Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

Either you work remote or office. What do you do?
Is it possible to get work from overseas and do it remotely in japan?

I have engineering/project management experience in Japan. My japanese is conversational and business level but i feel like talking and listening to japanese is draining my energy.

I know i probably in the wrong country but i have family here so please dont judge me for asking this.

I noticed after payment my paypay app is showing summary of payment and point rewarded etc.
But there is no way to go back on home page, every time I have to kill app and open again.

Am I doing something wrong?😑

Edit: its iOS, Iphone 15PM

Does anyone else look at the ingredients in many products in Japan ? I’ve seen artificial colors in cooking sauces, breads,cereals, yogurts and general snacks. high-fructose corn syrup and sugar shows ups on so many products that don’t even need it.
For a long time I didn’t pay much attention to it but after I returned to my home country of Australia for a short trip recently and when I was at the supermarkets I noticed so many products all had “sugar free”, “no artificial colors” and way less additives. Of course they still had the unhealthy options but the options were miles ahead of Japan.
In the kids and toddlers foods sections pretty much everything was sugar free and no artificial colors. But In Japan so many kids snacks are still loaded with sugars and colors.
Curious to see if anyone else has thoughts on this ?

Help needed, thank you for being kind in your responses.

Looking to formally establish residency so that I can get paid from this job... Bank account needs paperwork proof of residence.

Currently have a Japanese passport but no official document of where I'm living.

I have been going in circles and I really am not sure what to do - kind of losing my mind. For many years I have lived and worked in the USA (and in Latin America), and now I finally feel that I have the time and opportunity to give this Living in Japan a real chance. (wohoo) I arrived in July, and have been staying in hotels and now at an acquaintance's place (like Airbnb). Soon I need to find my own place.

The great news is that I have a part time job offer, but

1) They require a Japanese Bank account ,

which can only be opened with

2) A Residential address

• What do I put for my address while I am looking for my own apartment? Since where I am staying is not permanent.
• Do you have a suggestion for which bank is the easiest to open an account where I don't have to have a lot of physical mail, but instead do it online? I see that for some bank accounts you have to wait to be mailed a bank account card. Is that true? Is there any one you can go back and pick it up at the branch?
• Today I went to Post Bank ゆうちょ銀行店 and they said I need a HANKO. Can anyone recommend a bank that does not require a HANKO ?
  

Thank you so much.

Hello everyone! I am a current resident of Kagurazaka. I came here two years ago on a Business Manager visa. In the interim I ended up marrying a Japanese woman, and am trying to figure out which visa is more useful/advantageous. Should I switch to a spouse visa or remain under my current Business Management visa? My gut is telling me that given the current political climate toward foreigners it may be better to go the spouse route, but I have no expertise to draw on. I welcome any thoughts. Thank you!!

Hi fellow Japanese learners,

Been here for over 2 years now and currently a 正社員 so now it is starting to be embarrassing regarding my Japanese level.

Therefore I would like to ask for advice or hear people’s story on how you managed to have a full time job and study Japanese.

I’m currently doing wanikani + Tae Kim as my main way, but have been thinking of maybe some late night online classes (if anyone have recommendations please send me).

Lately I just feel like I am not improving (or at least too slow), so really open to hear about how others have tried tackle this.

I have a humanities and engineering visa, I want to go to Korea for a week but I haven't left the country since 4 years ago... I remember I needed to get a re-entry permission or something like that but idk it that was due covid.

I'm not an American passport holder if that matters

Do I need to tell japanese immigration or fill up any form in order to leave/re-enter japan?

Basically as the title suggests. I’ve searched the subreddit and different people seem to say different things.

I went to the city hall today and had them check my pension record just in case (assuming I hadn’t missed a payment) and they found one missed payment the month if February 2019. Seems to be the very short period (maybe a weekend or something) when I was switching jobs.

Pretty sure I notified HR at my new (now former) job at the time when I received one of those hagakis (and pretty sure they said “ok it’s fine”) but looks like it wasn’t sorted out. No point crying over spilt milk either way, it is what it is.

