foreign nationals: the lines, the passport and the stamp. MOJchannel, 30 April 2020, 4 minutes 42 seconds. It is the airport step, not the digital-nomad application.

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You can stay in several towns. The same answer says no special procedure is required to do that, so a move from Yugawara to Odawara, or into Tokyo for a week, is not a separate immigration filing.

You can leave Japan and come back on the same status if you return before the six months run out. The answer says you leave on a re-entry permission or a special re-entry permission, in the same way a mid- to long-term resident would, and the status continues when you are back before the expiry date.

Working-holiday participants have a different rule. They visit the municipal office and notify their address within 14 days of settling. The digital-nomad questions do not set that step.

The status requires private medical insurance that covers death, injury and illness while you are here, with treatment cover of at least ¥10 million. The policy period has to match the stay. A spouse or child needs the same cover, and it can be the family cover on your policy when the papers show the scope.

The immigration questions, as of July 2024, say that pay for the work you do in Japan can be exempt under the tax treaty. In most treaties that includes staying in Japan for 183 days or less during the tax year, or during any consecutive 12 months. The text differs by treaty. The exemption does not apply if the days go past what that treaty allows, if an employer who is a resident of Japan pays the salary, or if your country has no tax treaty with Japan. The worker's chart is the shorter one because the treaty is already part of who can apply.

On the counting, the National Tax Agency's published view is that the days are physical days in Japan, and that both the day you arrive and the day you leave are included. A worked example under the Japan-UK treaty shows a second visit pushing a 12-month window past 183 days, and the earlier pay then coming into tax as well. The treaty list is the Ministry of Finance page the immigration PDF links.

A Wi-Fi or Bluetooth device you bring needs to meet Japan's technical standards and carry the Technical Conformity Mark (技術基準適合マーク) if you want to use it the whole time. A device without that mark can be used for 90 days after you enter, when it meets the Japanese standards and an international one, shown by a Wi-Fi logo or a Bluetooth logo. Past 90 days, use a device that has the mark. A laptop without the mark can still be used past 90 days if it does not emit radio waves itself, for example when it is wired to a rental Wi-Fi unit that does have the mark. The questions point to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for the rest.

Yugawara's moving grant does not accept this status. For a foreign resident the town asks for permanent resident, spouse of a Japanese national, spouse of a permanent resident, long-term resident, or special permanent resident. Designated activities for a digital nomad is none of those. The rule is on the town site.

The moving grant

The 23-ward rule, the amounts, and the repayment.

The six months are a booking, not a resident's lease. Makuyama House, by the Niizawa River (新沢) in Kajiya, takes a month or more from ¥3,000 a person a night. Shiroyamakan is the detached house in front of the station, and the Yugawara Share House is up the hill. The nomad-stays page has the three of them.

The desks are the same ones the town already uses. Yugawara Cafe is a minute from the station, Ekimae no Ibasho (駅前の居場所) is the free room beside it, and Genkan Terrace (玄関テラス) sits in Manyo Park. The library is there for a quiet day. Places to work has the hours. Yugawara on the Japan National Tourism Organization site is the town these rooms are in.

Where to stay as a nomad

Makuyama House, Shiroyamakan, the share house.

Places to work from

The café, the free desk, the park and the library.

An example Tuesday

A day built from those rooms and desks.