r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

What you learned in Japan this Week - October 05, 2026

8 Upvotes

Please share anything new or interesting your learned this week!

The idea is to share what you are curious about, what became your epiphany, or what you stumbled across by chance. It doesn't have to be a pro-tip or particularly useful, if it's of interest to you we'd like to hear it!


r/japanresidents • • 4h ago

These slippers give me backache and ruin my mood. Tows jammed in front and the slipper ends right at my mid-arch.

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112 Upvotes

r/japanresidents • • 9h ago

Is it just me or is there no outrage?

181 Upvotes

So, this US military trash, offs a Japanese girl.

Takaichi goes and apologizes to the public while the regional commander doesn't even say sorry??? Wtf is u apologizing for???

So why are these patriotic MJGA netuyo clowns not going haywire now?

Just imagine, what if it was a Vietnamese/Chinese national instead smh. Food for thought.

Edit: This kinda feels like the time when sanseito got caught red handed for that NHI thing and nothing happening to them


r/japanresidents • • 7h ago

How loose will “public burden” be for PR?

3 Upvotes

Based on the new rules for permanent residency, there is now a new condition that the person should not be likely to become burden on society. I think this can be interpreted as folks on welfare or in need of welfare, and/or those getting an exemption for health insurance and pension payments.

What about if the person just gets sick and they are spouse of Japanese or permanent residency? There are plenty of diseases such as kidney disease or liver disease (doesn’t need to be as serious as cancer), where people can live a fairly normal life but get the red badge with them.

Does this imply they can’t get permanent residency even if they lived in Japan for decades and have no financial issues?


r/japanresidents • • 1h ago

Where to get マンジャロ/Mounjaro in Osaka?

• Upvotes

Does anyone know a good place to buy or get Mounjaro injected in Osaka? My goal is to lose weight.
Especially the cheapest or most reliable option. And even better if theres a good checkup prior. (In either Japanese or English)


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Ahamo price increase

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29 Upvotes

From this December the base price of ahamo will be increased to 3135 yen.

if you use more than 40GB you will get a higher bill instead of being throttled to 1Mbps onwards

edit: it seems that you can set a data limit but whether your data connection will get throttled or suspended beyond that remains unmentioned.


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Orientation for Life In Japan Videos by Japan Immigration Services Agency 生活オリエンテーション動画

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17 Upvotes

r/japanresidents • • 22h ago

Concerns on my wife's PR application

5 Upvotes

I apologize for the long text, as our situation is a bit complex.

My wife and I came to Japan in March 2022 on student visas. In July 2022, I changed to a three-year Professor visa (a type of working visa for universities), and my wife changed to a three-year dependent visa (家族滞在). My salary was about 4.5 million yen per year.

In March 2023, our daughter was born in Japan and received a dependent visa (two years and three months). In July 2023, we submitted PR applications for the whole family under the HSP 80-point route.

In October 2024, my daughter and I were approved, but my wife was rejected. Although we could go to ask for the reason a month later, we unfortunately hadn't due to personal reasons. My wife then changed to a three-year "Spouse of PR" visa (永住者の配偶者).

In October 2025, my wife submitted her PR application again under the "Spouse of PR" route at the Matsudo branch, Tokyo. Since we arrived in Japan in 2022 and my working visa began in July 2022, our total income for 2022 was only about 2 million yen (reflecting only half the year). The reception staff said it would be impossible to be approved because the first year's income was too low. We explained that this only reflected a half-year's income, and our application was accepted.

So far, we have not received any requests for additional documents, but we have proactively submitted some extra materials:

- One week after submission, I sent my resume showing my employment began in July 2022, along with a document stating my expected salary for the following year (October 2025 to September 2026).

- In June 2026, I sent the new tax certificates.

- Today, I sent my wife's N2 language certificate.

I am not sure how they will evaluate "spouse of PR" applicants, while the PR came to Japan very recently via the HSP route.