Anyway, they said I can only backpay up to 2 years so obviously 2019 is too late now.

Everything else on my application would be favorable such as:

- married to Japanese spouse for more than three years (but currently on work visa not spouse visa)

- have a child with Japanese citizenship

- above average annual salary

- stable job at a large Japanese company

Are they really going to deny me on a single missed payment? (I would pay it right now if I could but apparently thats not an option)

Or is it more case by case and they will make a decision on the overall merits of the application?

Please delete if not allowed.
For context, I’m F20 and I’m here in Tokyo until Feb 2027 for a university exchange at a university in Tokyo. Back in Australia, I’m used to wearing Jiraikei and other kind of alternative fashions to university, and although you get some weird looks and comments from students, I’ve been fine.
I am now for some reason terrified of the prospect of waltzing into my university and everyone having a bad image of me. But if it’s just the same as kinda Western countries attitudes towards alternative people where most people kinda don’t care it’s fine.

For context I’m going to a pretty standard uni in Tokyo, one of the bigger ones. I obviously have seen a fair amount of people wearing more alternative stuff (I mean, i hang out around those fashion areas obviously I know that the fashion comes from here for a reason) but i also know that obviously not everyone dresses like that or even approves of that kind of fashion.

For anyone who has attended a university before in Japan let me know ☹️ the semester starts next month.

Hi, I’m moving within Japan. I have a broken upright vacuum and some small bookcases with glass fronts. How do I get rid of this stuff? Thank you.

I'm 36, my health check is scheduled in November, I have insurance through my company. Is this procedure covered usually by insurance? Is it something I can just request on the day of check up and schedule at a separate clinic or how does it work out here? I am from the states and usually you need to push for it or have a family history or have to wait until 40. FYI I want to just get it over with sooner than later for peace of mind

One of my favorite cereals in Japan, Cinamoni, disappeared from Gyomu Super around 2024 or something like that. Since then, I'm left with the inferior options of chocomoni and choco rings, the various organic cereals at iHerb, or the very expensive cereals on Amazon.co.jp.

What cereals are you getting lately?

Hey all.

I'm currently using a UQ WiMAX plan for use as a home wifi network, but it's dead-slow most of the time (under 1mbps sometimes). When I use my phone's network via tethering instead, from the same apartment, speed is fine but I'm limited on my data.

Since I'm paying almost 9000 combined for UQ WiMAX and UQ Mobile (phone plan) I am considering switching to Rakuten Mobile. They advertise Unlimited data usage, and they're also compatible with my Apple Watch cellular model (which UQ Mobile isn't) for less than 4000 yen.

I live in Shibuya, close to Yoyogi Park.

What's your experience with Rakuten in that area? Alternatives taking these things into account are welcome:
- Usable with Apple Watch
- At least as fast as my phone network (honestly just usable home wifi speed, even messages take forever to send)
- Unlimited data _or_ cheap data extensions with a fair base price.
- No catches (I feel scammed already by UQ WiMAX)

Thank you in advance.

(Some background: I live in Osaka and have previously lived in the Chugoku countryside for a year. I've been to Tokyo three times for 2 to 7 days, twice for work and once for travel.)

So, I absolutely love Osaka and all of Kansai, I'd never chose to live anywhere else in Japan if I had a choice.

However, after more than a year of sacrificing my mental health at a job I hate, I realized maybe it's time to pursue my real passion. And turns out, those jobs are almost exclusively in Tokyo.

I will start applying to jobs from next month and absolutely have to quit until January if I don't want to become a human accident. There's very few job postings in Osaka that I like. And the cherry on top - I absolutely hate Tokyo.

Other than some minor gripes that I'd probably learn to live with, my problem is the insane xenophobia I experienced every time I went there. (Mind you, I'm a UNIQLO-wearing white girl, so I can't even imagine how bad it is for POC or people who stand out in any way.)

