Every 5 posts. Do they accept bottle caps?

I am using UNext with my Rakuten plan, and I just found out (long story) that along with anime, drama and magazines, you also have HNext見放題 included (just go to hnext .jp and log in with your unext account).

Bruh, this is the best country in the world, you get free porn with your mobile plan! I don't want to leave, this is paradise!

It's been the law since 2008, but there are no penalties (except for highways where you can be deducted one point). The actual law is the Road Traffic Act (道路交通法) and is stipulated in Section 71(3)(2) or in Japanese, 第71条の3第2項.

You can read it here:
https://lawzilla.jp/law/335AC0000000105?n=ln71_3.2&mode=only

I met a person that got really mad and wouldn't believe it. She even asked the taxi driver and the taxi driver also thought it was not illegal. I then asked a bunch of other Japanese people and they all thought that it was totally A-OKAY.

As someone who grew up in Canada, I was shocked that a supposedly "developed country" which is super strict with drinking and driving would allow this. And I was shocked that people actually thought it was legal. I thought it was one of those things that everyone knows is illegal but does anyway (like riding a bike on the sidewalk).

Have you guys had similar experiences?

Some English sources (there are many Japanese sources on this too):

• https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/fukei/foreign/koki_k_t/seatbelt/index.html
• https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01596/
• https://english.jaf.or.jp/driving-in-japan/traffic-rules

Japan's Immigration Services Agency has published their official pricing table for the new visa fees and added information about payment methods.

People are probably familiar with the new prices by now but they updated the payment method for online applications, so not everyone will be stuck using revenue stamps. Immigration will only accept payments through the convenience store or bank transfer for online applications sent in on and after Oct. 1 2026.

Of course, there will be a small transaction/system service charge fee or bank transfer fee but the discounted price still makes online the cheaper option. I'm guessing a QR code will be issued that you can scan at a machine at the convenience store and it'll print out a bill that you use at the register and pay in cash.

As far as I know, applying at the counter at Immigration will mean still needing to buy revenue stamps.

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/01_00644.html?lang=en

I was thinking about all of the socioeconomic environments changing in Japan. With the increasing interest rates and likely there be increase in income tax in the next 5 years due to the significant amount of government spending, I think the only winners are the tech companies and banks and overseas investors. So I think we will see an a lot richer upper class with no much changes to the lower and middle class.

In addition, I think the policy against immigration will lead to greater job openings for low skilled jobs. I think in the end, instead of foreigners taking those low skilled jobs more of the next generation won’t have the means to get normal salary man job and end up picking up the slack. I expect there will be automation but I think the cost of automation and lack of flexibility/adaptability of it (as well as the lack of human touch) will dissuade it wider adoption as expected.

I feel like the salaries of all workers may rise slightly (slightly less so for low skilled jobs) but that will also result in higher cost of living.

I can’t imagine the class gap staying still. I think with a growing class gap and a growing feeling about the country not protecting and supporting the young generation, we might also a see wave of rebellion. What do you all think?

I'm living in Tsukuba and the past few years, instead of going to Tokyo I have been mostly exploring Ibaraki and Tochigi!

Here are some of my favorite pictures I have taken during these one-day trips! ☀️

The views are amazing, but so are the experiences and people you meet.

Hey all, I have two job interviews lined up for tomorrow and the following day. One is for a restaurant, the other is retail. Both I applied for are asking for “basic” Japanese. I understand that me being a native English speaker is my strong suit.

I’m still not confident in my speaking. I can read, write, and understand at a n5/n4 level. I’m just worried that I either mis understand something in the interview itself, or if I do get hired and I deal with a Japanese customer. How I can properly handle that.

Im still using Anki everyday to learn. I didn’t know if there was “customer service” Anki decks that people use to help improve that part of Japanese instead of more general knowledge. Wanted to see if you guys could throw some advice at me 🙂 this would be my first real Japanese interview, as when I did my English teacher interview it was completely in English

I've had a pretty rough year.

My employer who is US based (I fly in fly out) illegally started witholding my pay due to a US visa issue, then after 6 months of no pay, terminated me, also illegally. My union is fighting it but they're dragging it out intentionally. The company is under investigation by the US DOL and I'm expecting a 6 figure payout, but I know the company is going to appeal every decision and drag it out as long as possible.

