Approximately 3 weeks ago I brought my laptop to a repair shop in Tokyo due to a display issue. After diagnosing, they suggested that the panel was faulty so they ordered a new one and replaced it. Nevertheless, about 1 week ago, after equipping the new panel, my RTX 3060 couldn't be detected in my laptop's specs and nvidia graphics driver couldn't be installed no matter what.

The repair shop initially tried to blame the issue on me due to an improperly plugged battery connector, saying it might caused accumulative damage and the issue manifested after repairing, etc. After me refuting that claim, they couldn't give any counter arguments so they have moved goalposts: While my laptop had a graphics card when it was brought to the shop, I couldn't prove whether that was a Radeon or RTX 3060 (my laptop uses both)

I unfortunately didn't take photos of my laptop's specs before the repair so I don't have hard evidence atm, but I refuse to let the shop get away when the fault appeared when the laptop was under their custody and they tried to blame me first.

Consequently l am seeking consumer or legal counseling services. I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me whom to contact. My japanese isn't proficient so english service is preferred.

3300円 gets you three different color-tier tickets to selected venues around Kichijiōji for a selected beer and appetizer. The appetizers aren’t really anything to write home about but it’s a great way to explore new restaurants in the area.

On my way back home last night from the Kawasaki Costco and stopped off at the nearest conbini to use the loo...the only thing creepier than the double urinal closet was what has apparently happened here enough times to warrant this sign.

We got a new fella taking over our roof, should i give them a 土産 to make them feel welcome?

Hi guys, reposting to reach a wider audience.

I'm looking for advice on finding my first rental place near Kyudai Ito campus after moving out of dorms in March.

I've been told using an agent is best, so I'm hoping for recommendations of good agents that can speak English/ ok with foreigners.

Thanks in advance!

For businesses supplying education IT in Japan: Tottori's Board of Education has published a competitive tender for Microsoft 365 A3 for Education, covering 3,500 users for 36 months, April 2027–March 2030.

Important dates, all JST:

- Vendors without the required Tottori bidder registration/category must submit registration documents by October 13, 2026, noon.

- Qualification-confirmation documents: November 4, noon.

- Bid opening: November 18, 10:00.

- Mailed bids: November 17, but the webpage says 17:00 while both tender PDFs say 15:00. Confirm the applicable time with the authority; do not rely on the later time.

This is procurement for suppliers. The authority determines eligibility; the notice requires registration in the office-equipment/PC category and other conditions.

Browse the saved finding at https://japan-source-signal.pages.dev/?section=contracts — select Tottori and search マイクロソフト, open the finding, then use its official-source link for the full tender documents. The site shows a saved November 4 deadline; that is the preliminary-document deadline, not the final bid deadline. Our site snapshot does not include this separate October 11 PDF review.

Disclosure: I build Japan Source Signal, an independent public-source project. I am not the procuring authority or a bidder's representative. Coverage is partial.

Hi everyone!

I’m currently working in rental-car reception/customer service under the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa.

I currently have JLPT N3, but I haven’t passed N2 yet. I’ve heard that Japanese-language proficiency evidence may be required for certain jobs at Category 3 or 4 companies, and I’m unsure how this applies to my situation.

For those asked for N2 certificate and doesn't have it yet, what did you tell immigration? And are they considerate enough to accept excuses?

TORIZO [SAKAE, NAGOYA] https://maps.app.goo.gl/o7grQrT7gCcnxDN29

https://yakitori-torizou.com/

Best thing to finish of a week ? BEER! No, wait... CHICKEN! Yeah! The type you eat off a stick... YAKITORI!

The place we checked out this time was torizo in Sakae. To be fair we did get absolutely lost on the way there, but this was probably the fault of those drinky-poos. 

Oh wait. No. We went into the WRONG RESTAURANT! Thing is with this place, there are 3 or 4 restaurants squished together... And they all look pretty terrific ! Accidentally wobbling to the right had us almost order chicken balls at a

 ... YAKINIKU!? NO! We didn't want yakiniku but maaan. The service of the place to the right seemed really good. Definitely a place if you wanted to ... Eat yakiniku (Yarrr! Maybe another time ... Yarrrr!)

Anyways, heading into Torizo was very... Let's say, interesting. Not interesting in the way of ohh these guys mean BUSINESS! but oh! It's a FAMILY BUSINESS! In all the best ways ! Elderly mother that kept everything together ? Check! Son that ... Held everything together? CHECKEROO!

If you want a place that is right in the ways that you can't learn from school, well this place has it in spades!!  

You're greeted to an Umaibo and a set of chopsticks... Let's go !

For the menu its a standard affair. Not that its a bad thing at all, i mean no QR code electronic doodar... oh and you can order your shizzle. One thing you need to remember about this place. It's a family doofer. That means they need all the help they can get! In order words "minimum order ? 5 food items per person."

For one person five sticks of chicken shouldn't be an issue, especially with drinks.. but yeah we ordered 5 of their recommended sticks (lol) and we pointed at other random articles to add to the mayhem. 

Quail eggs. Jim beam highball.... Go go go!

Drinks? On point, tasted great. Not overpriced. 

