OSAKA - In a quiet neighborhood of Osaka stands a four-story building with around 40 rooms. Yet more than 100 companies are registered there, despite the absence of any visible workers.
“About 120 or 130 companies,” said an expert familiar with the city’s minpaku (private lodging) business, pointing to partitions that divide each room into smaller sections. “You can see the walls separating them.”
At night, nearly every window glows with light, but no one can be seen inside. “All the rooms have lights on,” reported a TV crew member, “but there’s no sign of people.”
Most of the firms, according to experts, are Chinese-run companies with little or no actual business activity. Their primary purpose, it appears, is to establish eligibility for Japan’s business management visa — a residence status created in 2015 to attract foreign entrepreneurs, allowing them to live in Japan if they invest more than 5 million yen or employ at least two full-time workers.
The Osaka city government recently decided to end new applications for “special district minpaku” lodging licenses at the end of May next year, following complaints over noise and garbage problems. The system had allowed year-round short-term rentals in designated zones to meet the surge in foreign visitors.
Since the city announced the cutoff, administrative scriveners have reported a sharp rise in last-minute applications — many from Chinese nationals. One Osaka office said the number of requests has grown about 2.5 times since the announcement, with roughly half of the applicants being Chinese.
Professor Matsumura of Han University, who studies the minpaku industry, said, “These firms often rent small rooms just to register a head office. In reality, they’re paper companies set up to obtain a visa.” He pointed to one apartment building in Osaka’s Chuo Ward where more than 130 companies were registered, almost all Chinese.
Although the building has only 40 rooms, mailboxes show over 100 company names, some with multiple mail slots assigned to a single room. Residents nearby say they rarely see anyone entering or leaving. Even late at night, the lights remain on, but the building stays eerily quiet.
The building’s owner told reporters that the entire property had been leased to a real estate agency and that he was not involved in its management.
Japan’s business management visa was intended to encourage foreign investment, but critics have long said the requirements were too lenient. On Chinese social media, posts claim that “moving to Japan is as easy as breathing” and that “all you need is 5 million yen.”
The number of Chinese nationals staying in Japan under the business management visa has tripled in the past decade. Some are suspected of using shell companies to obtain residency without conducting real business.
In response, the Immigration Services Agency raised the capital requirement for the visa to 30 million yen on October 16th. But according to Matsumura, a rush of new company registrations took place in the days before the rule took effect.
“At this location alone, about 90 firms are registered, and 80 of them were established after September 20th,” he said. “Almost all are Chinese companies that scrambled to set up before the deadline.”
A representative from a firm that assists Chinese entrepreneurs said many clients genuinely want to live and work in Japan. “Japan is admired by everyone,” he said. “They want the freedom, the safety, and the clean environment.”
However, the growing number of paper companies tied to immigration purposes has alarmed Osaka city officials. Mayor Yokoyama commented, “The management visa issue is a national matter, but we expect the government to enforce stricter oversight. We will not hesitate to revoke licenses for operators that violate the intent of the minpaku system.”
Experts warn that similar trends are appearing in Tokyo, where wealthy Chinese families are reportedly using paper companies to move to Japan for their children’s education. “In some prestigious public schools, nearly all top students are Chinese,” one commentator said. “It’s becoming a form of education migration.”
With China’s economy slowing and many citizens disillusioned with government policies, Japan’s stability and relative openness are drawing increasing interest — even as authorities scramble to close the loopholes that allowed fake firms to flourish.
Source: KTV NEWS
