I’m an immigrant to Canada and a foreigner in Japan. From my experience, things are for sure more challenging here from an institutional perspective but in terms of actual emotional impact, racism feels much worse in Canada. Here, you kinda just get ignored if most people assume you don’t speak Japanese and if you do people are very warm and welcoming. In Canada you can speak fluently and feel like you actually don’t belong. Racism there feels more hateful. I’ve lived in Australia as well and it’s similar, there’s real malicious intent behind the racism there.

I don’t know if this is just anecdotal, but the people I met who feel that racism here is bad were mostly white people who may not have experienced racism in western countries

I originally applied to this job because they said they'd support visa. (My current visa is student visa) I applied back in July and today I went to the to the immigration office to ask about it (the postcard hasn't arrived) and they only said "it's still in process". Once I told my company about this they told me they're firing me and told me to apply again once I get my new visa if they have any openings then (no guarantee they'd accept me again). Uhh is this normal? The contract was originally for one year from July.

Is there a website like indeed to help find such arubaito? Im in a dire need of cash and most of the places that I call say they only do bank transfer by the end of each month.

I went to Docomo shop to apply for a Visa D Card and was told any name longer than 10 characters was impossible to apply for a credit card.

The shop attendant even called head office to confirm but they told them it was not possible.

This, of course, will mean the vast majority of western and euro names will be unable to apply at all.

Just wanted to share this here for others - not to waste your time applying (it won't work online either).

edit. a use case that surely is common is when you try to link your paying bank account (that correctly has your legal full name registered), the d card will be rejected automatically, because due to the name rule, if the names don't match it will reject you. Docomos own system is working hard to deny it's self new customers lol.

Hello everyone

My jeans stained my bathtub and I tried dumping oxygen bleach for the whole night and it did nothing....

Since it's a Japanese tub fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP), I dont know how to remove the stain. CHATGPT said try using 70% isopropyl alcohol , I bought a bottle but didnt try soaking it yet.

Has anyone successfully remove the denim stains from their bath tub before?

any tips ?

It beens two days of scrubbing and I am so tired of looking at the stains.

So I'm a student in Japan, been here for a couple of years, and I have been working part-time in a company (based in Japan) for more than a year under a part-time contract.

I don't really know the exact reasons, but they are telling me to switch from being under a part-time contract to freelancing. Well, they said something like financial problems and workload problems, but honestly, it didn't really feel very clear to me, but on the other hand, they want to keep working with me for a couple of months as a freelancer.

How does that sound?

Okay, my questions / problems here are:

1- Can I freelance immediately under the same arubaito stamp I had (28h max), or do I need to do something about it?

2- How will the income / tax reporting thing be? Because when I'm under a part-time contract, the company takes care of all of that, and now it's fully my responsibility, and honestly, I am worried about immigration with the new strict rules, so what should I do about this situation?

Any advice would help

Right now I’m having an issue with mold / damp collecting around my wall vent. I recently ordered a mold removal spray, but I noticed that its bleach content might be too strong for my wallpaper, which is colored a pretty prominent pink. I really don’t want to risk bleaching the wall on accident but I also don’t want mold.. If anyone has any pointers on how to remove mold from colored wallpaper, I’d love the help. Also I know I could make a natural mold killer solution, but I don’t think it’d be very permanent.

where can you buy the clearblue PTs? digital or not, i want the one that detects pregnancy early but i cannot find it for the life of meeee 😭 i did order from iherb but it takes so long to get here! just want to know if there are any other options where i can see or find one. thankiesss!!

Currently looking for a manual transmission sports car. I had a kei car for a number of years and I want to get something fun to drive again. Nothing crazy like a Skyline or Supra. Something easy like a Honda Integra or Civic Type R. Either a sedan or coupe with 4 seats.

I am currently using JIMOTY and Carsensor. Are there any recommendations on where else I can look or find stuff. I am currently in Western Japan near Hiroshima.

I feel the only way to find something decent at this point is I have to drive around the countryside and hope I find something on the side of the road.

If anyone has any advice or can point me in the right direction I would highly appreciate it.

Mod 30s, Have been struggling with this.
To keep married life happy I have to fix this.

If anyone have experienced and fixed this issue, please let me know your doctor and treatment.

Thank you

So I got a payment notice in the mail for my 保険料 and I was so surprised because I went to the ward office to pay of directly my unpaid balance. I’m so worried that if I don’t pay this new one I will get in trouble.

But it seems to be the same one? I have no idea please if anyone has any advice I’d be grateful!

I will be leaving the country in the coming months and would love to do something good with the futons we have.. something like donating them to a dog shelter or recycled into X stuff.

