Transcript
Speaker: Carlos applied for the business manager visa, got it within a month or exactly one month. Yeah, so there's there's two versions. You want hear outright, you have to have an office rented um just to apply. This is the old version. This is the old version. And you also have to have 5 million yen in a Japanese bank account. You would have to rent an office remotely. And then you'd have to just find a Japanese person that you really trust. Hey, buddy. So in a bank account for you and then send them 30,000-ish dollars and then hope they just don't take it.
Speaker: Welcome back to the buying a house in Japan podcast. Today we are recording live from Fukuoka with one of our longtime friends, Carlos. Carlos, welcome to the show.
Speaker: Thanks. Glad to be here. it's This is Carlos' hometown now. Yeah. This is my hometown now. Yeah. At least for ah but six weeks. So far six weeks. Welcome to Fukuoka. Let's go ahead and crack these beers while they're nice and icy cold. Yeah.
Speaker: I got them cold for you guys. Two minutes in the fridge.
Speaker: There we go. Kampai, boys. Kampai, welcome to your new hometown, Carlos. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker: We sticking strong with the the zero zero alcohol beers. I think we've done a good job so far. We had a dry Beppu trip. Yeah. Pretty good. That's good. Non-alcoholic beers aren't bad.
Speaker: I think it's good. And I'm a baby. and Like I had ah we went out for, to a standing bar like a few weeks ago. First, like kind of like one night I had free. And, uh, I think I had the equivalent of like maybe one tall boy and I was like, hook'll go for because I just don't drink all. We're getting old, man. We're getting old now. It's good. I think it's good that we're, everyone's slowing down their drink, but, uh, For the listeners here, Carlos has been one of our main dudes for all our content. If you've seen a lot of our videos, he's he's probably been the brain behind it. He's been the brain behind our podcasts, our content. Carlos, thanks for everything you've done so far. But just for the audience, can you give us a quick intro of yourself?
Speaker: Yeah, my name is Carlos. I'm from Indiana originally, the Midwest. um Went to school, Southern Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana University.
Speaker: Moved to Los Angeles about a year after college and worked in film and TV. My very first job was actually, I was, ah you know the show Wipeout? No. Yeah, the the obstacle course game show. Oh, which is when they're running through the logs and they're like... Takeshi's Castle kind of Kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like that. ah Same production company, but it was like a British version. that It was really stupid. thing But my first job was like churning a mud pit.
Speaker: Cause there was like, there was a creamy, you know? Yeah. I w I was in l LA for like, I think I was hitting the two month mark and I still don't have a job and. Mud pit churner. Yeah. Well, I, I was like up one morning, maybe like four in the morning. It was kind of like anxious, you know, it's like couldn't sleep.
Speaker: Saw a job posting, just like sent my like default cover letter or whatever. And they call me like 15 minutes later and they're like, Hey, I see like in your application, you said you're not above any task. like god first my My first answer concern was like, I hope this isn't like porn. But he was like, no, so we we have this obstacle course and it's basically they have to ride this like miniature bike on this beam over this like pit of mud. oh snap But the producers looked at the pit of mud and they're like, it's not like murky enough.
Speaker: We need some like 20 something year olds down there just churning it all day in the Santa Clarita. It was too clear. Yeah, yeah. was just me and waiters. Like on my first job, like a shovel, like 12 hours a day, and just churning the mud pit.
Speaker: So ah crawled my way out of the proverbial mud pit, I guess. so you moved to LA, no job. Like figuring when you get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, I think that's what a lot of people do.
Speaker: For entertainment 20 bucks in your pocket and like a little more than that Yeah Since then though you've worked on some pretty big productions. I think i you've told me a little bit but like how did you what what did you do between then and now? Yeah, it's a weird industry. You're just you're kind of bouncing around I'd say my first kind of big break is i was working at a VR startup in ah in in Hollywood and I Got the opportunity to work for um a pretty famous showrunner.
Speaker: And he just literally just one night, like through a connection, someone texts He's like, hey, this guy, he just just had like eye surgery. So we need someone to help him like literally just like transcribe scripts. He's like are you free tonight? And I'm like, yeah, I'll do it. So then I was like working that. Okay. While was at a full-time job. yeah And eventually he just texted me one day, he's like, hey, I'm in a writer's room with ah this guy who's from, he's the old assistant to Dan Harmon. He worked on like Rick and Morty, yeah all that stuff. Love Rick and Morty. Yeah, yeah. he is He's like, a in a writer's room for his show. We need an assistant, but you need to like quit your job today. And it was like Friday. okay It's like Friday morning.
Speaker: um So yeah, I quit and then Monday morning I was i was there and that was that was like my first intro into like something more serious. um I was under a Stars at the time, Network Stars.
Speaker: But I kept working for him. Eventually it was... Hulu and then we were under HBO for a while. um And then yeah, like post pandemic that industry shifted a lot. Yeah. um it's Still pretty bad. heard Ellie's just like ah a kind of gutted from yeah, from a yeah movies perspective, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, um yeah, production is so expensive. The unions make it very expensive, obviously.