I am also unsure whether they will apply the new income rule to applicants from 2025, since our combined wages (4.5M for me as a full-time worker and 1M for my wife as a part-time worker) are far below the new threshold.


r/japanresidents • • 6h ago

paypay credit card debt

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0 Upvotes

Turns out after i left i was aware i have a debt with the credit card. I have some family issues and i needed to return asap. I wanted to pay beforehand, but at the time i asked better my sensei for help with how to handle it as my Japanese is not business level. She said, instead of topping in the normal part, top up in the credit card part. I did in front of her and said it was settle. Little that i know that i was actually doubling the amount i needed to pay. Since i was taking money from the credit card to top up the balance.
Anyway, when i returned the balance showed 0 for the next month and i thought it was settled.
3months passed and my exroomate told me to check via the customer service ご利用残高を前倒しで支払う場合の問い合わせ方法について - ヘルプ | PayPayカード here and yeah, it turned out my debt was... well... not little... and then i checked the mistake by seeing in my balance that i have like 70k yen which was odd, i checked and was the "supposedly settled amount" was there. In the customer service they are constantly saying that i need to call 0570 005 040 and now same number but finished in 43. When i did i asked if my friend in Japan could pay on my behalf, they said: yes, go to mizuho bank and do a furikomi, i said, he doesnt have an account, can it be a deposit, they said yes. But then my friend required a zairyu card, which he is right now a tourist and doesnt have. Then I tried...asking on another day if i could make an international transfer via WISE, since i found the bank name and branch and everything. But the elderly customer service operator (by the sound of his voice was not young i can assure) said that he didnt even know what was that.

so my question is. Has anybody of you faced this before? did you pay via international trasnfer? is it a scam? i used the chat from paypay card! but another Japanese friend told me that it could be scam and where did i receive the notification? etc. Since im not living there anymore, probably the invoices have been returned several times.

sorry for my grammar in advance.
thanks also for reading.


r/japanresidents • • 9h ago

Line app issue

0 Upvotes

I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I can’t go to the next screen and the app just stuck there and useable. please help


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

D-Rocks to offer 30,000 free rugby National Stadium tickets

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4 Upvotes

r/japanresidents • • 18h ago

Realtor requiring money to hold property?

0 Upvotes

Hi, apologies if this isn’t the right sub to ask this, but my partner and I have been looking at properties to rent and been to multiple realtors, but this is the first time we have been told to pay a fee to put the property on hold whilst we weigh up our options. The cost is 30,000 yen and would be non-refundable if we view the place and do not like it. I was wondering if this is normal or a red flag?


r/japanresidents • • 19h ago

immigration or worker's rights lawyers to talk about options

0 Upvotes

Hello,

I've found myself in a rather unenviable employment situation which might require speaking to someone in either labor to understand my rights as a worker, and/or immigration to understand what can be done when it comes to looking for new work under my visa. I hold a humanities visa and currently work as an instructor. I don't want to go into details just in case my employer is on reddit but happy to discuss this in DMs if needed. I am trying to understand what leeway i have to get out of my contract while I apply for jobs. I would like to do this properly but the first step would be to talk to a immigration or someone familiar with worker's rights. Any recommendations, reddit? Thank you.


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Renewing your VISA and bank procedures

4 Upvotes

US citizen living in Japan. Renewed my visa, and went to the bank to reconfirm. They scanned my new residence card, got my hanko, done.

Next they called me and said they forgot to ask for my passport, and I said I was renewing it and wouldn't have it for a few more weeks. They said okay, but then called me again, sounding like they were scrambling, and said they actually needed my greencard. I confirmed I was a US citizen and don't have one, but then they asked for my social security number instead (and that they no longer needed my passport).

What is actually expected? I'm hesitant to trust the bank because of how disorganized they seem to be.


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Electronic Repair Shop

2 Upvotes

I need help in finding in the Saitama area an electronic repair shop who can test and repair things like driver recorder, controllers or tv. Not only change parts but soldering too. Do you guys know any place ?


r/japanresidents • • 19h ago

Traveling back to home country on a passport expiring in 7 months

0 Upvotes

So I booked a trip to go back to the US for most of November to the very beginning of December but I realized that my passport is only going to have six months left on it when I come back to Japan. Has anyone done this before? Will I have any trouble getting back into Japan with my passport and residence card? I know there is a certain time period before passports expire that they don't like you traveling internationally but from googling it seems like that time period is 3-6 months. My parents want me to check with the airline but I'm also thinking the US embassy or Immigration might know the answer.


r/japanresidents • • 2d ago

I made a website where you can see the "Livability" of whole Japan

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220 Upvotes

I read an article couple of years ago in a newspaper where they segmented one city based on how many schools, supermarkets hospitals etc were available in a certain area and then made a ranking based on that. The idea was mulling on my mind for a while and i finally got around making it not only for Tokyo, but for whole Japan!