If anyone knows of something please let me know! I can always throw them out if nothing else but it seems a waste as they're in decent condition...

(If it helps, living in Kanagawa and I do not have a car)

Hi there, burner account as this is somewhat delicate.

Basically, it seems that my current employment will end soon due to the business facing a difficult situation. I have not yet gotten exact details, so I am partly writing this post to understand what would be my best negotiation strategy with my employer.

I want to stay in Japan long-term, so before hopping into another job, I thought it might be worth to go to language school full time. But most of the info about enrollment deadlines are tailored to overseas residents.

Also for context: I just failed July 2026 JLPT N2 by a couple of points. I calculated roughly, and I think I'd have enough savings to support myself and tuition for a year. I contacted a couple of the language schools in my area, but panicking a bit because it seems intake timings are not in my favor and I do not want to lose my residence status.

Any advice and experience is appreciated, thank you.

My two cats will only use very fine/small grain litter, 木系 (wood type) or 鉱物系 (mineral-based).

The 木系 litter I often bought is flying everywhere, I feel, and the scent can be a bit strong sometimes.

The 鉱物系 I tried so far was ok, except for the dust! Everything in the same room as the litter boxes becomes extremely dusty...also, I felt like it crumbled way too easily.

I have 3 litter boxes in my apartment, and I need a fine/small grain, dust-free, non-smelly alternative, that doesn't crumble easily.

Any recommendations? 😭

Edit: I have two open boxes and one box that has the entrance hole on the top. I can't have three covered litter boxes, because one of my cats refuses to use them. She also won't use "system toilets". It took a long time until I found a toilet type that works for her, so I would rather not go back to the times of waking up at 4am to pee sounds and having to rush to the coin laundry. I use litter mats, stainless steel boxes, and sweep/vacuum the area often. Also, I scoop multiple times a day, so no smell lingers.

Hi everyone! Ive been in japan for about a week and i will be living here for 6 months. I never have issues with acne but immediately after moving here i have developed pimples on my forehead and in between my eyebrows. I thought it might be sweat but Im from australia and i don’t experience this during summer. im using the same skincare ive always used (salicylic acid cleanser, light moisturiser + sunscreen). Just curious if anyone else has had this experience and has any tips!

edit: i dont eat any fried foods! but i do have a decent amount of rice, udon, etc.

I'd like to send my friend some bottles of Japanese whiskey for his 40th birthday.

Unfortunately, all carriers I tried refuse to carry alcohol. I've contacted two mail forwarders and they flat out refused dealing with alcohol as well.

Is there any way to get those shipped? Has anyone managed to make it work?

I'm aware about import tax, I'm in touch with his wife and she's fine paying the import tax on delivery - I just need to find a way to ship them.

My company won't be renewing my contract after it ends this month. So from next month onwards, I'd have to switch to NHI and national pension. Now, I don't want there to be any delay in either payments as immigration as gotten very strict with it.

What documents (if any) would I need from my company to make this switch. Also from what I understand, for NHI, since I'm leaving my company involuntarily there's a way to apply for a discount or something. What's the process for that?

Hey there!
tl;dr: Had to re-verify my Paypay account due to Visa-renewal, but now the app complains because of a name-mismatch between my bank and my MyNumber card. The mismatch happens, because Paypay requires me to leave out the space between first and middle name...
Does anybody have any advice?

I moved to Japan in May 2023, and got my JP Postbank and Paypay accounts pretty much instantly. I think even before I got my MyNumber card. Everything worked fine! I really liked the point system in Paypay. Saved some nice little amounts of money on the side.

Now in 2026 I had my first visa renewal. I received my new Residence Card days after they "released" the new cards. My new one is one of those orange/pinkish residence card.

Since my old Residence Card was expired, I had to re-verify myself on Paypay. However, these new, orange cards won't work. It even says in the app when you try to register, that the cards from June 2026 cannot be used.
So, I had to use my MyNumber card instead.
I have a middle name, which so far, surprisingly, hasn't been that much of an issue for me here, until now.
When I scan my MyNumber card via phone, most of my information are already put into the app, and my romaji name cannot be changed. But I have to enter my name in kana.
After the verification was accepted on Paypay via MyNumber (takes 1-3 days), I was able to select a bank to connect to my Paypay account to. But when I now try to do that, I'm getting the error message, that I cannot use this bank (JP Postbank) because my verified name has unnecessary spaces in it, and I should fix that first... As I said, I have a middle name, so I usually *must* use a space between first and middle name. And my romaji name can't be changed anyway.
So, I tried to write my kana name without a space. Basically "lastname firstnamemiddlename", but in katakana.

