[bamboozled]

I had a friend who was looking to move to Japan and abuse this visa. The business was only there to get the visa with no intention of operating it.

So this invalidates what ? I know many foreign people Who moved to Japan, work harder than many Japanese I know and run great businesses but it was only possible due to the low initial outlay for the visa.

If your friend came here he still had to pay taxes, present income statements and pay pension , if he didn’t his visa would be revoked. The new rule is to appease the xenophobes at voting time. It’s as simple as that. What will happen ? Rich people who will actually come here an abuse the system will be the ones they get to stay… this is country with a rapidly depreciating population and currency valuation remember…

A smarter solution is to evaluate the visa application. based on the intentions of the person wanting to start she business. Not locking out large swathes of people.

[aurareturn]

If the US lowers investment visa to $30k, I’m sure many comers will work very hard.

So why doesn’t the US do it? Why doesn’t every country give you a visa for $30k business investment?

Japanese people are saying they no longer want mass low quality immigrants. They want fewer, higher quality ones. Nothing wrong with that. All their recent immigration policies point to toward this theme. It’s their country. Let them do what they want without calling them xenophobes.

[bamboozled]

My comment was about the increasingly high bar for entrepreneurs / protectionism. Immigration will happen regardless of the cost of a business visa...

What is a "low quality immigrant" and why do you think immigrants with money are "high quality immigrants? Because the most damage I've seen done to Japan and the culture is rich people from Singapore, China and Taiwan buying up large swathes of property and then keeping them vacant while driving up property prices and locking out locals. The high price of a business visa will ensure this trend accelerates as more and more actual well intentioned foreigners are locked out of opportunities. Basically if you're a hedge fund, you have the ability to setup shell companies and rape the place.

Anyway, there is still mass migration happening, and it will continue to happen as the population ages they need more workers, it's everywhere now, airports, combinis etc, that has nothing to do with the "business visa". Most actual poor people were never planning to come here to start a business anyway, they were coming here to do slightly less shitty jobs than they were doing in their home countries.