Working for yourself and your visa status
Whether your residence status allows self-employment, and what the Business Manager visa requires.
Whether you can freelance or run a company depends on your residence status: permanent residents and some family/spouse statuses have broad freedom, work visas are tied to activities, and running a company usually points to the Business Manager status — check before you start.
Key points
- Residence status, not desire, decides whether self-employment is allowed.
- Permanent resident and certain spouse/family statuses allow broad self-employment.
- Activity-based work visas may not cover independent business without a change.
- Running a company typically requires the Business Manager status and its conditions.
Can your status support self-employment?
Immigration status sets the outer limit of what you may do for money. Permanent residents, and holders of statuses like spouse of a Japanese national or long-term resident, generally have broad freedom to freelance or start a business. Activity-based work visas (for example engineer/specialist-in-humanities) authorize specific employment, and independent freelancing or running your own company may fall outside them without a status change or permission. Students and dependents work only within their permitted-activity limits. The safe move is to confirm your specific status before you invoice anyone.
This is separate from tax registration: filing an opening notification with the tax office does not grant immigration permission, and vice versa. Both have to line up.
The Business Manager route
If you intend to run a company in Japan, the Business Manager (経営・管理) status is the usual path. It expects a genuine business: a physical office, a substantive business plan, and a capital or scale requirement that has historically centered on the order of several million yen (with rules under review and periodically tightened). It is granted for managing a real enterprise, not as a shortcut to residence, and renewals look at whether the business is actually operating.
Because the criteria are detailed, changing, and consequential, this is an area to get right with professionals — an immigration lawyer (行政書士/弁護士) for the status and a tax accountant for the company. Treat online summaries, including this one, as orientation only, and confirm current requirements with the Immigration Services Agency before committing money or time.
Who this is for
- Foreign residents considering self-employment
- Founders exploring the Business Manager status
What this is not
- Individual immigration eligibility determinations
- Visa application walkthroughs
- Immigration rules are individual and changing — confirm your status and any Business Manager requirements with the Immigration Services Agency or a qualified professional.
Frequently asked questions
Can I freelance or run a company in Japan on my visa?
It depends on your residence status. Permanent residents and certain spouse/long-term statuses generally allow broad self-employment; activity-based work visas authorize specific employment and may not cover independent freelancing or running your own company without a change or permission; students and dependents work only within their permitted-activity limits. Running a company usually points to the Business Manager (経営・管理) status, which expects a real office, a business plan, and a capital/scale requirement that is under review. Filing a tax opening notification does not grant immigration permission — confirm your status with the Immigration Services Agency or a qualified professional first.
When should a freelancer incorporate a company in Japan?
There is no single magic number; incorporate when stable, higher profit makes the corporate-tax advantage outweigh the added fixed costs, and usually when a non-tax reason also applies — hiring, raising money, bigger contracts, consumption-tax timing, or clients that will only bill a company. A company adds incorporation fees, annual local taxes even in a loss year, mandatory employees’ social insurance, more complex accounting, and typically a tax accountant. Model your own tax and social-insurance outcome as a proprietor versus a company with a 税理士 before deciding.