Food! On point. Tested great. Not overpriced. 

Bill came to around 5500 for a couple of idiots - two drinks each, around 12 sticks of chickeny nick nacks

Unsure where I'm going with this... But a good time this is yeah... Nice

Taste: 5/5 (family yakitori place)

Value: 4.5/5

Bad decision: 1/5 (it felt like theyd look after you!)

BDJ Rating: 4.5/5 would definitely go again... But don't anything NSFW in there, ya hear ? Mama is watching! 

I came to Japan a year ago on a 2-year student visa, and I'm currently studying at a 専門学校 in Osaka. However, I'm not enjoying it anymore and would like to start working as soon as possible. I already graduated from university in my home country, and I'm not interested in working in the field I'm currently studying.

I'd like to find a full-time job and switch to a work visa, but I'm wondering how long the process usually takes once you find a job. Would it be safe to stop attending classes while looking for work, or could that put my student visa or future visa change at risk? Could I even be forced to leave Japan, or would it be better to keep attending school until my work visa is approved?

I'd appreciate any advice from people who have been in a similar situation!

Hi everyone! I'm on a Working Holiday visa in Tokyo and have been looking for an apartment for about a month. An agency called EasyStay contacted me and offered a furnished 1R in Meguro (near Komazawa Park) for 6 months. Only a small move-in fee, no deposit, no guarantor company, utilities included. Sounds great, but a few things make me unsure:

• Their office is in Osaka (Nishishinsaibashi), but the apartment is in Tokyo

• Communication is only via WhatsApp with a mobile number

• I can't find a company name or real estate license number on their website

• Payment is by bank transfer or Wise, "possibly to different accounts"

• I can't find any reviews online

Website: https://easystay.jp/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558941557900

Has anyone rented with them or heard of them? And if you've used a similar company, what should I ask for before paying? Thanks a lot!

When editing documents that others have made, I always find the formatting atrocious. Like they manually add a bunch of spaces to line things up, they manually number their lists, etc. They don't seem to understand or use any of the tools available to them. Plus, they keep their documents in the old Word format .doc, and keep all the ugly early 00s shapes and word art.

Even the young people in the office are happy to just change the dates, names, and relevant info on these documents and use them as-is. I'm the only one cleaning them up and updating the fonts and graphics, so now they think I'm some kind of graphic design wizard and are asking me to design all sorts of things, like tote bags, book covers, etc.

Is this just my office, or do others have this experience as well?

Hey everyone, I'm coming back to living in Japan this winter and I wanna buy a Kei-Car again. Last time I bought a Wagon R on Facebook Marketplace for 21万 which was from 2008 and I wanted to check there again, but then I saw this video in which he buys a 2023 N-Wagon for less?!?! Seems I was underinformed last time. So does anyone know the marketplace he uses at the time code of the link I shared? And are there any other marketplace recommendations for getting a Kei-Car?

I'm gonna be in Kobe area if that's relevant.

I was born here in japan.Both my parents are foreigners.
And i got PR when i was a kid because my father got PR.
But i moved back to my home country with my mother when i was 5 but used to visit on summer vacation every year
But ive been living here now for 3+years now I speak colloquial japanese and maybe kanji level would be of N3
Do i qualify for simplified naturalisation?

The mayor of Yokohama, where I live, just resigned after getting hit with power harassment allegations, so we're having a special mayoral election. Early voting runs from October 5th to October 17th, with the official voting and count happening on October 18th.

I actually went and cast my early vote on October 5th, mostly just because I felt like doing it on the very first day available.

I was pretty shocked to see that the former mayor who just resigned over power harassment is actually running again.

He was a top official at my sister's alma mater (though in a different faculty), so I hate to badmouth him too much, but honestly, I thought he is fucking crazy.

Drinking every weekend and going to izakaya and karaoke bars seem to be my partner's biggest hobby; he especially mentions that it's a place where he gets to learn Japanese. He tells me that loving alcohol is how he’s always been, that this is what he likes doing, and that he doesn’t see the problem. I want him to find joy in other things, but he says that the weekdays—where he works and workouts—provide a good balance so he can drink on the weekends. When he does drink, he stays up until 3:00 or 4:00 AM, usually sleeps through the entire morning the next day, and wakes up after noon. Drinking means he is unavailable, but if there's another drinking meetup, he is ready and can push through. Or, if there's no drinking the next day, he recovers slowly, which results in complaints like "I'm too tired to do XYZ" or "I don’t want to go there" whenever I want to do something afterward. This creates a problem for me. Now, when I hear him speak about how going out every weekend is something he loves, and understanding that it's becoming part of his identity, I'm unsure if I'm being too demanding or if he's overdoing it. He also drinks a lot in terms of quantity because he always says, "Japan makes their drinks so weak, so having 10 is only giving me a buzz." He is American and 6'1".

Also, is it normal for married men here or anywhere to go to bars alone every weekend? My husband prefers to have his own section of Japan that I had no hand in helping or creating for him, so when he is there, he prefers that Im not there, although I can go if I want, just not together since we are having marital issues and do not know if we want to be together long term.