Speaker: Labor's expensive. California is just expensive. And so they're just, and plus, know, it's just like, know, like kids can just pick up a phone and film a video that more people watch than an indie film. And like the Writers Guild lawsuit against AI companies or something going on there too. Yeah. yeah Not good times for the movie and TV industry, sounds like. Yeah, that was definitely like the nail in the coffin. i think that that really killed things like post-pandemic. It's really interesting. You mentioned like that spontane a spontaneity of like someone calling you and being like, hey, you free right now. Like, I feel like that's in our 20s how- we gotta to quit your job. a lot i mean I feel like that's how a lot of the opportunities came by. Like, hey, are you free to interview someone?
Speaker: going on maternity leave and I need someone to jump into this role. And I feel like through our my early career, that's kind of how you get those opportunities and being ready to go kind of at that moment, right? Yeah. It's easier in your twenties too. you just You're kind of mobile and you have that, ideally you have a safety net. You can go ah go home to mom and dad. It doesn't work out. um But yeah, it was it was a lot of that. just just You're you're very very immune to risk at the time.
Speaker: right It's interesting too. like We work with a lot of Gen Z folks and you car or you know Lucas, who we've had on the podcast, editing only on his phone. It's just like, what the heck? We grew up You guys are so different, like doing everything on your phone, like making viral content in like a second on CapCut and stuff like that. Yeah, they like people make fun of millennials because like we'll buy we'll book plane tickets only on a computer. I'm not going to book plane tickets for my phone. the series The serious purchase, you bring out the computer. yeah yeah true No, I was telling Lucas actually that um you know everyone's young kids are editing on their phone. I remember when I first started out, I was using Adobe like Premiere, and that was like new for like the film. You had the young blood. yeah Yeah, and everyone was coming off ah of a software called Avid, which was like kind of bridging between
Speaker: film editing like analog film editing and digital film editing and That was like the old-school software. So they all made fun of us like all you young kids like you would flounder if you try to have it and I'm like shut up And now I'm like so out of date cuz I don't know how to use CapCut and use it on a phone and yeah, Fast forward, you know, I think we'd connected with you maybe a year ago. seen each other in California. It helped us film some stuff. I forgot how we got in touch. Maybe LinkedIn or did you message us? No, I just emailed you guys. Yeah. I think I, I literally think I just, I saw the Akia stuff a few years ago and I was like, I think just on Spotify. I just like searched like Japan houses or something. And like you guys came up and I remember I just like at the gym listening to you guys and appreciated it because, uh,
Speaker: You know, a lot of stuff you see on Instagram is like they're they're selling you a very particularly like curated lifestyle about Japan. And you guys are just like, yeah, showed up to the Akiya and it really sucked. The lights are flickering and we're all not talking to each other because we're so pissed Not sugarcoating it. That's for real. Yeah, but I think I appreciated that because if you can get customers like through that, like still excited and that's the right fit, right? They hear that and they're like, oh, I still want to do that. Like I want that adventure. We're talking about that today a little bit, like the anti-selling the customer a little bit because there's so many hurdles. Like as we get into you finding an apartment here in Fukuoka, there's like so many hurdles, I think, to like pick up and get started in Japan just one after another. And like, that's why we're talking about anti-selling. Like I feel like a lot of times,
Speaker: we're kind of sussing out the client a little bit on these calls. Like, i don't know if this person has what it takes to really make it through this process. And we don't want to set those people up for failure. like and You're not like trying to gatekeep. Yeah, liability for us looks bad on us and like that person had a bad time throughout the whole thing, you know? So yeah, you reached out to us. we We got in touch. I think we kind of did like a skills bartering, you know, I think you had have been at the time interested in purchasing Akiya in Japan. What got you interested in this whole space? Did you grow up on like Dragon Ball Z like I did or like what what kind of got you hooked on Japan and in on the idea of the Akiya? Japan in general, Japanese culture, I was never... Not Dragon Ball Z, man? My parents hated anime. Okay. Like they hate like, cause they would see like Sailor Moon and they like hated it. She would like, ridge yeah, they'd see like her squealing and being like, Oh, I need a boy to save me. and my mom like hated that shit for my sister. yeah Okay. No, Japan, like for me, it's similar to like what Anton said on your podcast is, uh, I just associated with like the kind of weird kids.
Speaker: We're the same. We're cut from the same cloth here. I um weird i think my parents were against like Ninja Turtles. They were against Ninja Turtles? Like any of those like fighting shows like Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles. that kind of stuff Yeah, my mom did not like Power Rangers. yeah yeah yeah so just like so And I feel like Dragon Ball Z... like Dragon Ball Z is way on that violence. So it is on that side? Yeah, I don't even know. But like yeah, like they just weren't interested in me and my brothers watching that. So I feel like that I avoided all that Japanese culture.
