What the digital nomad visa actually permits, line by line

The Japanese digital nomad visa is not a chapter of the immigration law. It is a single addition to the list of "designated activities" published as 告示 (kokuji — official notification) under the existing 特定活動 (tokutei katsudō — designated activities) residence status. The paragraph that defines what you may do is 告示第53号 (kokuji dai go-jū-san gō — notification number 53), added to the list on March 29, 2024 and operative from March 31, 2024.

The body of the notification is a few lines. The companion notification 告示第54号 covers spouse and child. Both are publicly posted by the 出入国在留管理庁 (shutsunyū-koku zairyū kanri-chō — Immigration Services Agency, the agency under the Ministry of Justice that runs immigration). Most of the English-language confusion online comes from translating summaries of summaries. The fix is to translate the actual text once and refer back to it when a forum post sounds wrong.

This article does that. It quotes the official Japanese, translates each clause, and names the four lines that cause most of the misreadings.

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The activity definition, verbatim

The 53号 notification names two activity shapes. The Japanese is:

「外国の法令に準拠して設立された法人その他の外国の団体との雇用契約に基づいて、本邦において情報通信技術を用いて当該団体の外国にある事業所における業務に従事する活動又は外国にある者に対し、情報通信技術を用いて役務を有償で提供し、若しくは物品等を販売等する活動（本邦に入国しなければ提供又は販売等できないものを除く。）」

Read clause by clause, two activities are permitted:

1. Working in Japan, using information and communication technology, on duties of an overseas office of a foreign-incorporated entity. You hold an employment contract with that entity.
2. Providing paid services, or selling goods, to persons outside Japan using information and communication technology.

The parenthetical at the end excludes activities that cannot be provided or sold without physically entering Japan. That clause is the one that quietly closes off the gap-year-tour-guide reading.

Source: 出入国在留管理庁 page on 特定活動（デジタルノマド及びその配偶者・子）at moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/designatedactivities10_00001.html.

Four lines that cause 80% of the misreadings

The notification sits inside a small set of conditions, written across the Immigration Bureau page and 告示52号 (the eligibility省令 — the ministerial criteria). Four of those lines drive most of the confusion.

Line 1: the country list is not "anywhere with a tax treaty."

「ビザ（査証）免除の対象かつ日本と租税条約を締結する国・地域の国籍」

Both conditions must hold. Eligibility is restricted to nationals of states that hold (a) short-term visa exemption agreements with Japan AND (b) a tax treaty with Japan. The published list lands at 49 countries and territories. A US, UK, Australian, or Singaporean passport qualifies. A Vietnamese, Indonesian, or Filipino passport currently does not, because the visa-exemption leg is missing. A Russian passport currently does not, because the tax-treaty side is suspended for application purposes. The list is updated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Line 2: the income floor is on the applicant alone, not the household.

「申請の時点で、申請人個人の年収が１,０００万円以上であること」

Annual income of ¥10 million or more at the time of application, on the applicant individually. The 54号 spouse-child path does not allow you to combine your spouse's income to meet the threshold. The applicant must clear ¥10 million on their own paystubs, employment contracts, or business records. A couple where each earns ¥6 million does not qualify; one of them must be the named 53号 holder.

Line 3: six months is a 365-day cap, not a calendar reset.

「本邦において『特定活動』(告示53号)を指定されて滞在する期間が1年のうち6か月を超えないこと」

The maximum stay under 53号 is six months, and it is non-renewable inside Japan. After you leave, you cannot re-enter on 53号 until you have been outside Japan for at least six months. The rule is a 6-of-12 cap measured from the prior 53号 stay's end. A January-to-July stay closes the window until the following January. Splitting "three months in, fly out, three months back in" does not reopen it.

Line 4: domestic employment is closed even with permission.

「資格外活動許可は原則認められない。本邦の公私の機関との雇用契約等に基づく就労活動は不可」

Standard work-permit add-ons (資格外活動許可 / shikaku-gai katsudō kyoka — permission to engage in activities outside the granted status) are not granted on 53号 in normal practice. Employment under a Japanese public or private institution's contract is also not allowed. You may work for the foreign company that hired you, on overseas-office duties, using ICT. That is the activity defined by line 53号. You may not pick up a Japanese English-teaching job on the side. You may not freelance for a Tokyo studio that issues you a Japanese contract.

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What the spouse-child notification 54号 actually says

告示第54号 covers a spouse or child accompanying the 53号 holder. The pinned phrase on the Immigration Services Agency page reads:

「デジタルノマド(特定活動53号)の扶養を受ける配偶者又は子として行う日常的な活動」

Translated: daily activities performed by a spouse or child receiving support from the digital nomad. Three constraints are loaded into "受ける" (ukeru — receiving) and "扶養" (fuyō — support / dependency).

• Cohabitation is presumed. The spouse or child lives with the 53号 holder in Japan. A spouse who arrives a month later and stays in a separate apartment is not within the carve-out.
• Legal-spouse only. Common-law partners (内縁 / naien — common-law spouse) and same-sex partners married overseas do not currently count for 54号. The Ministry of Justice has not extended the definition.
• Dependency on the 53号 holder. If the 53号 holder leaves Japan, the family member must leave with them. They cannot remain on 54号 once the supporter departs.

