“Absolute nightmare”: In Japan, bureaucracy strangles foreign starting owners

It has been a few weeks since Beau Becker applied to the Japanese immigration office to extend his one -year visa for entrepreneurs, and he fears a repetition of the scenario of last year: a delayed approval process that triggers freezing in his bank account in order to prevent him from making payments.

“It was an absolute nightmare,” said Becker, who heads a start-up from Health Drinks. “I can only pray that they will renew the visa.”

The rigid rules for visual expansion as well as a banking system and a real estate market that are difficult for temporary residents are among the obstacles that make it difficult for them to set up companies in the long term, according to interviews with more than a dozen entrepreneurs living in Japan.

At the game, Japan's offer is to strengthen risk capital investments and regain its innovative advantage after falling back in disruptive technologies such as smartphones, social media and AI. Three years ago, the then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a plan to create 100,000 start-ups and 100 unicorns by 2027.

However, there are currently only around 10,000 start-ups and a handful of unicorns. The government is aware that immigrants are an essential part of the US entrepreneurial ecosystem and tried to import top talents to build up a start-up scene.