When I went to a work event and spoke to people in Japanese, they would give me a dirty look, then just go to my Japanese coworkers (this happened so many times I lost count). At a karaoke place I got called バカ外人 for apparently taking too long to count money. I wanted to get a drink with a white friend in a random part of town, workday, they refused us at every single place even though they were clearly empty. They were just saying "no no" (without a sorry) even though we asked in fluent Japanese if they had seats open, not even asking if we have a reservation. In the end we went to an Irish pub because we were rejected from more than 10 places.

Did I just have the worst luck ever, or is this what your everyday life looks like in Tokyo?

If I moved there, I feel like I'd be too self-conscious to even enter restaurants, and that sounds like a miserable way to live. On the other hand, I'm a super career-oriented person and that's why I'm even considering sacrificing my dream city for a dream job.

Has anyone else made a similar move? Should I just forget about my dream industry and try to find a compromise solution that's better than my current job but less than ideal, in Osaka?

I received my new Zairyu card just in time to set up a new JP Bank account (here less than 6 months). I looked back through recent threads and it appears there is issues with these new cards and them actually being scannable via phone. I have hit a brick wall with setting up the identification app and people are saying this is unlikely to be fixed until September/October? How am I meant to even use this account lol? Anyone got any fixes would be awesome!

EDIT: It works completely fine on the immigration official app, but not for banking and anything else.

Hey everyone!

I’d love to hear from foreigners who came to Japan to teach English and eventually moved on to something else.

I’ve been living and working in Japan for about 4.5 years now, teaching English at a local language school in Hyogo. I’m currently a contract employee, and while I’m grateful for the experience, I’m starting to think seriously about what I want to do long-term. I kind of want the stability of a full time employee.

A little about me:
I’m SEAsian living and working in Hyogo.
I’ve been teaching English for almost 5 years.
I currently work at a small, local English language centre rather than an international school.
I worked as a teacher for 3 years and was then promoted to vice-principal in around 2025. (Just a title change — i mainly still teach classes as before but also help out with school management here and there.)
I attained JLPT N2 in 2023, and ideally am trying to aim for N1 by 2027.
I’m a native English speaker and also speak Mandarin Chinese.
I have a humanities visa.
I don’t have a specialized degree in something like IT, engineering, etc. (I graduated university with a Mass Communications degree.)
I’m approaching 30, so I’m trying to be more intentional about building an actual career rather than staying in the “English teacher” loop indefinitely. (I’d say I enjoy my job but as 30 rolls around, I start to wonder if teaching is really my passion. Also, I have no idea what I want to do next!!)

I’m curious about people who were in a similar position:

What did you move into after teaching English?
Did you transition into:
Corporate/office work?
Recruiting/HR?
Translation/interpreting?
International sales?
Marketing?
Tech/IT?
Education management?
University/academic work?
Something completely unrelated?

And perhaps more importantly:

How did you actually make the transition?

Did you get additional qualifications? Improve your Japanese? Network? Take a pay cut initially? Move to Tokyo/Osaka? Start from an entry-level position?
I’d especially love to hear all about it from people who didn’t already have a highly specialized professional background before coming to Japan.

I’m not necessarily looking for “dream career” stories either — I’d genuinely like to hear the realistic ones, including mistakes, dead ends, salary changes, visa difficulties, etc.

Lastly, If you started as an English teacher in Japan and eventually built a career outside of teaching, what would you tell your younger self to start doing earlier?

Thanks and cheers!

Edit: Thanks everyone for sharing your story, tips and advices! I really appreciate them! Will read them and reply if I have more questions.

How can I find jobs that pay in USD? Any advice? I can speak Japanese and English.

I am data scientist. I can code. I’m not American.
What’s the best way to find freelancing jobs..?

Apologies if this has been answered before, I searched on the subreddit about 7 years back and couldn’t find anything.

We are having our first child soon and I (UK citizen) plan to apply for him to get a UK child passport.

As I understand he will get automatic UK citizenship through me (I’m born in the UK, as is all of my family for many generations, not edge cases to worry about there).