Basically I gathered tons of different data sources from both freely available sources, Japan government's own open census data etc, laid them on top of the map of Japan and created weighted scores based on the results. Then based on the user's preferences (like do they want to see areas good for families, people living by themselves, do they use a car etc) it will colour the 100m*100m grids based on how good they are for them. Really good if you are for example trying to figure out a good place to live in a neighborhood and want to get a place that has a good access to supermarkets etc :)

Hope you can find this useful in some way. Note that I do not make any money out of this so it's purely for your entertainment.

Please check it out: kodawari.nimikko.co.jp


r/japanresidents • • 2d ago

Met this Japanese person in Soka city, Saitama

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2.7k Upvotes

r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Board/card games

11 Upvotes

Fall looks like it was over before it started here in my 田舎 pocket of Nagano and it's already time to get cozy around the kerosene heater.

I've been floating the idea of game nights in my town and I have a few friends who are down, but nobody speaks English so games like cards against humanity, exploding kittens, secret Hitler are all out.

I'm looking for games on the more talkative, ridiculous and creative side rather than "get your piece to the goal" games and so far I've found some cool funny ones:

たった今考えたプロポーズの言葉を君 に捧ぐよ

オジサンメッセージ    

Does anyone have any recommendations? I'm also additionally looking for something somewhat kid friendly - I teach Japanese to some Filipino kids in the neighborhood (13 and 15yo) who I think are still below 小学4 in Japanese but at their age it's getting hard to focus on upping their language skills unless I figure out how to make it fun


r/japanresidents • • 2d ago

Went today to a basketball tournament in Umeda, Osaka called 3x3 ExE and painted it along with my Paint Club.

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49 Upvotes

r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Company registered address changed, should I report to ISA after my PR application?

2 Upvotes

Hello Reddit, this is my first post. I am worried about whether I should report to ISA about the registered address change of the company I work for. I already reported it online since that is the legal requirement of my HSP residence status. Should I also report it to the PR department? My scrivener said no, but I am really worried about it (after reading some Reddit posts that they didn’t report and got PR rejected). Anyone have the same experience?


r/japanresidents • • 22h ago

Isn’t Setagaya ward health insurance “card” (資格確認書) automatically mailed to you if expired?

0 Upvotes

My health insurance card has been expired since late September and up till now I still haven’t received a new one. I was told that this process is usually automatically renewed, and you were receive a new card one to two weeks prior to your expiration date. However, I haven’t received one yet. I was wondering, is it because my visa is currently in the midst of being renewed (submitted an application approval results haven’t been out yet). Or is this a clerical error on their side. Should I just wait it out?

On another note I’m curious if the 出張所 are able to handle or give me a new one on the spot or do I have to go to the 区役所.

I do not know if this is odd but my current visa expires early December. However, my health insurance card, expiry date was way earlier as compared to my residence card.


r/japanresidents • • 21h ago

Currently abroad, my special re-entry is about to expire and I won't be able to make it back on time. Anything that can be done to extend it from abroad?

0 Upvotes

What are my options from overseas, of course other than applying for PR from scratch?


r/japanresidents • • 1d ago

Have anyone worked for two employers simultaneously on an HSP visa?

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m currently on an HSP1(Highly Skilled Professional) visa doing Marketing & PR in Hyogo (~3.2M JPY/year). Since the new PR rules, I tried to increase my income, reached out and recently got offered another long-term marketing contract (業務委託)with another company, under the permission of my current employer.

Since the HSP visa limits work strictly to the specific company listed on the Shiteisho (指定書) attached to my passport, I wanted to ask:

  1. Is it possible to apply at Immigration to add a second company directly to my Shiteisho, instead of the standard 資格外活動許可 (Permission to Engage in Activity Other than That Permitted under the Status of Residence) route instead?
  2. Has anyone here successfully added a second employer or contract to their Shiteisho while staying on HSP Type 1?

Would love to hear from anyone who has gone through this process with Immigration. Thanks in advance!


r/japanresidents • • 22h ago

Is this valid crash out or I’m over reacting.

0 Upvotes

My school received call from immigration regarding my current enrollment in the school. But my school informed me that they denied immigration to provide any information regarding me because of privacy law and they wanted my permission in order to tell immigration about my status today.

My question is that How can a governing body needs permission to know about me from me, don’t they already know everything about me idk this sounded very strange.

Just to give context im currently enrolled in a japanese language school and im changing my SOR to work visa.

This school also didn’t allowed me to withdraw from school because until unless i get my new residence card they can’t provide me the withdrawal certificate.

My visa is already expired on 30th September.