The activities permitted on 54号 are "日常的な活動" (nichijō-teki na katsudō — everyday activities). Schooling for a child under 54号 is allowed in this category. Paid work for an income, by either the spouse or the child, is not.

Source: same Immigration Services Agency page; the "本人が帰国したら家族だけ残ることは不可" rule is repeated in the explanatory PDF the agency mailed embassies in March 2024.

What the visa is not

Three categories of activity are excluded by the 53号 text or by the surrounding ministerial regulation. The exclusion is built into the parenthetical "本邦に入国しなければ提供又は販売等できないものを除く" and into 告示52号's eligibility省令.

The first is in-person services delivered to clients inside Japan. A tour guide leading Tokyo walks for foreign tourists is doing work that requires entering Japan to perform. That falls under the parenthetical exclusion. A photographer doing in-person Tokyo shoots for an overseas magazine is in the same category. The activity itself, not the customer's location, is the test.

The second is paid employment with any Japanese institution. The text on the Immigration Services Agency page ("本邦の公私の機関との雇用契約等に基づく就労活動は不可") closes employment with both private companies (公私の機関 — public and private institutions) and public ones. This holds whether the contract is full-time, part-time, dispatch (haken / 派遣), or freelance with a registered Japanese client.

The third is self-employment with Japanese-domiciled customers. The activity is permitted only to the extent the customer is "外国にある者" (gaikoku ni aru mono — a person located outside Japan). A Japanese-domiciled customer puts you outside the 53号 perimeter. A Japanese subsidiary of a US company is treated as Japanese-domiciled.

The household pattern: if the contract or invoice is in JPY to a Japanese-registered counterparty, the activity is outside 53号. If the contract or invoice is in USD/EUR/GBP/etc. to an offshore counterparty, the activity is inside.

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Where the visa lands you administratively

53号 does not issue a 在留カード (zairyū kādo — residence card). The Immigration Services Agency page states this directly:

「在留期間が３月を超えますが在留カード交付の対象外です」

Translated: even though the period of stay exceeds three months, residence-card issuance does not apply. The visa stamp in your passport and the 指定書 (shitei-sho — designation document attached to the passport) are the only documents you carry. Banks, ward offices, and mobile carriers run procedures off the residence card by default. A 53号 holder brings the passport stamp and the shitei-sho instead.

Three downstream consequences flow from no-residence-card status:

• No 住民登録 (jūmin tōroku — resident registration) at the ward office. That closes off 国民健康保険 (kokumin kenkō hoken — National Health Insurance), which is why the visa requires private travel medical insurance with ¥10 million minimum coverage. A separate piece walks the private health insurance requirements for 53号.
• Most Japanese bank accounts close to you. The major banks open accounts on a residence card. A small set of foreign-friendly branches accept the passport and shitei-sho, but the path is slower and product set is narrower.
• Most furnished apartment operators want a residence card. Tokyo midterm operators that work with corporate-relocation tenants ask for the card before key handover. A 53号 holder needs an operator who accepts passport-and-stamp, which narrows the housing options that work with the visa.

The choice of housing is the practical bottleneck the 53号 text creates. The activity rules are a paragraph; the housing path is a structural problem.

Reading the official text yourself

The full 告示 list is published on the Immigration Services Agency website. The path:

1. moj.go.jp/isa/ → 在留資格 → 特定活動 → 告示一覧 (kokuji ichiran — notification list).
2. The PDF "在留資格『特定活動』告示一覧表" lists every numbered notification with its abbreviated label and the operative date.
3. Item 53 is "デジタルノマド," item 54 is "デジタルノマドの配偶者・子."
4. The full activity text is at the page linked above (designatedactivities10_00001.html), and the eligibility省令 is published on the e-Gov laws portal.

If a forum post or a relocation blog tells you something that contradicts the text, the text wins. A common pattern: a blog says "spouse can work part-time on 54号 with permission," which contradicts the "資格外活動許可は原則認められない" clause. Another: a blog says you can switch from 53号 to a longer status inside Japan. That switch path is governed by the 53号-to-longer-visa rules, not by the 53号 notification itself.

The official text is short. The translations below are what you go back to when something else sounds off.

The four lines, condensed

• Country eligibility: visa-exemption AND tax-treaty country, on the 49-name list. Both conditions, not either.
• Income floor: ¥10 million per applicant, at application time, individual basis.
• Duration cap: 6 months in any rolling 12-month window, non-renewable inside Japan.
• Activity scope: ICT work for the foreign employer or for offshore customers; in-person services and Japanese-domiciled customers excluded; no domestic employment under any contract type.

Print these. Tape them inside the file folder where you keep your visa paperwork. The next time a relocation forum says something that disagrees with one of the four, look at the line, then close the tab.

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— halfkey publishes the housing-path piece for 53号 holders separately, with operator-by-operator notes on which Tokyo midterm units accept passport-and-shitei-sho instead of a residence card.