This month I'm really really struggling with my bills. It's a miracle I've stayed afloat this long without any kind of regular paycheck.

So, I went into the shiyakusho to see if I could defer my tax payments.

Straight up - I told him I know it's a tax responsibility based on last year's income, and that being unemployed this year doesn't change my tax obligations for this year, but asked if I could defer the payments.

Within 15 minutes he had pushed back my health insurance and city tax obligations for 3 months. Asked me to come in and let them know if I get my payout from the old company or if I get a new job.

Took a copy of my termination letter and the translation I made of it. That was it. No probing questions, no hard time. Just understanding and empathy.

What a legend.

I have a few family members with a very big appetite for manga.

I want to be supportive of any form of reading that they embrace and so far it’s been working out in that they go back to read novelizations when the manga is delayed or finished.

My biggest issue is the sheer volume of physical manga I will need to store if this trend continues. The price is not an issue as most is acquired secondhand but the storage.

I am wanting to find a good digital download platform and whilst they could read on smartphone or an existing iPad I would prefer they got less time spend on blue light and radiation spewing devices. I also just want to keep reading, even if manga, as an intentional exercise away from phone alerts and other potential distractions.

Hoping people here have already been on this journey and recommend what path they chose and which path they would recommend if they could start all over again.

One big point is i will probably look at buying each person their own device. I also realise that different digital publishers will have their own libraries available so I may need to run multiple accounts to fulfill the demands of these avid readers. Are their devices that handle multiple platforms well?

I know little to nothing so please enlighten me

Hi guys! Is my first time writing here so its very nice to meet all of you. I am writing cuz i am seeking advice from you (maybe you know better than me hopefully i am so lost) regarding this issue that happened to me today.

back story in short: came to japan at the end of march and staying here until end of September. i am on a student visa granted for 1 year for my exchange program at a university in Japan, then now in September at the end going back to Europe.

HERE IS THE THING. so before leaving i went to the city hall to get my papers and giving them the moving out notice and get some paperwork for my new address (finished studies at uni in august, now at summer school for 1 month) for my new address in another prefecture. there i asked at the national pension and health insurance desk if i have anything else left to pay by any chance (i dont have to pay pension i am not required). there they told me that i dont have to pay anything and that i am ok yo leave my prefecture to go to the new one.

today, i got a pink envelope regarding a missed payment for national health insurance from my former city hall (about 1 month missed payment, was due 31st of july). I DIDNT RECEIVE ANY PAPER TO PAY BEFORE i got this and i was so confused.

THEN I remembered. once i got an envelope from city hall and my uni said “ah is pension throw it away)” but it was actually the payment sleeves for the health insurance. i couldn’t read it so i had no idea what it was. but i didnt throw it away and today my friend checked it.

fast forward: the july national health insurance is one month payed later (was supposed end of july, payed today) and the august one is late only one day (paid today)

I HAD NO IDEA because at my city hall said i have nothing left to pay, my uni literally said is pension but it wasnt so here i am getting a notice of “hey, you own us money”.

the thing that i am scared the most? next year i wanna get a new visa for longer studies and work, and because of all of this new laws and regulations i am so scared that my visa my get denied, even though it wasnt my fault for not knowing and the people in charge telling me someting else. what should i do in this situation? i am really concerned about this and my future visa and getting my PR in a couple of years.

if you have any idea how they might see this, help a boy out pls and thank you

Hey I have a bit of an issue,

I have been living in Tokyo since March, in the Setagaya area. I set up my adress on my Zairyu card without issue and recently had to leave my appartement to work in Paris for a month. So I did the move out notification thing and thought that was that.

Now I returned to Tokyo and started living in Suginami ward. I went to the resident office here and was told I need a official move out certificate (which I never received). I think because I didnt instantly get a new address in Tokyo they dont give that out?

Now I read somewhere that I could register my new address with my passport instead since I returned from overseas instead of instantly moving places while I was in Tokyo?

Can anybody please confirm this, I'd rather not go to Setagaya and go through the hassle of getting a certificate since I'm leaving Japan in about 57 days anyway.

Thanks for anyone replying.