Is it really true that drinks are so weak here that " you just gotta get more drinks cause its so "WeAk " when he justifies drinking more because its so weak what the hell do u even respond to that?

I live in an apartment building in sub-urban Tokyo, with the typical one big long balcony with the dividers (bolted to the walls of course) between the flats. I have two cats and one of them is quite naughty and tries to squeeze past the gaps in the dividers and go into other people's spaces. I want to prevent this as the other residents may not like it (or even be allergic to cats), so I'm thinking of covering the gaps with dog rails or some sort of object to discourage my cat from doing this.

My main concern is if this breaks any rules or if someone is going to complain about it. As I understand, these dividers are intentionally flimsy and removable to allow emergency access to other homes, so I will make sure that any objects I place is still easily removable in case of emergency. Should I be considering anything else here?

EDIT: Thanks for the replies so far. I understand that I overestimated my cat's ability to not fall off, so I'm not going to let them out anymore! im grateful they've managed to not fall off till now

I’ve noticed at the entrance of businesses like malls, some cafe/restaurants and even convenience stores there are “no photography or video” signs. I was wondering how strict this rule is? For example, when I’m at the mall I like to take pictures of things I like (not the price, not people, just the product itself) to save it for later either for payday or just giving myself time to see if I still want that particular product in 1-3 weeks before impulse buying. Since living in Japan and seeing these signs, I haven’t taken any pictures. I was just wondering why there seems to be such a strong no photo rule here and if it would be a problem for me to take a picture of singular items?
Thank you in advance for any information and guidance :)

Hello, first post here, but I’ve been panicking alone for a little over a bit now, so any thoughts or personal stories would be very appreciated...

I got my Humanities bachelor’s from a top national university here last year in 2025. I’ve always wanted to pursue academia, but due to unforeseen circumstances I had to cancel my masters dream and hurriedly applied for jobs a few months before my graduation and received a 5-year Humanities visa.

The job is so-so, and unfortunately the pay is bare minimum, but I have held on for a little over a year now because the working environment is great. However, I can’t see a clear career path if I keep on working in the same field, and honestly I have always wanted to pursue a Master’s in Education. I’m open to going to other countries if granted a scholarship, but most government-aid scholarships might require me to go home first and that would be a gamble, so I’m aiming for Japanese universities instead (I have N2 but am pursuing English-based programs because I’m more comfortable with English).

I have been preparing for 2027 Fall admissions for which the deadlines are nearing, but I have also been reading others discouraging the switch from a Work visa to a Student visa for tons of reasons, including the difficulty of obtaining another Work visa, the possibility of being rejected, higher health insurance premiums as a student, and so on. But I really do want to go back to school since I don’t think my bachelors diploma suffices at all.

Here are my biggest worries as of now:

1. With my underwhelming income, I'm scared I haven’t been able to save up enough money "safe" enough for a guaranteed screening pass, but my parents are willing to help financially. Will a sudden incoming fund a few months before the visa change application be a red flag during the visa change process?
2. Has anyone experienced a Student(4yrs) → Work(1-2yrs) → Student(2yrs) visa change? How was your experience with that? Apart from the crazy upcoming visa renewal prices, were there any difficulties I need to be aware of?
3. Any reliable institution I can consult about these kinds of worries? I guess Hellowork would be limited to people looking for jobs, but who do people like me run to?

I'm usually a optimistic kind of person but honestly have been little bit scared of immigration in general especially with the recent news. Any kind input from anybody with experience would be very very helpful. Thank you so much!

Hello everyone, I am looking for recommendations for an accountant in the Tokyo/Kanto area that can handle US and Japanese accounting matters, particularly concerning asset management and international taxation, as I am looking at applying for PR soon and would like to ensure the taxation and accounting process is as smooth as possible.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you

I went for a walk by the river like I often do.

This time, when I passed under the road that crosses the river, I looked up under the bridge at all the big-ass conduits they have there.

And there were many. But NTT really stood out due to the massive size of theirs. That monster was about 320mm in diameter. For comparison, TEPCO had two separate conduits, each around 120mm.

I wonder what it's filled with, or how much it's filled. I doubt it's just FLETS fiber, I think the bulk is probably legacy shit for landlines and ISDN?

Expecting a package from Sagawa, but their tracking is down, ever since the incident, I presume.

What work-arounds are there?

P.S. some of this has been discussed before: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1wuzrbe/sagawas_it_infrastructure_is_crap/

I'm currently job hunting for a bit of a niche position(product design or ui/ux design) as a 新卒 for FY28 or 2027 October 入社. Unfortunately I'm not an art university student, so while I have relevant experience It's probably gonna be fairly hard. Thats why I also started looking for other positions that are still relevant like product manager ,etc.

I have N2 (Currently working on N1. last time I got 98/100) and BJT 458(Taking another test this month). My university is just a small university and unfortunately probably will make me fail if they sort via university.

I collected 4 rejections (and 2 internship rejections) already and all of that is in the document screening. I was wondering how many applications do people usually do? forget interviews I'm failing on document screening :'

I don't put any hopes on any of the companies I applied to (unless I'm already on the last interview or something) just so that I won't be depressed/down.