Question Moving to Japan later this year, looking for some help with logistics

[dgf83z]

Hi,

I'm moving to Japan later this year and am looking for some help finding resources. I lived in Japan for five winters between about 2010 and 2015, but I'm out of touch as I haven't been in nearly 10 years and my life's changed a lot since then so what I learned back then isn't necessarily useful today.

I've got a couple of questions to get me started:

1. I'll need to move a 40ft shipping container around Japan from time to time, can someone link me to a service that can take care of this? Ideally a company that sends a truck to my house to pick the container up and handles it all the way to its destination.
2. What's the main search engine in Japan these days, still Google?
3. Has it become easier for foreigners to get a SIM card? Back on my working holiday or tourist visa, it was REALLY difficult and the best I could do was a prepaid card that only worked in a crappy Japanese dumb phone... hoping it's gotten easier since then!
4. Can anyone link me to a Japanese site where I can view commercial properties for sale or lease?
5. Similarly, can anyone link me to a Japanese site where I can post wanted ads for Japanese staff?

Don't worry about location or anything just now, the websites can be located anywhere... I'm just starting to do some research and budgeting, I'll use what I learn to find equivalent services in the location I end up in.

Thank you!

 

[mdchachi]

(1) not sure
(2) Yahoo.co.jp is still a thing but I'd say Google is still the main one
(3) if you'll be residing in Japan it should be easy to get a normal phone plan. iPhones are dominant. I think it's all eSIMs now.
(4) I haven't used it myself but you can try 貸店舗・貸事務所・月極駐車場を探す 【goo住宅・不動産】
(5) I'd check out the various Facebook groups as well as Facebook Marketplace

 

[dgf83z]

(1) not sure
(2) Yahoo.co.jp is still a thing but I'd say Google is still the main one
(3) if you'll be residing in Japan it should be easy to get a normal phone plan. iPhones are dominant. I think it's all eSIMs now.
(4) I haven't used it myself but you can try 貸店舗・貸事務所・月極駐車場を探す 【goo住宅・不動産】
(5) I'd check out the various Facebook groups as well as Facebook Marketplace

Thank you! A couple of follow up questions:

3) I might be arriving on a tourist visa while I wait for my startup visa, so can I get a phone plan(s) on a tourist visa? If I can't get a full phone plan, what's the standard offering for tourists/foreigners (if there is one)? I run Samsung phones, no apple devices.. is there anything in Japan that requires an iPhone? Like suica, travel passes, tinder (lol)... is there anything that you can't do without one?

5) Facebook was big for hiring staff when I worked in the skifields, but they tended to be low- or un-skilled service jobs like restaurants/cafes/retail/ski instructors/delivery drivers. This time around I'll be hiring talented professionals and executives to build a ~$20-50mil manufacturing company.. in Australia these types of jobs aren't usually on Facebook but instead are found on sites aimed at professionals like Seek, Indeed, or LinkedIn.. Is there an equivalent Japanese job search website that caters to professionals and executives?

A new question:

6) Has anyone imported a road-registered car into Japan from another country? It's relatively easy to import a car from Japan to Australia so I'm hoping it might be easy-ish the other way. The car is 5yrs old and right hand drive.

I don't necessarily need full answers, a little nudge toward a website or helpful how-to article might get me on the right track to answering these myself.

Thanks