The "what should I get with my furusato budget" thread always comes up around the end of the year, so I wrote a list of highly reviewed gifts that I've ordered before. Most of them are in the ¥10,000 - ¥50,000 donation range, because it fits most people earning under ¥10M. (make sure you check your donation cap before ordering)

Quick notes about furusato for those not familiar

• The links are for Rakuten, because I only shop on Rakuten for furusato. None of them are affiliated links or anything. I dont get anything if you buy any of these items. But Rakuten stopped awarding points on furusato donations in October 2025 (Soumushou ban). I've heard there are other places that can give you points through creative ways, but I've not tried because it's too much hassle
• 訳あり (wakeari, "imperfect") listings are the best value
• Fruit is mostly pre-order for next season, and popular listings sell out by autumn. Beef and rice ship year-round.

Wagyu beef

Miyazaki beef is probably the value king, great quality/value TBH. I had Kobe, Matsusaka, Omi, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki. I liked Miyazaki the most. The Miyakonojo and Miyazaki city listings are very well reviewed

Matsusaka (the fancy one) is best bought as komagire offcuts or kiriotoshi at this budget, the actual steak cuts start around ¥30,000:

Kobe beef is pricey per gram, and I dont think it's worth it tbh. If you have to have it, the budget pick is the A4+ wakeari yakiniku 400g to 1.6kg (¥12,000+, 4.11, 79 reviews) or the A4/A5 3-steak comparison set (¥21,000+, 4.63, 102).

The "hidden gem" is probably Omi beef from Ryuo, Shiga, the third of the "big three", but less mentioned maybe because their marketing is not great? Its sukiyaki 450g at ¥11,000 has 427 reviews at 4.77, the best-reviewed brand-wagyu listing under ¥15,000 I could find.

High-end sake

Kubota Manju at 4.97 across 37 reviews is about as safe as a luxury pick gets.

Uonuma koshihikari rice

Koshihikari rice is great, but not all of them are the same. I tried maybe 5 different types, and Uonuma one is absolutely the best (personally speaking). Buy 精米 (white rice) in 5kg units, and look for 雪室/雪中貯蔵 (snow-stored) if you wanna be fancy:

Shine muscat and seasonal fruit

Yamanashi prefecture owns this category. Note that most listings are pre-orders for next season's harvest:

The fruit teiki-bin (subscription) listings are the crowd favorites: one donation, multiple seasonal boxes across the year.

Balmuda and appliances

Balmuda's whole lineup is available via Musashino city, Tokyo (their HQ), all 正規品 with warranty. Cheapest entry points are just above this band: The Lantern at ¥51,000 (4.78) and the tabletop gas stove at ¥63,000 (4.86). The Toaster is ¥103,000, so it only makes sense at higher incomes.

Brand goods people don't realize are on furusato

Most brand-name gear flows through the company's HQ or factory town.

airweave (Obu and Kota, Aichi, both factory towns): the Standard pillow at ¥65,000 has 481 reviews at 4.52, one of the most-reviewed non-food items in the program. The S-LINE pillow is ¥97,000 (4.53, 296) and the budget entry is the Comfort Pillow C2 at ¥36,000 (4.52, 54).

ReFa (Nagoya, MTG's HQ): the Fine Bubble U showerhead at ¥100,000 (4.74, 58) reviews better than the older Fine Bubble Pure (4.34, 35). Also there: the Straight Iron Pro at ¥77,000 (4.55, 49), the Beautech dryer at ¥134,000, and the Heart Brush at ¥10,000 (4.57, 136) if you want the brand at minimum spend.

Vermicular (Nagoya): the cast-iron frypan 20cm with lid at ¥59,000 (4.57), 24cm deep at ¥73,000 (4.50, 12), and the oven pot 18cm at ¥87,000.

Snow Peak (Sanjo, Niigata, their HQ, 180 listings): titanium single mug 300 two-pack at ¥18,000 (4.75, 28), 450 two-pack at ¥20,000 (4.76, 25), shelf container 25 at ¥45,000 (4.79, 29).

NANGA (the Shiga down maker, via collab listings in Sakai, Fukui and Hakui, Ishikawa): the 600DX limited sleeping bag at ¥210,000 (4.86, 7), 450DX at ¥190,000, and UDD down jackets around ¥200,000.