Speaker: Look at you guys now. Look you guys now. Land of One Piece, Land of Dragon Ball Z. I call ah a buddy of mine a big One Piece fan. And I was like, hey man, like I see like a bunch of One Piece stuff around here. like I don't know if it's junk or if it's like limited edition. I just don't know. like If there's anything you want me to get you. And he's like, You sound like a dad. Raging. Joey's trying to rage me. Yeah, like time. Just like throwing out video game names or anime names. Even when I know it's wrong, I like mess something up just on purpose. I'd say like Nintendo is like the closest I got, you know, but.
Speaker: But what made you i guess decide, like hey I want to you know start looking into Japan and maybe move here? Honestly, it was my wife. Really? Yeah. she was it was like always ah Before we came here for the first time, she always wanted to visit. And even then, I was like, ah i don't know. I didn't really think much of Japan. i just Again, like anime and some stuff. and So I guess she kind of Japan-filled me. Whoa. who what yeah she what what what was What was Japan about for her? like What was she like? Yeah, should get her. I'm not shooting not really sure. um She watched more anime though, like growing up. um Like she was familiar at least, like Cowboy Bebop, really know about till like maybe less 10 years ago maybe. my gosh. You guys are hurting me here. Hey, but I got to experience it
Speaker: for the first time. Okay. Still got it in retrospect. Okay. All right. Yeah. So did your wife or girlfriend at the time, like she, she got you onto to cowboy B-pop and made you watch it. She mostly got me onto like coming to Japan. Okay. Traveling. Okay. Okay. Um, and then i think actually shortly before that, I started of looking around like the Akiya space. Cause I think like you guys, like I'm in California and down the street from me, there was like a,
Speaker: $875,000 like crack den or Like I'm not even kidding. Like there was that real yeah that's a good deal. it's like a yeah and that is i'll buy Yeah. Yeah. Um, so i was like, you know, i don't know if California is really the place we'll be buying a home. And when I started looking into this, um, and we came here, she was like,
Speaker: I'm kind of open to it. Okay. So and she got me to Japan. i got her into the Akiya stuff, I'd say. All right. All right. So had she planted the seed a while ago and just like, hey I'm tired of LA. Maybe it's like COVID or something. Let's go to Japan or... Yeah, partial it was partially that and partially the industry. So she works in physical production. So she was like on sets. She was like a a coordinator and then a producer. um You know, like chef's table. Yeah, chef's table and cheer. That's like my favorite cooking show. Yeah, think she's really into the food stuff. Damn, the production on that is so good. Yeah, yeah. Oh Yeah, she's great at it. and um But that, yeah, really slowed down. Yeah, makes sense. like post-COVID, we were both kind of like...
Speaker: figuring out what we want to do with our careers and if we want to be like traditional Hollywood or, you know, move into digital content and things just kind of aligned that we could move into digital content and make it work in Japan. Again, we had started touching base with you about a year ago. I think about like six months ago, you started getting more serious about the visa. I remember the business, you were we were we were in touch a couple of times but as the visa was changing. Like what was that trigger to be like, okay, let's apply for this visa and get going. Carlos had the fastest visa process ever though, by the way. It was really fast. um
Speaker: We started about the beginning of last year, started more seriously talking about it. By the spring, we were speaking with an attorney like April. yeah And then summer, we were getting stuff ready.
Speaker: And then as you know, like October, I think October 18th, I think was the date that they said that they changed the requirements. wasn't working on it the whole time, obviously, but you know, we applied and then I think a month to the date that we applied, we got approved. Absolutely crazy. That's fast. Yeah. We did do Fukuoka though. like We didn't do the Tokyo Bureau. Yeah, I think that's the real pro tip here. um So a bunch of other prefectures that don't have their own immigration bureaus go through the Tokyo Bureau too. So I think Tokyo is one, the most popular because it's Tokyo, but then all these other smaller prefectures rely on it as well. So I think if you can go through a place like Fukuoka, I know where the other ones are, but the non-Tokyo immigration bureau processing times are just going so much faster.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's what happened with um with Eric, w right? Up in Niigata. Niigata goes through Tokyo. So yeah, he's with everybody else applying to Tokyo. yeah Yeah. I applied to Tokyo too, and I i was quoted ah five to six weeks, and I think it ended up being like triple that. I can't remember. so Yeah, the big risk we had before the, when the rules changed first, kind like the news dropped and it wasn't sure like what was going to happen or if they would like grandfather you in if you were applied before. Because the big concern was like if we apply now and then they don't just don't get to us until after the rules change. What happens then? Yeah, what happens then we didn't know. So that's when we started looking at Fukuoka because we were like, oh, this is a lot faster. Yeah, it was more. you knew about this ahead of time. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Before that, there was definitely like a lot of news and press about Fukuoka being a startup friendly city. And I think that was, that got around, but I didn't know to the level of Carlos's one month visa. Unheard of. They say it's startup friendly and I think it is as much as they can do. But it's, I mean, it's not like the U.S. where, you like the states have like so much leverage and like what they can do and funds they can allocate versus like localities. It's much more restricted. Yeah. Okay. So curious about, so Carlos applied for the business manager visa, got it within a month or exactly one month. How long did it take you to gather the appropriate documents for that? And I'm also curious about the office because I know an office is a stipulation here. What did you do about an office and how did you prove that? Yeah, so there's two versions of the business manager visa.