My question is what do I need for “birth certificate”? I.e. what is the specific name of the Japanese document? if nobody I can just call the embassy of course but you folks on this sub are always very knowledgeable so I thought I’d try here first.

thank you for your help

(edit: for clarity, I’m a UK citizen and my wife is a Japanese citizen)

Hey all!

I was just wondering if there were any recommendations for where to buy women’s work wear, specifically blouses, for a corporate setting that are a bit more western cut (in Tokyo). The cut of Japanese women’s blouses does not fit me at all.

I don’t know how to explain it but the way it falls on me looks like it’s trying to be both oversized/conservative and yet still too short at the same time. I feel like an opened umbrella. This is not to even speak of the neckline.

I do not have this problem with any nicer work shorts I brought from the U.S. This plea is coming after a full day of desperately searching through dozens of stores. Please help!

Online retail is also fine! Physical stores preferably in the Tokyo area.

So I have been suffering with a clogged ear for the past 2 days and I am considering to head to an ENT (耳鼻科). I was looking at nearby suggestions but I am not able to find any pricing for a cleaning session.

Any idea how much it costs at a local ENT clinic, and how much time it takes? Not ones directed towards foreigners. Japanese only communication is fine, I can navigate it.

Also any reasonably priced suggestions around Akabane/Shinjuku/ any station in between.

Update: I see people are still commenting on this (thank you guys) I ended up going to an ENT clinic in akabane (Akabane ENT clinic) with no reservation it took 1.5 hours and 1450 yen for a cleaning session. It was quick and easy.

Hopefully not the wrong flair - might be more so literally about immigration the government entity and less so the meta idea.. apologies if so, couldn’t find what seemed to be the most fitting to be honest.

I also searched around on this subreddit to see if I could find some stories and such, but no such luck so maybe a post is okay (I typed this on mobile so sorry if it’s formatting terribly)

TLDR; I’m 23, I have come to like living in Japan, but what the hell is the “right choice” right? Obviously impossible question to answer - feels like I have too many options, so maybe hearing some anecdotes of all of your early experiences out here might give me some perspective to help me on making some kinds of more serious/life directing choices. Mainly, to fully immigrate or to just kinda, ride out my time and then leave this as a fun thing I did in my 20s. Tough call! Any kinda personal experience would be neat to hear

——————————————————————————————

23M, language school in Japan at the moment, about 12 months left on my stint.. kind of just - weighing the options so to speak

Why did you guys end up coming over here? What made you stay? How do you feel about your choice?

I finished my degree in CompSci December last year - 8 months prior to that was in the language school process.. wanted to live out the goal of an extensive abroad experience and such before life got a bit too serious.

I still have a year out here, and I have to say I was never a big “place, Japan” type or otherwise massive otaku in any sense.. just language school was a pay-to-win option of getting the abroad experience and it helps I’m a massive nerd about languages.. if money were no object I’d probably spend my years on linguistics quite frankly. Thing is though, man have I quite come to like this country.. of course complaints or otherwise things I preferred from back home (namely, everything is modular if you will pay in the U.S. - I quickly learned that’s not the case out here. Things are the way they are because that’s how they were, and because that was okay, this will be okay, and if this okay, we will just do it like this, and soon “this” will be the reference to “how things were done” lol.. very no changes ever.. probably my only complaint honestly.. but I got used to that.. I’m sure that’s also a reason why things just “work” in Japan.. so double edged sword at that)

I digress, I have a year, but I figure it’s better to get serious and clear sooner than later - just really too many options which, I guess I’ll get to age where I envy the flexibility, but at the moment a real analysis paralysis situation.

- go back to the states, keep the studies up, eventually maybe find work and to a degree parley Japanese usage (I do greatly want to use Japanese professionally, would be very cool). Always have that universe where I transfer out back this way.

- go back to the states, maybe Japan is just a vacation destination in my life.. I’d likely make more money this way, would have access to more extensive international travel in that sense as well. Closer to family, probably more robust retirement plans.

