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Comment by barrydahlberg | Hacker News Reader

My wife is Japanese and when I said I was starting a company she asked me But, how? Are you even allowed to do that? I didn't really understand how you could not be at the time.

I guess that's why NZ ranks #1 and Japan ranks #91 for getting started.

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Indeed. Starting a business in Japan is a hurry-up and wait game. There was a recent panel sponsored by the ACCJ last month which invited several government officials to a panel discussion to inquire into why things were so burdensome and to come up with solutions. At the conclusion of the panel we had a long list of ways the 'start-up' process and culture of Japan could be improved-- among them was updating laws, making banking and related matters for small business (bank transfer fees) easier, encouraging the media to cover more entrepreneurs, and engaging college students in the start-up process more.

I'm a start-up founder based in Tokyo and the most popular questions I receive is, why are you founding a start-up focused on a market outside of Japan? Market research aside and my being American who will be returning to the US some time in the very near future, Japan is not the easiest company to start and run and successful small operation in. A Rank of #91 for such an advanced country is an indication of the system being broken and burdensome.

One of the big things we did at the tech incubator is tell people how easy it is to start a company -- there isn't a significantly higher paperwork burden or capital requirement these days than there is for a US LLC. (That did not used to be true.) The problem is that this has not hit the mainstream in terms of cultural acceptance yet.

I knew this and I was absolutely amazed by the amount of time it took to get my health insurance, pension, and taxes squared away when I went full-time: 3 hours. Two hours of that was bike riding to and from city hall.

How does one get a visa to be in Japan if they intend to start a company there? It would appear to be difficult to get a visa if you are not already profitable, correct?

Talk to me privately for specifics. Short version: getting a visa is hard, renewing one is easy if you are as profitable as your previous employment. The easy paths go through native megacorps.

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