Speaker: We'll talk about the older requirements anyway. the The full year one, if you want a year outright, you have to have an office rented um just to apply, right? you have to have an office rented. You're locked into like a year lease as you're waiting. This is the old version. This is the old version. Well, it's still a new version, but a little bit. So old version, you have to have an office rented as you're waiting, and you also have to have...
Speaker: there's 5 million yen in a Japanese bank account. And the problem with that obviously is like, you can't get a Japanese bank account. I had a bank account. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's like your only option was really, if you really wanted to do that is you would have to rent an office remotely, which isn't that hard. They'll they'll rent it to anyone. And then you'd have to just find a Japanese person that you really trust. Hey, buddy. So open a bank account for you and then send them $30,000-ish and then hope they just don't take it. Is this making them your representative director or you just need a Japanese person to open? and You just need ah a bank account with that amount of money and and and then you just send a screenshot, basically. did you And you went through this? You you basically found a Japanese person and sent them them No, so that's the year long out. Okay. So there's a shorter, there's a kind of a provisional one that I'm on right now, which is it'll give you four months and they'll, as long as you submit a business plan and then all the, you know, other like ID materials, um, you can come to Japan and then you have that time to set up the bank account, um, get the office and then you get renewed for a year. That's still a short amount of time. It is. And we're dealing with that right now because the next big thing is bank account. But all the banks are like, you have to be living here for six months. And I'm like, so how is this be even possible? Like, I can't stay here. though I just don't think they're thinking ahead and they don't know all these nuances. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Speaker: So for the listener here, again, ah Carlos went through the old legacy version of the business manager visa. Since October 18th, what has changed with the business manager visa? There is a higher capital requirement. I think it's just 20 million yen, want to say.
Speaker: Up from five. 20 million. think it's 30. 30, 30. Yeah, 200K US. s Yeah, something like that. That's insane. I think outright you have to hire a Japanese employee or have plans to within the first year maybe. Or pass one of the exams, I think. or Yeah. Or some what you need to hire someone that has passed one of the exams. or ya Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you also need to have like an MBA or something. Or there's some like education requirement or like you need to have a business. Or like have an accountant sign off on your business plan or have an MBA. or i don't I think they ask for business experience, um which isn't that hard. You just say like you know yeah you could just say you've been freelancing for five years and that's. But the 200K is crazy.
Speaker: That's insane. that That's just like eliminated everyone probably in our age demographic. Maybe like a late 40, someone has two hundred a k to. Yeah. hello But like. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to start a business with 200K in cash. Yeah.
Speaker: No one with like the time. Like as you get older, you have you know you start a family, have less time, but maybe you have the money. And when you're younger and thinking about starting a business, when you have the time, like you don't have the cash, right? Yeah. it's a little bit of that catch 22 there. Exactly. So the business manager visa is like effectively dead. For most people. Right? Yeah. stood but We discussed this actually with you in the last one. The HSP visa is probably the next year.
Speaker: most feasible route start of visa or like what what would you recommend someone who carlos i want to do what you do like do you know enough about visas and maybe have a visa one other option we floated was the artist visa oh okay i've heard about that from melanie actually a while ago That one, I'm not super familiar with it, but you have to kind of, my my wife would probably qualify for it. I don't know if i would, because mine's like, what I do is more business oriented, like you're working with businesses. um But my wife could argue like, oh, I work on like award-winning shows. yeah, So did you apply for the visa yourself or as a couple or like how did that work? We did it together, but I had an attorney handle it obviously. So when I applied for mine, we did both of ours together, yeah.
Speaker: She's on a dependent visa. Okay, so you were like the main application, she was a dependent? Yeah. Interesting. So next up, bank account. gonna go JP Post? That's the only one I've heard that you can get in less than six months. That's what I'm told too. um Yeah, I but literally have to go on Monday and just beg them. like feel like, hey, I need a bank account. oh no yeah So Carlos, you've been here for six weeks, two months? About six weeks, yeah. Okay. What was like the order of operations? I know there's so many like chicken or the egg type things. Like what what did you do?