The ¥200,000+ tier (income ¥50M and up)

If you earn ¥50M+ your deduction cap is roughly ¥2M, and ¥200,000+ donations start making sense. Here are some things I like:

Takayama (Hida) deserves its own mention: the whole Hida Sangyo and KASHIWA furniture catalogs are on furusato, 714 listings, and the reviewed chairs all sit at 4.4 to 5.0. If you want the best-reviewed piece, the TUGUMI Windsor chair sneaks in just under this tier at ¥180,000 (4.95, 19 reviews). Massage chairs go far beyond Fujiiryoki if your cap allows: a Family Inada medical chair at ¥990,000 and an Anma-oh 4 zero-gravity chair at ¥1,540,000.

When all else fails, just go for Rakuten Travel coupons. High end resorts like Fufu are usually eligible for furusato coupon, and can go up to ¥200,000 and ¥300,000 tiers in most resort municipalities (Ishigaki, Sapporo, Beppu, Hokkaido-wide), and valid for 3 years. Applying the coupons on Rakuten Travel is very seamless, so I like it.

Hope this is helpful!

My husband is Japanese and I’m currently on a 5-year spouse visa. I’ve lived in Japan (on and off) since 2012, we have four children here, and I’m considering applying for permanent residency before that fee increase in October. Bro we are rushing lol.

We’re trying to figure out whether it makes sense to apply now or wait a few years because of one issue in my husband’s tax history.

So he has generally paid his taxes, pension, and health insurance, but in 2025 there was a period when his resident tax switched from being automatically deducted from his salary (特別徴収) to him having to pay it himself (普通徴収).

He missed one of the resident tax payment deadlines and received a 督促状. He then paid it, so there is no outstanding tax now, but obviously the payment was made after the original deadline.

There’s also one older year when his income was very low and he was non-taxable. He didn’t file a 確定申告 because he believed his income was below the amount requiring one. We’re going to confirm with the tax office/city hall whether he actually had any filing obligation and what certificate we need for that year, but we really doubt it. Also he said he’s worried to even ask ‘cause if it’s true he owes, he can’t afford to pay that right now. As far as we currently understand, there was no unpaid tax for that year.

The thing we’re mainly worried about is the 2025 late resident tax payment and 督促状 ‘cause the PR document checklist asks for the most recent three years of resident tax records and, where applicable, proof that payments were made on time. So this late payment would fall within the period Immigration reviews if I apply now.

My husband thinks we should wait about three years so the late payment is outside the standard three-year document period and he can build three clean years of stable employment and automatic payroll deductions. I’m wondering if that’s really necessary?

I get that nobody on reddit can predict whether immigration will approve an individual application. I’m mainly interested in actual experiences, especially recent applications via the Japanese spouse route.

If you were in this situation, would you apply and explain the single late payment, or wait until you had a completely clean three-year tax record?

EDIT: Just to be clear, there is currently no unpaid resident tax. The concern is that one payment was made after its deadline and a 督促状 had already been issued.

Hi,

First of all, sorry, this is going to be a long post.

I've been living in Japan for 7 years (married to a japanese citizen) and we have a 6 years old.
This is the second time I've been rejected the pr.

I've been trying to pull the pr because my situation is not very good:
My wife is emotionally abussive (yelling, instulting... of course, in front of our kid too) and I'm always walking on eggshells. I don't love her anymore.
To make things worse, when I first came to Japan, as I didn't had a back account and I stayed at her place for a year, she requested me to give her my salary directly (I know, I was in love and stupid), so I only have some savings that I've been hiding

The first time the pr was rejected they said is because I was a few days late when paying my insurance. I was a part timer at the time. They requested me to wait for a year to have my registry "clean" so I did.

This time, after waiting for a year after applying (I applied last year's August, the reply came last saturday) they rejected it again. The letter states that my or my spouse are not complying to japanese laws regarding taxes or something along those lines.
When my spose read that she said: "Ah, maybe it's because I included my father in my tax declaration to have some benefits, and when I changed jobs, my new employeer asked me for some proof and I couldn't be bothered so I didn't provided it."

