How Difficult Is It to Obtain a Business Manager Visa?

I want to start a business in Japan; I want to take on the challenge of running a company in Japan!
But there probably aren’t many people who immediately know what exactly is needed to do that.

In fact, what you need in this case is a residence status called the “Business Manager visa.”

The “Business Manager visa” is probably not a name you hear very often.

So what kind of visa is the “Business Manager visa” in the first place? And is it a visa you can obtain easily?

In this article, you can learn about the following points.

What is the Business Manager visa?

(1) What is this visa for, and what kind of visa is it?

The Business Manager visa is a residence status created to allow foreign nationals to carry out the management and administration of a business.

The activities it covers are “activities of operating a business” or “activities of engaging in the management of a business.”

But even when told that, it may sound difficult and not quite click. So below, we explain it more concretely using a model case.

(2) A model case

You are from China and now live in Japan. And you work as a Chinese cuisine chef at a restaurant in Japan, serving as head chef and managing several dozen cooks under you. Incidentally, in this case, let’s say the visa you hold is what is called a Skilled Labor visa. The authentic Chinese cuisine made by the team you lead has an excellent reputation with customers, and the number of customers keeps growing. And so, rather than being an employed head chef, you have come to want to open your own new restaurant and move over to the side that runs the place.

You have several friends who are veteran cooks, and when you sounded them out, it seems they would be willing to be hired by you and work for you. What’s more, when you looked online, it seems there are various vacant properties with a nice atmosphere for opening a Chinese restaurant. You’re thinking how nice it would be if, in the near future, you could begin a second life as a restaurant owner.

But hold on a moment. There is one thing you’re forgetting. It’s the visa. You may want to say, “As for a visa, I already have a Skilled Labor visa. I do have a proper visa.” However, you cannot run a restaurant on a Skilled Labor visa; the Business Manager visa described above is required.

(3) A bonus: are businesses other than restaurants no good?

a. A model case

Having read this far, you have probably formed a rough image of the Business Manager visa. But the example given just now was running a Chinese restaurant, so does the Business Manager visa not cover other businesses?

Suppose you run a spice shop in India. Whether it’s curry or chai, the decisive factor is, without question, the spices. If you don’t have the spices you need, the flavor ends up lacking. And it’s not as if any quality of spice will do. Yet in Japan, there aren’t many people who are particular about spices, and you want more people to know Indian spices and to taste them.

On top of that, you have many business contacts in India, and it seems they would send their very best spices to Japan. And so, your dream is to create and run a trading company in Japan to import authentic Indian spices. Would a case like this also be covered by the Business Manager visa?

b. The businesses the Business Manager visa covers

In fact, the activities recognized as covered by the Business Manager visa are not limited to running a Chinese restaurant — anything is OK.

Of course, work that is illegal in Japan is excluded. For example, a narcotics business or a prostitution business is not permitted. But as long as it is lawful in Japan, there are no restrictions on the industry or business format of the activities covered by the Business Manager visa.

Which means it looks like the Business Manager visa could make your dream of importing spices from India come true.

The difficulty of obtaining a Business Manager visa

(1) It isn’t easy

There are 29 types of residence status for entering and staying in Japan. Among them, obtaining a Business Manager visa is said to be very difficult.

Did you just think, “What, it’s difficult? Then maybe I should give up…”? But that would be a waste.
You’ll see why right away.

(2) The qualities for getting a Business Manager visa

Why is it that they won’t let you obtain a Business Manager visa easily in the first place? The reason is said to be that there are many people who try to obtain the visa improperly. Specifically, cases where someone has absolutely no intention of actually running a company in Japan, yet improperly obtains a Business Manager visa by creating what is known as a paper company. Because that is not acceptable, they don’t let you obtain a Business Manager visa all that easily.

That being so, we now know that you don’t need to give up on obtaining a Business Manager visa so easily. Because everyone reading this article surely intends to do proper business. You’re not creating a paper company to do something dishonest. In that case, you are fully qualified to receive a Business Manager visa. And that’s exactly why you absolutely want to get that Business Manager visa, right! Our office (Gyoseishoshi Corporation TOUCH) also believes in your potential and will support you with everything we have!

How difficult is it to get a Business Manager visa?

(1) A rough measure of the difficulty

The Immigration Services Agency does not publish concrete data on approval rates for the Business Manager visa. Therefore, we have to say that the exact approval/denial rate is unknown.
That said, you can find accounts of professionals’ experience on the internet. Specifically, there is one saying, “In conversation with an examiner at the Immigration Services Agency, I heard that the approval rate is lower than for other visas.” As a more concrete measure, there is also an opinion that, compared with ordinary work visas, the approval rate for the Business Manager visa may be less than half of that.
So while the exact figures are not clear, you can imagine a situation in which denials of Business Manager visa applications occur frequently.