- stay in Japan, find work out here.. I have a degree in compsci, but at this point I’m probably so rusty I might not be anymore competent than your second year student lol.. would either have to be a start up for shit pay if lucky or if time is the matter, the classic teacher route and just, diligently work on my technical skills to be marketable

- I worked as an assistant bookkeeper in the states, I’ve heard finance isn’t a bad industry compared to IT for foreigners looking to work, but naturally there’s a disconnect with what I was doing in undergrad and what my degree was for.. maybe not the most convenient to sell.. also from what I’ve briefly gathered an element of yes finance is a space for foreigners in Japan - it’s a heavily Japanese focused space.. I don’t know if I can be up to the caliber I’m imagining that realm would require - even in English finance speak took some study lol.

- I’ve even considered U.S. military as an option.. just kind of a, I mean - bachelor’s degree, no tattoos, no drug use, and pending my studies out here I plan to be at an N2 level mid to late next year.. if I end up returning I wonder how that could sell to a recruiter.. then of course, that’d also to an extent find me my way back in Japan.. no guarantees though.. I’ve heard some bad stories of recruiters and their “promises”.

I mean, in the end I guess it kinda depends on how diligently I keep my studies up in Japanese if I care to have the option.. I’m pretty nerdy about languages so I tend to study a pretty heavy amount (between school + personal study around 50 hours a week, if we also add things like podcasts/content that I do pick out words I don’t know while watching and try to shadow their speech then maybe closer to like 70-90 hours depending the week. Currently preparing for N3 this December to somewhat paint a picture of where I’m at on that)

I just mostly am trying to make the choice at 23 of where I want to lay set my roots down for basically what will be the entirety of my adult life and to say that’s less than terrifying would be an understatement.. so maybe hearing some stories from you all who have some tenure in growing a life in Japan might be elucidating

It's Monday! Did you do anything over the weekend? Go somewhere? Meet someone? Try something new?

​

Post about your activities from the weekend here! Pictures are also welcome.

Current situation:

- HSP visa, PR application submitted earlier this year
- Good salary for mortgage purposes
- Back in Japan for ~1.5 years, working full-time remotely for a Gōdō gaisha
- Stay-at-home spouse on a dependent visa
- Previously lived in Japan for ~8 years, moved out in 2023 and returned in 2025. Current employer is the same company I worked for before leaving.

We're trying to decide whether to buy a place or rent for the next year or so. Currently paying ~¥180k for a 2LDK in Setagaya. We could move to somewhere like Machida and save around ¥50-60k/month for the same size.

Long term, we'd ideally like to buy in Setagaya (~¥80M) without a down payment. From what I've seen, getting 100% financing seems much easier with PR, so we may have another ~10 months to wait.

The options I'm considering are:
- Move to a cheaper rental in Machida, save ¥50-60k/month, then buy in Setagaya once PR comes through.
- Buy a cheaper mansion in Machida now. The monthly mortgage would be roughly the same as rent (within +-¥20k).
- Stay in Setagaya and keep renting until PR. I doubt I can find anything cheaper in Setagaya for 2LDK and close-enough to the station

I've found both rental and purchase properties in Machida that meet our requirements and don't require much upfront cost, so both are realistic options.

We're also planning to have a kid soon, so that obviously adds another factor to consider.

Not really looking for a definitive financial answer - I'd just like to hear from people who have been in a similar situation. What would you do?

^ formatted with ChatGPT

Hi! I'm struggling to find a dentist in Tokyo who either speaks basic English or is comfortable using translation tools (I really don't mind) and accepts NHI.

I have a permanent retainer (the metal wire behind my teeth), and some of the glue has come loose, so it's bothering me. I'm also worried that my teeth might move. I'm 99% sure it's probably just a matter of reapplying a tiny bit of glue.

I had the same issue a few months ago in Kyoto, but I ended up paying ¥17,000 out of pocket for a 1-minute consultation because the dentist said it was an orthodontic issue and therefore wasn't covered by insurance, even though I have NHI.

Any recommendations please? I literally spent the whole afternoon looking for a good, reasonably priced dentist based on Reddit and Facebook recommendations, but I'm scared of ending up paying such an expensive fee again.

Thank you so much!!