[shiroiushi]

>Since they don't give you a residence card

They don't? Then what use is the visa? You cannot live here without a residence card. As a non-citizen, you're actually legally required to carry your residence card with you whenever you're in public, and present it to a police officer upon request.

Something doesn't seem right here.

Edit: apparently you can live here, without a residence card, in a temporary apartment, for up to 6 months with this visa. Just be sure to carry your passport everywhere you go.

[tjpnz]

Technically you would be expected to bring your passport everywhere you go.

[shiroiushi]

That's for foreign tourists who have a visa stamp in their passport. So I guess for these digital nomads, that would work too, as long as they don't overstay whatever date is on that visa.

It's not going to help them find a place to live though: they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here.

[lIl-IIIl]

The author was able to get an apartment and shared the website and the reddit thread be used to find it.

[shiroiushi]

I see now. Looking at the site, those kinds of apartments are called "monthly mansions"; I stayed in one when I first came here before I could find a real apartment. These places are very small, and furnished, so perfect for someone only staying 3 or 6 months. But they're quite expensive for what you get. But if you're only staying 6 months, it's perfect.

[Klonoar]

> they'll be stuck in hotels the entire time they're here.

Eh, Tokyo has plenty of monthly apartment rentals that are effectively corporate rentals that you can do without a residence card.

(I used to do this before having an actual visa there)

It's functionally better than a hotel, insofar as it doesn't read or act as one.

[flemhans]

Rented a flat in Tokyo for a month too as a tourist. But it wasn't cheap. Around $1500/month, in 2011. But it was 3 rooms, and very nice. So maybe not so bad, actually? But then again, it was many years ago.

[digging]

I feel like everyone is missing "in 2011".

[Klonoar]

For whatever reason, people in our generation seem completely unaware of how often they cite things from 15-20 years ago.

I've taken to pointing out that it's like if someone in the 90s used advice from the 70s. For whatever reason, it tends to put things in perspective timeframe-wise.

[weberer]

Yeah, that's $2,102.58 in 2024 dollars due to a 40.2% cumulative rate of inflation since then according to usinflationcalculator.com

[Foobar8568]

3 rooms, in Tokyo, for a month, is bloody cheap unless I miss something.

[MichaelZuo]

Pretty much all non-luxury housing in Tokyo is built to a much lower standard than equivalent housing built in say Canada or the US in the same time period.

Much thinner wall insulation, single glazed windows (until recently), much smaller elevators in high rises, etc…

So on a quality and square footage adjusted basis it’s still quite expensive.

[Twisol]

My studio apartment in California is $1500/month. At the same price, I would be in a 3-room Tokyo flat yesterday!

[thaumasiotes]

I just left an apartment in Shanghai that was two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen for $700 / month. I was advised that prices have come down over the last year, so that if I was planning to renew my lease I should negotiate a lower price.

[fragmede]

And that's on the cheaper end of California!

[soperj]

Studio in BC for over $2500 a month.

[dragonwriter]

Well, yeah, I bet that studio was substantially cheaper in 2011, though, which was the date on the Tokyo apartment.

[CPLX]

That is comically cheap.

[shiroiushi]

True, and it generally has better amenities than a hotel too: a kitchen (though tiny), fridge, microwave, stove (no oven though), clothes washer, maybe a vacuum, etc. Also importantly, a mailbox, so you can receive deliveries (and in newer places, there's an automated delivery box system).

[themaninthedark]

They have ovens...just super tiny and meant for fish only https://www.yamada-denkiweb.com/category/202/006/001/

[shiroiushi]

Those are "grills". If you want to bake stuff, you can get real ovens, but they're fairly small, and not built into the apartment, and usually combined with a microwave oven. Any decent appliance store sells them for around 30,000 yen. You're not going to cook a turkey in it, but if you want to bake a small cake it's perfect.

[tayo42]

> stove (no oven though)

Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought that was typical for Japanese homes?

