>>109434722You can't live in Japan as a foreigner without also being cleared to work there. The same visa that permits you to rent or own property permits you to work, and that is very deliberate.
You can visit with a traveler or tourism visa but not rent/own property or work. Tourism visas have a strict time limit and force you to stay out of the country for a given duration after leaving.
Ina had a work visa, which allowed her to visit frequently and stay for extended periods, but cover bungled it and allowed it to expire. As a Canadian, Ina can visit Japan without applying for a tourism visa and the visa process is essentially automatic (you fill out a little digital questionnaire on the flight but it's a formality). So basically she flew there thinking she was still on her work visa and then realized once she arrived that she was actually on a tourism visa, which doesn't permit her to work and had to take a hiatus until everything was sorted out. Ironically, without a visa it's perfectly fine to work for a japanese company while not living in Japan. But if you're on on a visa that doesn't permit work, then working is fraud. This is what screwed Ina, because she was automatically put on the wrong visa just by visiting Japan while her proper visa was unknowingly expired
Roara shouldn't have this issue because she was on a visa that wasn't tied to Cover and was already physically in Japan. If that visa lapsed, she would need to leave the country for a while but her business relationship with cover would be unaffected.
Fun fact: Japan does not actually have any equivalent to a permanent residency. Work visas can be renewed indefinitely without a cooldown period as long as you have a credible corporate sponsor, but residency visas have a strict (albeit long) time limit and cooldown period. A lot of folks learn this the hard way when they move to Japan, live there for years, get married, father children and then get deported and have to spend most of their kid's childhood out of the country before they're allowed to return.
