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While the government views the new rules as a necessary measure to curb abuse, some observers worry that they may also deter genuine entrepreneurs.
At a gathering in Tokyo this May, Manish Kumar, who runs an Indian restaurant in Saitama Prefecture, broke down in tears as he recounted his unsuccessful attempt to renew his residence status. He has lived in Japan for 30 years and operated his restaurant for 18 years.
“My children were born in Japan and raised in Japan. They only speak Japanese, and all their friends are Japanese. But we are being told to go back to India,” he told the crowd. Although the specific reasons behind Japan’s tightening of its Business Manager visa policy have not been made public, Kumar’s case quickly attracted attention. It is not an isolated one. In Nishi-Kasai, a neighborhood in Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, a 53-year-old Indian restaurant owner told the media anonymously that he had been unable to raise the funds required under the new rules and had no choice but to close his business. Jagmohan Chandrani, who has lived in Japan for more than 40 years and has long served as chairman of the Edogawa Indian Association, warned that many Indians would be forced to leave Japan and that the community he had spent decades helping to build could begin to unravel.
