Let’s talk about the “office space” requirement for the Business Manager Visa
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
After the outbreak of Covid-19, we all adapted and learned that we are capable of working remotely, but “laws” do not change overnight.
According to the publicly available information provided by Immigration Services Agency of Japan under the Ministry of Justice, the Immigration Bureau understands “venture” companies (≒ startups) do not need a physical space and they tend to use their home address for registering a company.
In August 2020, Immigration Services Agency of Japan decided to show the office guidelines along with the guidelines for business continuity.
Definition of “office (事業所)”
Immigration Services Agency of Japan states that the definition of “office” is according to the definition provided by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (総務省). [reference]
Economic activity is conducted under an independent business owner in a specific section
Products and services are continuously provided via people and equipments
According to the official documents (p.1), “a monthly space” is not considered as “an office” that enables the business owners to continuously provide products and services.
What should be in the office contract?
It’s hard to own a space, so we can “rent”, and the rental agreement should include the following:
purpose of the usage is “business”
signed lessee must be “legal entity”, not an individual
If we want to use a part of our home as “office space”, we have to specify on the rental agreement that
rentor approves the lessee to use the space as business purposes
rentor approves the lessee can sublease the space to a legal entity
office space is a dedicated room with required business equipments (ex. PC, printer, phone…the document does ‘not’ mention anything about a FAX!)
there is a clear rule on the bill (water, gas and electricity) payment
and the home office should show the company’s signboard.
Success cases
The document kindly explains which cases were accepted and unaccepted.
Case A.
The main purpose of a rental agreement was “residential”, but the lessee had a special agreement with rentor that the space can be used for business purposes.
Case B.
The registered main office was director’s house, but the branch office was a property of the Chamber of Commerce.
Case C.
The entrance of the KK and the entrance of applicant’s house were different, and there was a signboard at the entrance of KK. In the office space, the applicant had PC, phone, office table and printer.
Some of the unaccepted cases didn’t have any office equipment in the space, signboards around the entrance, and rental agreement under company names.
+α : some banks also want to see an “office contract”
An “office contract” for a physical space may help opening a corporate bank account, too. According to our personal experience when launching a company, two mega-banks asked to see a fixed office contract (they were expecting 1–2 years of office contract). At the time, we only had a virtual office space membership, and as a result, we were unable to open an account with them.
In the end, a different bank accepted our application with a virtual office space membership plan. This was a bank that we had been using for personal expenses for over 5 years, so that must have played a big role in their decision to grant a corporate bank account.
Ultimately, the acceptance of your Business Manager Visa application depends on several different factors such as contracts with Japanese organizations, investment amount, cash balance, team members, etc. — so it’s hard to specify exactly what will be trigger to pass your application. At the very least, we believe that everyone should have access to publicly available information to increase their chances of success.
Let’s keep learning together and accessing more opportunities to start a business in Japan!
