Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson <ken_nicolson@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I can't speak for the specifics, but you are (rhetorically) violating
>the Immigration Laws by working on a tourist visa. The least you will
>get, after immigration spot a lot of 3-month stamps in your passport,
>is told you can't come back into the country without a proper working
>visa obtained in advance - this happened to an ex-colleague of mine.

Well, I can't talk about personal experience, but I can share the
experience of my good friend..  uh... Brew.  It probably won't
answer your question at all, but it'll give you an idea what will
happen if you get red-flagged.

Brew was working on a tourist visa through a fairly thinly-veiled 
thing where he had set up a company in Canada and his employers
contracted with his company, which in turn paid him a salary.

On the third trip into Japan, the immigration officer red-flagged
Brew (he had forgotten his air ticket back to Canada) and made him
go into the special room.  The special room held Brew, another
Canadian, and two Koreans.  One of the Koreans kept saying "DENWA
KUDASAI! DENWA KUDASAI!" until he finally wigged out, started
throwing punches at security guards, and was hauled off to
somewhere else.  Then it was Brew's turn.

Well, Brew sat down before the guard and lied through his teeth.
"I'm just here to learn Japanese", he said.  "Maybe look around
for a job."   Well, the guard wanted the name and phone number of
one of Brew's friends.  Problem was, Brew really only knew people
from work at the time.  If he gave the immigration official the
name and number of someone at work, bad things would happen, but
then Brew decided that he really had no choice.

When the Immigration guard hung up the phone after talking with
Mr. Isozaki, he said "Mr Hamilton, "..  er, I mean, "Mr. Bamilton,
you have been staying illegally.  It is the decision of the
country of Japan that you be sent back to Korea."  Well, that was
bad.  The entire country wanted rid of me.  Er, Brew.  Well, then the
immigration guard called in his supervisor.  After some talking in
rapid-fire Japanese, the supervisor said, "Mr. Bamilton, it is the
decision of the country of Japan that you be sent back to
Canada.".  Well, that was better, actually.  But Brew said, "Listen,
all my stuff is in Tokyo, including my air ticket back to Canada.
Can I somehow go get it?"

Well, after some more rapid-fire discussion in Japanese between
the two guards, one turned to Brew and said "You may have a 14-day
tourist visa to get your things."  Then, for some reason, the
supervisor decided to call Isozaki.  He hung up the phone, looked
at Brew's passport, *stamp*, *stamp*.  90-day tourist visa.  "Mr.
Bamilton, when you come back in 90 days please do not forget your
airline ticket home."

To this day, Brew doesn't know what Isozaki said.  Isozaki claims
that he said the same thing both times.  He won't tell Brew what
that was.  It must have been something good, though, since Brew
has never again had any troubles entering Japan.  

Brew is no longer a stupid 20-year-old kid, and would not think of
working illegall again.  I suppose that the test of what his
immigration record looks like will come later this year when he
applies for a Working Holiday visa.

-- 
 - awh
   http://www.awh.org/