And now I'm completely lost.
For the sake of my kid I've endured already several years of living with someone I don't love, but this seems to have no end and the idea of staying another 3 or 4 years like this makes me feel like I can't keep living like this.

I had a consultation with a lawyer and these are the options:

1 - Apply for job visa: I talked to my boss but he said that the company is in bad shape and they are closer to fire me than to support me.

2 - Divorce and apply to LTR visa: The most plausible? But it's not as safe as the PR, and it scares me to have to leave my child here.

3 - Back to my country: Same with the previous, I don't want to leave my kid here. Also, my life is in Japan now, I have not only my kid in here but also friends.

4 - Endure life until my kid is big, then maybe apply for Pr again or whatever: I don't really want to do it. I feel like my life is on hold. I want to move on, have my own life without being scared of what I did wrong according to her rules or whatever.

I don't mind going back to my country but I don't want to part with my kid, this is what scares me the most. This and the idea of exahusting my money pursuing a different visa here and then having to go back to my country penniless. I don't have family back in my country anymore (my parents died while I was in Japan).

I'd live to have some other people opinions and experiences, because I'm at my wit's end.

Sorry and thank you.

I'm a resident that moved here in 2025, and with the yen deprecating once again after the failed intervention I finally decided to try and wrap my head around what was happening.

I am not an economist, so my understanding could be wrong, but if I understand correctly BOJ suddenly raised interest rates above zero in 2024, which caused all of the investors using yen denominated assets for international carry trade to panic sell, and the yen entered a sudden death spiral instead of appreciating like they might have expected, so they panicked and assured that there would be no more rate hikes, which ironically worsened the situation, leading to the yen death spiral that we're currently facing...

What I'm having trouble understanding is, why did the BOJ suddenly hike interest rates? Were they not expecting this to happen?

It’s honestly so sad that so many people are thinking of moving from Japan, some after 8-10 years. I totally understand tho. It’s not a positive environment.

Fortunately, I got PR about 12 years ago, but I’m wondering if people know of any actual cases of PR being revoked? I can’t help but feel uneasy too.

(Of course, cases other than crime/arrest)

Post-purchase rant, and now that it's all done I finally have the full picture.

A year ago I bought a plot and built a new house in the suburbs of a big city. I'm happy with the location, plot, house, and cost. I bought the plot through an agent, not through the housemaker.

Neither my wife nor I had ever bought real estate and knew nothing about it. We weren't sure whether to buy an old house and renovate, buy a pre-built new house, or buy an empty plot and build from scratch. So we browsed a few houses online and expected the agent to show them to us and walk us through the whole process. We figured it would take about a year.

Oh, we were so wrong. Almost every agent was kind and extremely nice, on the first day only. The moment we said we didn't like the options and asked for new suggestions, it all went south. They'd collect suggestions that had nothing to do with what we asked for, barely explain the pros and cons, and just want to drive us around to look at places before saying anything useful. It felt like a waste of everyone's time: we both work full time and didn't want to spend every weekend looking at options that didn't even fit our initial requirements.

Communication was spotty with everyone. Agents who refused to use email and insisted on calling only. Or agents who just stopped communicating for no reason, as if giving up on us as clients.

I get that it's a lot of work for a small chance of a sale, but then why are the housemakers' salespeople so nice and communicative, spending much more time for a much smaller chance of selling than the regular agents?

It left a really bad taste. I now have the stereotype of real estate agents as lazy, looking to make a quick buck with the minimum effort. I'd rather never deal with them again.

--

But credit where credit is due.

I mentioned we bought the plot through an agent, and that one guy single-handedly made up for all the others. We were about to give up and literally decided to see one last option. We called an agency and they assigned us this guy who looked like the typical "crooked salesman" from movies: a fat middle-aged man in a white shirt, a big shiny wristwatch, a fancy new-model Toyota Crown sedan, and thin, oily, back-combed hair.

He patiently showed us the house we wanted to see. He not only answered every question clearly and honestly, but even called the owner to get accurate, direct answers. He was old-fashioned and barely knew how to use email, yet he was the ONLY salesperson who respected our preference for email over phone, obviously getting some junior at the agency to make him an email address and help him with it (lol).