[shiroiushi]

Yes, unlike Americans who apparently absolutely need to bake a whole turkey on a regular basis, Japanese don't normally bake stuff at home, so Japanese homes (at least in the big cities) don't normally come with built-in ovens. There's no space in Tokyo apartments for the comically-large ovens that are common in America, and the cuisine people make here doesn't normally need one, just a stovetop. For baked goods, people usually just buy them at the grocery store or bakery or other specialty shop.

[csomar]

Tip: a photo of your passport and the stamp will most likely do in most circumstances. Much better than risking taking your passport with you all the time.

[Pooge]

Bad advice. Photos are not accepted and police will expect you to carry your passport at all times, just as you're supposed to carry your residence card at all times if you have one.

[csomar]

Not sure why people want to stick to a rule that could get them in real trouble. I am speaking from real experience. The police is very unlikely to want to arrest/take you to the station for not having your passport. On the other hand, if you do lose your passport and you have a slow/far embassy then you are in real trouble.

[makeitdouble]

The police will stop you for any random reason, including walking alone in the street at an unusual hour or just to check your bike.

From there, if you have nothing to officially prove your identity you might totally spend a while at the station, and potentially have them kindly escort you to your home so they get a look while you're looking for your passport.

All of this is just mild inconvenience, except it will happen a lot more frequently than losing one's passport.

PS: For the real trouble relative to passports, an embassy can reemit an emergency passport within a day, and you can probably reemit the visa at an immigration branch. It's not fun for sure, but I'm not sure it's real troubles.

[csomar]

> The police will stop you for any random reason, including walking alone in the street at an unusual hour or just to check your bike.

Parent was talking about Japan not the US. In most of the world, the police will leave you alone unless they have to intervene. In Japan, they’ll probably want to really help you and not add an arrest to their record.

> From there, if you have nothing to officially prove your identity you might totally spend a while at the station, and potentially have them kindly escort you to your home so they get a look while you're looking for your passport

Again, highly an American perspective where the police is fishing for arrest reasons. The rest of the world doesn’t allocate much resources to the police so they bus around people without very exigent reasons.

[quacksilver]

I carry a locally notarized photocopy of my passport in a similar country. I am not sure if it is fully legal, but people tend to do that here in practice, particularly when the government office needs your passport for processing.

The court was willing to stamp and sign that I have that passport and it matches me, so it is probably good enough for most police if I offer to show them the original at home.

[dagw]

I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead.

That being said having a photo of your passport and relevant stamps is good advice, but only to make it slightly easier to deal with all the hassel that comes if you do lose your passport.

[CuriousCosmic]

In most countries you can get what is called a notarized or certified "true copy" of identifying documents (passports being one of them). The intent is for you to submit them with applications so you don't have to submit the original copy. Now how you get a true copy depends on the country. Canadian passports for example can only have true copies made by their embassy or immigrations offices.

Note that this doesn't include your passport stamp pages but Japan hasn't issued passport stamps for several years now and they just look up your passport in a registry instead. So for that purpose, a true copy should be effectively the same thing.

That's where it comes down to what is essentially a technicality but given they carry an embossed seal and signature with the words "TRUE COPY" on them, they look very official and officials are very rarely going to push back on it even if whether they are to be treated as a full substitute for a passport (for identification purposes) is technically a grey area.

[toomuchtodo]

I loved the QR code passport stamps Japan previously used. Are those no more?

[CuriousCosmic]

I don't think so. My passport is somewhere around the house so I can't just grab it to check but last time I came in they just put it on a scanner and took a photograph of me when I went through immigration.

[csomar]

> I cannot think of any circumstances where someone would be demanding to see your passport and then accept a photo of your passport instead.

Unless you are involved with a particular interaction, they just want to check your visa status. A passport photo/stamp will do if their system is digitized. Arresting someone (except for the US where the police likes to arrest people) is a major hassle.

[tumult]

I am a resident of Japan. This is extremely bad advice. Do not follow this advice.

To csomar: you are willingly spreading harmful advice. Stop it. Stop making people reply to clean up your mess.