Speaker: And I guess what would you do differently if you could could do it again more efficiently? the first obstacle you have is is you need an address and you can't use a temporary address and if you do you could lie about it maybe i don't recommend it obviously but you could try to get away with using an airbnb but you'd have to be able to receive mail because they'll send you your you know your id your my number card and all that stuff so getting getting an apartment was like that took us about a month okay um to do it and we had an agent working with us too we were talking about this it's easier actually to buy an akia Yes. Potentially then go through the rental. So had you bought a Nokia six months prior, you could have probably used that as like your address. So for people who are listening, maybe on the same path, you know, we we can help you buy Nokia through our Akimars Direct program. um
Speaker: But let's go to the rental side. So you got an agent. how is that How is that process for you? She bent over backwards helping us. ok um Was that hard in Fukuoka? It was really hard. It really hard. okay we would send her We would send her a spreadsheet, like a Google Sheet, yeah of like all the places we're interested in. And then we'd you know get on checking at night and we'd just watch her just...
Speaker: Just one by one, knock them off. No foreigners, yeah no foreigners. yeah Has to speak Japanese, has to speak Japanese. um And then eventually got to the point um where, so she she didn't speak much English, but she had a husband, a Cuban husband who speaks Spanish and English, so can communicate fine. He calls us and he's like, we gotta figure something out.
Speaker: because like Obviously for them, like they're spending a lot of time on this, but they're more concerned about us. They're like, you guys are just stuck in an Airbnb, bouncing to hotels. So you'd already got here and then you were starting. yeah Were you starting before you got here? We were speaking to agents, including her, but there wasn't really much we could do yeah from ah from abroad, especially with renting an apartment.
Speaker: um But it's you know they say like the ah the real currency in Japan is trust. that It's 100% the case. There's no amount of money you can pay We've tried. They're not like that. like we There are places where we could be like, hey, we will pay above the rate above the rate, but also we'll pay the two months deposit, the two months key money, six months rent, all the fees. Something is $10,000 sometimes. more than that like We'll pay that in cash right now. if you just let us rent this place. And they're just like, nah.
Speaker: So how many apartments do you think you like put on that spreadsheet? Probably less than 50, but probably close to 50. What percent were not Gaijin okay? Probably say like 80% of them.
Speaker: Damn. Yeah. That's similar. Same ratio. Yeah. I basically, I found two. Yeah. Yeah. Was your experience similar in, well, you're in Okinawa too. Yeah, so same same kind of experience, like no foreigners, no foreigners. Foreigners, okay, as long as you're a girl, like no foreigners kind of thing. that was in front of ah That was in front of like a bar though, right? or It was above ah like a cabaret club, Cabacuda. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then like number six property said, okay, and I just took it. like So i didn't I didn't continue my search after that. All right. So how did you and your wife build trust? Or like how did you guys get that across the finish line? We didn't. The way we had to do it was... Again, I had to bend over backwards. they they So they called us and they were like, so we have a connection at a management company, like really good friends of ours. And like we've worked with this agent enough and seen her in person that...
Speaker: she's getting to trust us and sees that we're like really trying and so she spoke to this management company and said hey can you sublet could you rent out a place and then sublet to them with like a nominal fee on top yeah and they were like yeah we'd be happy to do that and it really was very nice to them because the fee was like not that much yeah and so they call around at places and they're just like no we won't sublet no we won't sublet we won't sublet to won't let you sublet to foreigners or whatever And then eventually they're like, so we have one property that we manage um and we can speak to the owner and try to convince her to to rent to for her. And that took a little bit, but that's what we went with. Same, we were just like, yes, go for it, we'll do it. So same sort of thing. So actually the the apartment that I rented in Ishigaki, it's not me renting, it's our Japanese company with a Japanese representative director. And even then, you know during the conversation, that you know It comes out that, okay, well, it's actually going to be a foreigner living. It's a Japanese company on the paper, a Japanese company paying, Japanese company credit score, all that kind of stuff. But because even then, when the tenant is a ah foreigner, they they all said no. It's it's insane. like There are some listings I would see. Of course, this is translated, but know it would be like...
Speaker: the ocean park villa new construction close to a wino park no welfare recipients no elderly no families no foreigners and like you think like you if you could you imagine if you saw something like that in the u.s like yeah you i do you want to rent this place like nah that's insane so do you think it's like a supply issue or is it just like a cultural kind of thing like i imagine fukuoka has a lot of I mean, population is quite large and it's growing. is Is it a shortage, you think? Really hard to say. I don't know. I think um i think it's mostly cultural.
Speaker: Because again, like you can offer a ton of money and they'll just still say no. you know That's crazy. I think they're just trying to avoid problems. like They don't understand. They feel like they're not going to be able to communicate with the foreign tenant. They feel like that the foreign tenant might understand they're building rules. um And I think they just want to avoid that hassle. like very likely it's not going to be a hassle, but like, I think they believe it will be. And they just want to avoid problems. When we, when we signed the lease, um, we were in the room, it was like a very formal, like in a boardroom kind of thing, signed the lease. And then the, the company that was subletting to us were like, they're very kind. They're like, i said, we're going to set up all your utilities for you right now. so you just don't have to about it. Yeah. was awesome.
