Hey, I thought I recognized your name, and matched it up with a profile on Gaijinpot. Do you post there as well? If so, I've seen you make a lot of helpful posts in the community.
Yes, I post and moderate on several English-teaching forums. I don't believe in using aliases, so my username is the same everywhere.
The driver's license area and car buying guides definitely need improvement, and we'll be working on those with posts throughout December. Things will build up a little over time, with the intent of making a "respectable" repository of knowledge after a year or two online. Shaken is of course big enough to warrant it's own article (or several).
You ought to at lease
define it in your current article!
Could you let us know what you felt the mistakes are in "Alternatives to Working Visas"?
I may miss a few, but here are the obvious ones.
Sugar momma/Sugar daddy paragraph.
You wrote: "if you at any time become unmarried, or if Immigration loses confidence in the stability of your relationship--even if you didn't actually sign for divorce, your visa will become void and you will be required to leave the country."
If you get divorced, your spouse visa is still valid until it expires.
Millionaire option.
You wrote: "If you have capital and connections enough to start a real company, with employees other than yourself (I think around 5 full time employees are required), there exists a business manager visa. "
Actually, it's only 2 (Japanese) employees.
And, although you put this in the alternative to work visas section, the business manager/investor visa is still a work visa.
Moreover, you really don't need as much money to set up as you suggested. Read this for a little background.
http://injapan.gaijinpot.com/2010/0...-for-foreigners-to-start-a-business-in-japan/
You also failed to mention the dependent and cultural activities visas (which needs special permission to work PT), as well as internships, trainee, and intracompany transfer visa. For those with Japanese heritage (or other specific case by case reasons), there is also the long-term resident visa.
Why you mention Japanese citizenship in that article is beyond me. Anyway, you wrote: "Applying for Japanese Citizenship usually comes after maintaining permanent residence for a few years."
No. You do not even need PR. One can apply for citizenship after living as a full-time resident here for only 5 years. If, however, you only meant to say that people usually apply for citizenship after having PR for a few years, I would question the validity of that statement, too, and ask for some supportive document.
As long as the article is about "alternatives", why not mention self-sponsorship? And, the opening paragraph does hedge on what qualifications are needed ("Usually, you need a 4-year university degree to obtain a working visa and come work in Japan."), but you might also want to mention that experience alone, or experience coupled with a less-than-college-degree-education, will also suffice for a work visa.
Lastly, your remark in the beginning about these alternatives ("They are generally more complicated than the working visa") is hogwash. They usually require as much/little red tape as a normal work visa. Nothing more complicated in them at all.