Like every other agent, he asked for our preferences so he could make suggestions. But unlike every single other agent, his suggestions were exactly what we wanted, instantly taking the top spots on our list. Finally an agent who found better places than we could find ourselves, because until then we thought it was just a scam going through an agent since their suggestion were worse than what we found without them.

In the end he noticed we weren't happy with the pre-built houses and suggested we give the housemakers another chance, while also offering to help us find empty plots. He found the plot we finally bought, negotiated a discount with the owner, and when we asked small questions (neighborhood association, noise, etc.), he was honest that this plot was outside his "neighborhood" of expertise, so he knocked on the neighbors' doors and asked them directly, to get accurate info from people who actually live there. We were happy to pay his commission for the plot rather than going with the housemaker's selection.

We were already convinced we were terrible customers, but after meeting this agent, we realized how incompetent every other one was.

After trying Corona zero, I find it hard to go back to Japanese 0%! I find they taste like a bitter watery soda with a kind of beer aftertaste.

Really impressed with the Corona 0 flavour, but it's pretty hard to find, I could only find the bottle version in one supermarket.

I'm not a beer connoisseur though, happy to try other suggestions!

Where do you live in Tokyo? Do you like living there? Why?

Thinking of moving in with my partner. We are brainstorming where we could live. I wanted to hear out people’s experiences!

Edit: so many people are asking me about what I am looking for but I did not intend to make the post for people to help me find a neighborhood to live. I just wanted to open a general conversation on what kind of neighborhoods people like to live in.

I just got permanent residency and I am thinking about buying a house in kita-ku (80million yen very nice place). The price of houses is going up and the interest is still only about 1.5% or less on a 35 year flex loan. I also make over 8million yen a year, as does my wife, and have 120k USD in savings + 150k USD in retirement fund.

However, with all the xenophobia and economic instability, is it really a good idea?

I worry what might happen with the yen in the future and if I should be saving my USD instead and investing or something else. I'm just tired of paying rent instead of owning my home when I intend to stay until retirement anyway.

I guess I'm just curious what you would do or how you think things will be going? Worried mostly about PR revocations or flexible mortgage rates skyrocketing.

So basically I had the wonderful surprise at lunch today of having my payment refused.

When I opened the SMBC app, I got a notification asking me to go through their periodic verification process. I had to enter a bunch of personal information, my job, the purpose of my account, etc., supposedly for fraud / money-laundering prevention, and then upload my residence card.

I completed the whole process, and now I’m basically locked out of SMBC Direct while they review everything. The page says it can take around 5 business days.

The problem is: how the hell am I supposed to buy food or access my money until then?

My Olive debit card was already declined today, and on Wednesday I’m supposed to go pick up my new residence card. If I can’t access cash to pay the required revenue stamp and transportation, this puts me in a seriously annoying situation.

Has this happened to anyone else with SMBC?

I am going to travel to hiroshima and need to switch to the sanyo line in around 15 minutes after reaching via the shinkansen.

From what i saw, there is an internal tranfer gate from the shinkansen line to the local lines, so i could use that. But i need to have some food in that transfer time so I want to know if there are any restaurants/cafe/conbini on the transfer route?

Or, do i need to exit the shinkansen line completely, pick up food in some cafe/conbini on the station and then enter the local line again?

Sorry if this is not the correct forum but I've been receiving a gazillion requests from friends and family about "look how cheap it is to live in Tokyo, you can get a 14 LDK penthouse at 480 square meters in central Minato-ku for only 4000 yen a month!" ads on insta. Exaggerated numbers yes but just looking at them feels like it's not too far off. Out of curiosity I started looking at them and I am having a hard time understanding what the point is of running these ads.

I don't want to link to the accounts specifically but one particularly egregious example was a 3 LDK in "Shinagawa/Edo/Minato area" at like 65 square meters, one of the top floors in an apartment complex built in 2026, floor heating etc. for about 120 000 yen / month. If you look at Suumo, the actual prices for these requirements are over 99% above 300 000 yen / month. Every single comment on these posts are from random accounts saying 詳細希望

My best guess would be to gather data from gullible people who try to sign up for these things, but it still feels weird. What could possibly be the purpose of running these "ads"?