Speaker: So they start calling and then, you know, they're barely in Japanese I speak, I pick up a words here and there. We have a a translator with us, but they're on the phone with, I think the gas company talking, talking, talking. And then everyone just goes, oh like gasps. And I'm like, no oh no, what is it? They will not give you gas if you can't read Japanese. No. Which is like, that's, even they were like, that's insane. Like, are you just not going to let people heat their homes? Cause they can't speak a language. So then that he had to sign in his name and then just forward us the bill, essentially. But again, to them, they were like, that's that's overly strict, even by Japanese standards, they thought. My experience, maybe gas companies are very finicky. Like, I know someone needs to be at the property, but in the Ishigaki case, I think they want the tenant. to be at the property when they hook up the gas. so maybe they're gonna like make sure I understand what they're saying or something like that too. The guy, the tech who came, didn't no issue. He just showed up. He was like, were just like, konyaku? Like, gonna use a translator? He like, yeah, fine. Then we translate and he was like, all right, see ya. No problem. I understand some of the hesitation though. You know, gas, they want someone, but again, they don't recognize like Google Trans, you know, you can just take a picture. Like I got it now. But yeah no I make, if they're kind of more old school real estate agents and going back to the communication thing, if I was in the U S renting my apartment to someone who couldn't speak English, I would kind of be my second guess it. I'd be like, I'm just going to wait to find like a Japanese dude who can communicate. with Someone I can call if there's a problem. Exactly. So. Personally speaking, i do feel like if I were renting to someone and they paid for like a translator, had all this money, they're like, I will pay you six months to rent. That would change the tone a little bit. But yeah, I understand the the risk aversion for sure.
Speaker: Okay. So you got the apartment, took a month-ish? Took a month. Okay. you're You're in the apartment now, right? We're in the apartment. Actually, the last thing that happened is we signed the lease and we go straight there to start measuring a few things again.
Speaker: And the building manager like stops my wife as she's going to get a package or something. And then she calls me. She's like, I don't know what's going on. he's like yeah and He won't use the translator. He's just talking to me and like something's wrong. And I'm like...
Speaker: and So I go down and like, here we go, go down again. We're like already so exhausted because we just signed the lease and I'm like showing him the lease. Like I, here's the papers. Like I have the keys and he's just like, I don't know who you are. I can't let you in. He wasn't, he wasn't rude, but he was just like very by the books, very procedural. Yeah. but then turns into like a five way phone call with the management company. And they're like yelling at him. Like i can tell he's like really pissed off. Like goodness what is the problem? Like, you know first is the gas thing and subletting and now this and, but yeah yeah, water under the bridge. Friction equals opportunity. you know I think there's a lot of opportunity in the future. like it so like Everyone goes through the same seemingly experience like tough experience renting. I do see startups on LinkedIn or different people I feel like have messaged me before. like They have this idea of like some kind of company that helps foreigners rent apartments in Japan. I think it's much needed service, but I do think the real problem there is convincing the landlords. like I don't know how... a company is going to be able to convince landlords across the board in Japan. The first ah apartment we really wanted, we actually did apply for.
Speaker: And i think it was kind of a similar situation to the the coin laundry, where I think it was the the landlord and the management company, they're like, let's go for it. Like, let's rent this place to them. It's like a brand new construction. They want to fill it.
Speaker: And it was the um guarantee, guarantor to our comp company that was like, we won't do it. I hate the guarantor company. Yeah, they suck. So much. I mean, it's the they're on the line, obviously, if we get deported or leave the country or something, you know. Okay, so you eventually got in. Yes, you got the measurements. I'm assuming you went to Ikea or something. you You got furniture coming through.
Speaker: What's the next hurdle bank account? And then i think figuring out ah pension taxes, all that stuff. Actually, prior to this, you had already made a Japanese company. It needs to get established once you're here. the bank account, actually. Okay, so you rented, or you got you got Visa, rented apartment, now you're opening a bank account. Yeah.
Speaker: Phone number? i have a phone number. I use the the place you get. yeah moba yeah say Mobile? Mobile.com. Okay. So when do you open the company or what's... yeah That'll be yeah like the next few weeks. Ideally, if i can get the bank account open, then it's just they establish the company and then they do the reapplication for the but the for the extension for the full year. And then you need to get an office?
Speaker: I have an office already. Oh, you already got the office. Yeah. Okay. How did you get the office? Very easy. like You can pay Regis or something? Yeah, Regis. You can pay with credit. You can do WeWork too if you have a private space. but Okay. Pay with credit card. they'll They're...
Speaker: you know They're like car salesmen there. They're like trying to get a film. We put in like one form and they like called us every, like, like that. Yeah, there's yeah, yeah. They were, feel like we still sometimes get emails from them. Yeah, we still get them. Yeah, i I went to go see a property and then right at like that evening I started getting sick and i got the flu.
Speaker: And the guy was just like bombarding me with calls. Like I sent you the contract. Will you sign it or look over it? I'm like, dude, I'm like dying right now. I'm like telling him I have the flu and he keeps calling me and I'm like, let's give me a second. Office rental, easy home rental. Very hard.
