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I am French and I just got a working holiday visa for Japan.

When I filled in the form, I said that I want it to start in October but, on the visa, it says that it can start from March 2017 to March 2018.

I would like it to start in October, but I also plan to visit Japan with friends for 2 weeks in August.

I'm afraid that, if the immigration sees my WH visa on my passport, they automatically start it.

If it is the case, it means that I will be authorized to stay only until August 2018.

As I am currently working in a company, I will either leave or ask for a sabbatical year for my working holliday year in Japan.

So, knowing when my WH visa will really start is important for means

My stay in Japan in August will be purely tourism, and I will be able to show my return ticket to prove that I'll stay only 2 weeks

Is it possible to ask immigration to give me a tourist visa and not start my WH visa when I'll arrive in August ?

I know that this question was already asked here some years ago, but I'd like to be 100% sure of the current Japanese immigration policy.

JonathanReez
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Sylvain
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2 Answers2

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You're a French citizen going to work in Japan starting in October. In august, however, you want to visit without a visa for 2 weeks, and are concerned that immigration will invariably activate your working holiday visa.

I just called immigration at Narita Airport (+81-476-326-832 or +81-476-342-211) who said that this is not a problem.

UPDATE: evidently you experienced a language barrier trying to call them yourself (which doesn't surpise me tbh - luckily I speak Japanese myself). Call these numbers again (during Japanese daytime, when more people are around) and say "Konnichiwa, eigo no dekiru yakuin wa imasu ka kudasai?", which means "Hello, is there any English speaking officer here, please?" They should be able to connect you to someone

At immigration, if you see them flipping to the passport page with your visa, just tell them you're only visiting for tourism for two weeks this time, and that you will come back in October for the work. They will then place a visitor's entry stamp (actually a sticker) in the passport.

Crazydre
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I thought I might add to this as I’m going through a similar thing. We live in Melbourne Australia and have just been approved for a working holiday visa, however we are going to Japan in two weeks for a short holiday. We intend to activate our WH visas in May 2018. We were worried about accidentally activating the WH visa so we contacted the embassy in Melbourne today who advised that this is not a problem - we simply need to explain at the airport in Japan that we do not want to activate our visas during this stay and wish to travel on a tourist visa. It didn’t seem to be a problem at all, but if you’re not from Melbourne you may need to check with your local consulate. Hope this helps

Lisa
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