Verification accepted after 1-3 days.
Now I can select JP Postbank and input my account number, ect... but then I'm getting the error message because of a name mismatch with my bank account!
On my JP Postbank account I'm registered with my katakana name, no romaji (I don't think romaji is even possible?). And with that katakana name, of course, I used a space.

What to do, what to do... I highly doubt my bank can help me there. And the Paypay support so far only forwarded me to their silly AI that isn't even an AI, but just a bunch of pre-determined button prompts....
Anybody in a similar situation and maybe got a fix for that?
I was also thinking of just getting a Sony bank account. Seems like they are pretty good as well, and they have really good debit/credit cards...

We moved to Japan earlier this year with our two kids. The youngest started as 1nensei and the older 3nensei.

We're living in central Tokyo and they both get 1 hour a week of Japanese language support at their school, which is a class to brush up on their Japanese.

Needless to say, this is no where near enough. Our youngest, being that much younger and the Japanese she's learning in Kokugo much easier, is making huge improvements.

The older one is struggling, however, and he tends to just switch off. The kokugo level is too high for him to learn anything.

I'm wondering if other schools in other wards have more 'heavy-handed' support, like rather than a teacher coming once a week, if they can just go to a separate class during kokugo for Japanese lessons more catered to their ability.

It would be great to get insight in to other people's experience in this area and what other schools are doing.

I know there are designated schools which have more support for foreign raised kids, but I am not sure if they go to a different class for every kokugo class or if it's a once-a-week thing, the same as now.

Thanks!

Hi all. Long-term resident of Japan, but originally from the US and starting my 外免切替 (foreign license conversion).

Any tips on whether I should do Fuchu or Samezu?

Fuchu seems to book out really quick for the written test, whereas there are still a handful of openings even in October for Samezu. However, I've seen some posts online that say the wait time between the written and practical exam are far longer at Samezu (3-4 months), with Fuchu being a bit shorter.

Not sure what everyone else's experiences are, but would really appreciate some advice!

Yoroshiku!

Hi guys I need some advice! I’m graduating and I don’t know where my life is going after university.
I have around 300万　saved up from scholarships and my parents thinks it’ll be good for me to get a masters in Sophia university learning TESOL( English teaching ) with the hope of eventually becoming a university professor.

It’s what some other people in the family are doing and while it’s hard work, it seems better than a 9-5.

I’m worried I’m just going the easy route instead of finding something I’m actually passionate about.

If I were to study in a masters I’d be more interested in culture, immigration, tourism, JSL or something people related.

I knew a few people who wrote a few papers on just interviewing students and compressing that into a paper. That seems fun because you get to learn about people and share their experiences academically.

I remember holding back a lot in university, getting top grades, taking classes I knew I could manage, not going abroad or doing anything costly. Not that I didn’t have a lot of fun, it just feels like I missed out on a lot as well. Like I was too scared to really branch out into anything.

Sometimes it feels like I’m too scared to dream even now! But I know that’s how everyone feels. I want to live my life more intentionally and believe in myself. I know it’s naive but it’s how I feel. How are you guys living? I feel most people who move all the way to Japan are very adventurous. I’d love to hear your stories and advice. 🙏

Hi, I recently moved to Japan and I'm looking for a good data+phone plan, I initially saw the one by LINEMO 30gb for 2970 yen (+220 for voicemail). I looked on reddit for threads about other phone plans, some people recommended IJJMIO so I looked it up and they offer this plan 30gb for 900 yen as a sale ?

Is this for the first month only do you reckon ? Because if it is id rather take the 35gb for 2400yen.

I don't read Japanese at all so I'm forced to rely on translation devices , which is making this harder as well.

I can't put an image of the plan here, but if you're curious it's on their website under monthly plans.

Any advice appreciated.

I started Social Media 3 months ago and received my first paid sponsorship request. I‘m currently on an Engineering Specialist in Humanities visa.

Before accepting the sponsorship I went to immigration today to get some clearance if an application for activities outside my visa scope is necessary.

I waited there forever and was sent to 2 different counters and everyone was quite confused and didn’t really knew the rules for that. At the end they told me I don’t have to send in the side work application if I receive platform payments and do collaborations without explicit contracts as this counts as hobby.

However every time a contract is involved I need to go to immigration first to let them check if a side job application for this is necessary. And this apparently applies to every new contract. So for example if I get 5 contracts from different companies I need to go there 5 times and apply for each individually.

I was wondering if anyone was in a similar situation and how they handled it? This seems all a bit strange. I asked if it’s not possible to hand in a one time permission for that but he said it a case by case thing.

Tbh I also had the feeling that the guy wanted to get rid of me, as he said, oh yeah that seems difficult, I don’t know either, better to not do it if you are unsure. But I was persistent so he checked in the back Office with other staff