Speaker: Very hard. Definitely recommend buying if you can. Yeah. That's what everyone told us too. It's like, it's easier to buy. And so you have a, what two and a half months left. Are you worried about getting all this stuff in place before, are you feeling pretty good now? No, I feel pretty good. Yeah. The attorney, I mean, they it's pretty much just a, you have it, you just need to these two things, the, well, obviously we have the office and the bank account and then the obviously the company formation. then Okay. So once you hit that four month point, you have all the check boxes. Do you get a year visa or? I think it's either eight months or a year. Yeah. I have to check double check, but yeah. Okay.
Speaker: Are you still working with the immigration attorney throughout this like final these four months? Okay. Oh, that's great. Okay. So so the the process didn't just stop when you got that. Yeah. Got in the country. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah They've been helpful for sure. I would definitely recommend going through an attorney for oh yeah a visa like that. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah.
Speaker: What happens when you hit your year point? you have to reapply and they just like look at how the company has been doing or something like that? or Since we applied and then the requirements changed, what they want us they they say case by case basis.
Speaker: yeah No idea what that means. But what our attorney has interpreted that as is as long as you're paying taxes, your business is afloat. okay Especially if you're like if you have an employee. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: You should be okay. Yeah. Because I think the last thing I want to do is like kick it out of the country and you have to like fire an employee because you can't be there anymore. There you go. so Actually, I think you're probably right about that. That's probably the best way to lock yourself in. The employee's the shield. You could very easily argue like they're going to lose their jobs because I can't operate here. Do you need to be like reaching a certain income level or something like that? Or it's just like you need to be paying taxes and...
Speaker: but On the books is like they want you to reach that new capital level. So it's like 200K. But it's ah that's they they define that as um ah basically investment or assets in the company. Oh, assets too. yeah So you could buy a home. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. By that year point? Or is it have like a couple It's like over an indefinite amount of years. They're like intentionally vague about it. But our our attorney said like if you're working toward it over the next like three years, you should be fine. So what's your plan? Are you here for the next three years, you think? Or is it kind of day by day, year by year kind of vibe. We'll see how my wife handles summer here. Oh, good luck, bro. Yeah. I mean, i'm I like to think I'm okay with heat, even humidity. Like, I i don't know i don't love it, but i I can deal with it. Yeah, yeah, My wife hates it.
Speaker: So you guys got new air ACs installed? We do. okay Very nice ACs. But um we'll see with summer and then, you know, overall lifestyle. I mean, honestly, like being here, eat I know it's only been a month, but the most stressful things are just dealing with procedural and like government stuff.
Speaker: That's the stuff that makes you like question like, what the hell am I doing? But then when you're like living your everyday life, and just the everyday lifestyle, it's it's great. So we got an appraisal on the house in Beppu maybe about six months ago.
Speaker: And one way I thought, or I saw like a loophole to hit the 30 million yen capital requirement for business manager visa. You could buy a cheap property, let's say $1,000 property anywhere in Japan, get it appraised, likely that a appraisal value will be much higher. And if the business owns that, now that if you donate that to your business, now the business has that on paper that, hey, this property is worth this much money. You only spend $1,000 on it, but it was appraised at $20,000. You inject that in kind into your business, and now your capital has gone up by $20,000 for the business, but you only spend $1,000. I've thought of that. were Where do you find a $1,000 property that appraises it for $20,000? I mean, if if you can get that to happen. okay i You have to do some fancy well i think the land book work. but
Speaker: Maybe you've got to find a a good appraiser. It could also be like if if you're if you're successfully renting it out, it's worth a lot more. right i'm skeptical on finding land that is super cheap that appraises for significantly more yeah maybe like miyoko or hakuba one of those ski areas yeah i don't know about down in kyushu all right so you're you're all settled how do you like fukuoka so far i love it yeah i love it um ah it's a tokyo is a little too much for me um i think if like any big city i could i could do tokyo i didn't really like los angeles that much yeah
Speaker: But it's it's it's still crazy. This is like have everything I need, enough ah like foreigner support stuff. Totally. we um That it's still a big city, but quiet. Is your wife digging it? Is everything she she wanted? yeah really Yeah. She loves it.
Speaker: Do you miss LA at all? i missed some things i i miss i mean you know up like friends and family yeah you know um having that like support system for sure um but there wasn't really much keeping us there like even like career wise and all that so i think to actually to answer your last question i think we we are staying flexible with it where we were totally honest like we could just hate it after a year and go back be a lot of effort but like we tried it and Yeah, I like Go back. Favorite thing about Fukuoka so far? It's honestly, it's hard to answer because I told you guys just before this, this is like my first free weekend. like I'm like actually able to like go out. i mean, we' we've gone out a little bit. um What were you doing the other weekends? Like looking for apartment? Yeah, working. Well, cause like, so I have clients still on Pacific time. So for a long time, i was like, I've got like four or five in the morning to get some time with them and some time with like East coasters too. East coast time time was almost tough. That's crazy. Yeah. tough yeah
Speaker: Yeah. um But yeah, that that, or, you know, like it's nice that I have Monday off cause it's like Sunday. So I have like time to like go to city hall and like do all the procedural stuff. um But I'd say what we like the most people are,
Speaker: it there aren't a lot of, when you think foreigners, I think a lot of people think like Americans, or something like someone that looks American. But I think for they say this is like a really foreigner friendly city, but it's a lot of Koreans.