(2) In what sense is it difficult?

a. The hurdle for applying is extremely high

To apply for most visas, including the Business Manager visa, a certain level of education or work history is required. Among them, Business Manager is the visa with the highest requirements.

For example, when a foreign national who intends to work in Japan applies for a work visa (Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services), the required education is “having graduated from a university, or having received education equivalent to or above that.” With the Business Manager visa, on the other hand, simply being a university graduate is not enough. You need to obtain a master’s degree or higher at graduate school in a field relating to business management or to the field you will manage. Without that degree, three or more years of experience running a company, or having served in a senior management position at a company, is required.

And simply meeting the background requirements is not enough. The scale of the company you will run in Japan is also required. Unless you prepare capital of 30 million yen, you cannot obtain a Business Manager visa. Companies with capital of 30 million yen account for a mere 9% of all companies in Japan, and employing a full-time member of staff is also extremely difficult for a foreign national’s brand-new company.

b. The checks on other parts are strict too

So the entrance is narrow to begin with, but a fairly strict examination also awaits after you apply. What’s more, the process up to obtaining the visa is not simple, and it takes several months.
In these senses, it is fair to say that obtaining a Business Manager visa is not easy.

When told that, some people may feel like giving up.
It wouldn’t be surprising if someone thought, “I don’t really know whether it will work out, and I don’t want to spend time and energy on something with a low chance of success.”

But it’s all right. Because obtaining a Business Manager visa is by no means like a lottery — it is possible to raise the approval rate at least somewhat by taking measures in advance.
As a first step toward that, let’s start by learning exactly which areas are checked strictly. We explain this concretely below.

c. What points are checked?

Naturally, if you do not meet the requirements for the visa to be approved, it will be denied.
A point that is commonly pointed out is the office. A common wish is to use the home you currently own as the company’s office.
Among those reading this article, some may have been thinking of doing just that. In fact, in that case, it will absolutely be denied.

In this way, what many people assume — “This is obviously fine. This is what I want to do.” — turns out to be an unexpected pitfall, and the result is a denial.
Pitfalls like this have an aspect where, unless someone tells you, they’re quite hard to notice on your own.

There are many others, but let us introduce just one more important point that affects the approval rate. It is the business plan.
What many people think is, again, “As long as I’ve properly prepared to open the business, I must surely get the Business Manager visa. I even established the company properly, so it should be fine.”
Are you, reading this article, holding that kind of expectation too? Unfortunately, you won’t get a Business Manager visa just by preparing to open a business.

One of the further things you need is a “business plan.” A business plan is, simply put, the vision of the business you intend to do. You are about to run a company or the like in Japan — so what do your plans going forward look like? Immigration will not be satisfied with an explanation like, “I’ll play it by ear. It’ll work out somehow. Tomorrow is another day.”

Certainly, in doing business, there will be times when unexpected opportunities suddenly come your way or the state of the world changes abruptly, leading to developments you never imagined. In that sense, the view that “I don’t know what lies ahead, but it will work out somehow” can be said to be correct.

However, what you are trying to do right now is to get a Business Manager visa. That being so, you are required to properly carry out what is needed for that. Specifically, that means preparing the business plan mentioned earlier. A half-hearted explanation will not convince the other side — and in that sense, it can be called difficult.

Let’s get that Business Manager visa!

(1) A summary so far

What has become clear from reading this far is that obtaining a Business Manager visa is certainly not easy, but you can prepare in order to raise the approval rate as much as possible.
On the other hand, there is no magic method that guarantees you’ll get the visa. What you have to do is carry out what needs to be done according to your own situation.

(2) So what should you actually do?

Well then, what is likely to be quite useful for that? It is the approach of commissioning a professional.

As mentioned earlier, in obtaining a Business Manager visa, the road is complex and there may be pitfalls you never imagined. To use a hiking analogy, the image might be a mountain where the route to the summit is hard to make out and there are dangerous spots too. A mountain where many people can’t reach the top and give up and head back down.

But the view from the summit is the best. So you really want to make the climb a success! In a case like this, what would you do?
Normally, you would ask an experienced mountain guide to lead the way, wouldn’t you? If you had a guide who has been to that summit many times and who properly knows where the pitfalls are, wouldn’t that be reassuring — and don’t you feel your chances of reaching the top would go up dramatically?

We, “Gyoseishoshi Corporation TOUCH,” are that guide. Please start by consulting us. If you do, we will make full use of our specialist knowledge and support you with everything we have, so that you reach your goal of getting that approval.