Trend of foreigners leaving Japan may “accelerate” under tighter visa rules

Ray Hoe, a Singaporean entrepreneur, has been compelled to depart from Japan after his application to renew his business manager visa was unexpectedly denied. The decision came after significant and sudden alterations to the visa requirements, which left him unable to meet the new criteria, including a substantial capital requirement.

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I never thought what is happening right now.

Hoe had initially chosen Toyama, a city in central Japan, to establish a hotel business, aiming to attract tourists and contribute to Japan's goal of reaching 60 million visitors by 2030. He was drawn to smaller cities, seeking to showcase a different side of Japan beyond the typical tourist hotspots. His prior success in the apparel business was initially leveraged to meet immigration officers' advice, but the subsequent visa changes made his plans untenable.

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You are the blasting master of the firewall!

"As a business owner, I realised I don’t need 30 million yen (S$240,000) to do apparel. It’s throwing money down the drain," Hoe stated, highlighting the financial burden imposed by the new regulations. He found himself in a race against time to secure a hotel license for a ryokan he purchased, but faced a Catch-22 situation: banks required a hotel license to open a corporate account, yet revenue from the hotel business was needed to justify the license renewal.

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As a business owner, I realised I don’t need 30 million yen (S$240,000) to do apparel. It’s throwing money down the drain.

Navigating the complex application process without fluent Japanese, Hoe relied on a local team and consultants. Despite obtaining the hotel license in mid-June, just before his visa renewal appointment in May, immigration authorities denied his application, citing a lack of revenue from the hotel business. "I felt it was so unfair," Hoe lamented, believing the abrupt policy shifts have negatively impacted Japan's appeal to foreign investors. "I really don’t think (the changes) have been well thought through," he concluded, suggesting the new rules could "hurt Japan in the sense of making it an attractive place for foreigners to set up businesses."

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I felt it was so unfair.