Speaker: I don't think so much Chinese anymore, because there's lot of geopolitical stuff going on. but um But people are like pretty curious, I'd say, um about foreigners. And you do get you do get stared at, but they're just more just like,
Speaker: You're also super tall. I am tall. You stick out a little bit. The first Airbnb we're at, this this was like the low point of the experience. I had the flu. It's like four in the morning.
Speaker: i'm like so sick. and I have to get up for like work. i have to like get on these calls. And I leave to go get like a tea at like the Konbini and I just... Every time I've come in this Airbnb, I slam my head on the top of the door. Just like slam it like so hard. And like, so i already had like a bump there. yeah And then I'm like sick and I just do that. I'm like, God, it does that. And then I like come back, avoid it that time. But then I get in the shower and slam my head again. that was the moment where I was just like just between everything i was like what am I doing what am I glad you had everyone has that one moment though yes you gotta have that you've gotten past it though yeah for you it was like the flickering light in the in the Beppu house right
Speaker: Yeah, like, did I make the right decision here? Like, what am I doing? Yeah. I will say, though, it's a lot more adventurous than staying in L.A., you know? I think the comfort of L.A. is awesome and all, but, like, you guys doing this as a couple, I think it's such a cool adventure. Yeah. You know, I think you guys have probably had some tough times, but also, you know, tough times don't last. Tough tough people do. The way we look at it too is like, we're we're not gonna regret it. yeah Like looking back, like, you know, deathbed, we're not gonna be like, damn, I wasted a year, three years in Japan. i wish I didn't do that. like What would you say to someone who is, again, you know, our listener base, like looking to rent, buy, move to Japan, like,
Speaker: they're just getting tired. Let's say they're in LA themselves and like thinking about this move, any, any words of advice you have for them? Oh yeah. Go for it. Absolutely go for it. Yeah. okay Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is tough. Um, but you, if you consume enough of like content of people in the space online, you see a wide variety of people who figure it out.
Speaker: They do it, I can do it. Totally. So go for it. It's an adventure. There are no shortcuts too. And I feel like everyone has to go through similar type onboarding process to you and Joey in Japan, no matter your familiarity, no matter your smartness or your income level. It's just like, you right of passage almost, right?
Speaker: There's like no way to prepare for it. Like, I feel like we knew about these things. Like, oh, you know, there's like this, you got to get the phone i address for the phone number for the bank account for the address. Like, like we, I, we knew about these things and i'm like trying to read about it online. And it's like, there's no way you can pre figure this stuff out. You just got to get on the ground. and like try a bunch of stuff and like somehow someone will let you like get the phone number and you're like okay I got I got that foothold kind of thing it's almost like that bouldering a little bit you know that's exactly how we felt is like those little it seems so little like it'd be a very little thing in the states just like going to the DMV which was like a pain but you know it was doing it but like yeah like when we when we went to city hall to do our ID my number card all that stuff it was our second time there um and it was like
Speaker: kind of like a like you have game of death the bruce lee movie it's like that you're like fighting up the pagoda towers like a new boss every time like all right we made it to the next table yeah this chaos they tell you to this new lady to yeah we'll see how they are if they they like our broken japanese um but yeah you know we made it through and yeah every time you accomplish something it's it is very rewarding Cool, man. Well, congratulations again on making it here to Fukuoka. Hopefully, we are going to get dinner after this so we can ah celebrate your move here. And finally, you've succeeded. Yeah. um
Speaker: But yeah, thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for editing. A lot of this equipment actually you see that's filming is is brought to you by Carlos's recommendation. Yeah, I made it. You pretty much it. Yeah, I mean, we were like, Carlos, we wouldn't have known want to what to buy. What do we buy, man? How do we set this up? So you notice the lighting is actually good. This is all Carlos is doing today. Yeah. Thanks for being on the show, Carlos. Yeah, it's finally finally good to be on.
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Buying a House in Japan. If you find the show helpful or at least entertaining, give us a five-star rating. Takes five seconds and really goes a long way. If you or someone you know is looking for a Japanese home, check out Akiyamart.com, our English-friendly site that lets you browse over half a million listings. That's A-K-I-Y-A-M-A-R-T.com to find your dream home in Japan. If you've got questions or feedback, drop us a line, email contact at akiamart.com. You can also find us on Instagram as well as TikTok, where we post properties, tips on the home buying process, and updates on our own purchases and renovations. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.
