RetireJapan

cfryal, a belated thank you for your response, and congratulations on carving out a long-term writing/editorial business in Japan.

In the future, I'd definitely like a dedicated home workspace. As you say, there are multiple advantages. Need a bigger home first though... or do I? If I could dedicate 5% of the floorspace of my rented apartment exclusively to business use, are tax deductions available?

Thanks Kuma!

I would think that a dedicated workspace doesn't need to be big, or even perfectly well-defined – just reasonably accurate and defensible. So if you use 5% of your space for work, I'd think that should be fine.

I've always used the white form for tax filing (shiroiro shinkoku, 白色申告) because I haven't been convinced of the merits of the blue form (aoiro shinkoku, 青色申告) balanced against its bookkeeping requirements. (Although I should rethink that: apparently the blue form has advantages.)

Anyway, the white form has lots of places where you can find potential workplace deductions: 水道光熱費 on page 1, for utilities like electricity, and 地代家賃 on page 2, for rent.

With the usual disclaimer to the effect that I'm not a tax accountant, I think it's well worth exploring all the categories on the white form to make sure you're taking advantage of deductions available for the expenses necessary for work. Apart from obvious computer-related stuff and consumables, freelancers in writing/editing usually have 新聞図書費 expenses (printed matter and the like related to work), as well as 通信費 communications-related expenses. Probably 旅費交通費 transportation-related expenses if you're mobile!

Great advice again, thanks. Partial deductions for rent/utilities would make a difference.

I'll stick with the white form for the time being but will look into the blue form at some point.

I work from home, using a bedroom specifically as the office. I actually measured the room size on real estate map, so I can deduct the 10% (ratio of space) as work expense.

Personally, I enjoy having my PC with double screen setup ready to fire in the morning. I can select the music, etc... I also work on some hardware that would be hard to carry around.

I also enjoy being there to welcome the kids home from school when needed.

I have worked in DMM.make in Akihabara for a previous company. These kind of shared workspace can be expensive (~2万円/month there) but can provide many services like meeting rooms (JP clients generally liked the tech startup feeling of the place), and community event. They can even help you find investors to pitch too if you work that relationship with the staff.

But 0 commute + custom working space still wins for me.

Anyone know how to claim the ¥4,100 per day the government is apparently offering to freelancers because of Coronavirus?

It was on the news but I cant find any info on criteria, procedure etc...