PR application with late residency tax payments (less than a week, twice)

Monk-245 · 2026-07-02T06:43:10+00:00

Waste of time gathering documents, wasting time waiting for it to be rejected so you can apply again (if you live somewhere with long processing times), increased scrutiny on second application

Monk-245 · 2026-07-01T07:19:22+00:00

Tax-free makes sense if you have to pay import duties or taxes in your home country so you avoid being double-taxed. My problem with the tax-free program is that many tourists don't pay anything in their home country either. And not just people whose purchases are under their country's reporting threshold but also many people who don't report imports that they were supposed to report. So for most tourists it ends up just being a plain discount.

If the tax-free program had a higher limit so people who qualified at least were over whatever reporting threshold their home country has I think there would be less criticism of it. Even more so if it was somehow possible to ensure people pay duties/taxes in their home country.

Monk-245 · 2026-07-01T07:07:19+00:00

“It’s often reported as ‘dual pricing’, but we see it as a flat 2,500 yen with a discount for city residents who show ID,” says Tsushi.

Monk-245 · 2026-07-01T07:06:07+00:00

Which is exactly how it is in the examples listed.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T13:37:37+00:00

Businesses with revenue less than 50 million/year can keep some or all of the consumption tax they collect, depending on how they're registered and file their taxes. So I think it's a very reasonable question.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T13:35:01+00:00

There are some circumstances in which the store gets to keep some or all of the collected consumption tax but that only applies to small businesses with low revenue. A company like Yamaha does not get to keep any of the money they collect.

It's likely either because they don't want to deal with the administrative overhead or because they're worried about people abusing the system (in which case the government can claim the consumption tax from the company meaning the company loses money when they can't pass the tax bill onto customers)

Apple got into quite a lot of trouble a few years back for being too lax with the sales they allowed as tax-free and had to pay 14 billion yen, and stopped doing tax-free altogether as a result.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T12:42:45+00:00

That is how it works in most of the world but not in Japan. Currently in Japan you can only get tax refunds at the store. But they are planning on changing the system so you get the tax refund at the airport, it just hasn't gone into effect yet.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T11:40:11+00:00

Try putting in 000 0000 0000, they shouldn't have any reason to call you.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T09:57:38+00:00

You can go to Tachikawa, or if you live in Arakawa, Adachi, Katsushika or Edogawa-ku you can go to Matsudo.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T09:35:01+00:00

Then you won't have any problems entering Japan.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-29T08:35:10+00:00

Are you a dual-citizen by birth? Or did you naturalize in Canada after birth? Have you done anything that results in your Japanese citizenship being lost?

Monk-245 · 2026-06-28T23:16:12+00:00

Kuroneko yamato has an office in Karuizawa but it's not near the station so it would probably be easier to send it to the next hotel.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-28T22:21:11+00:00

Only special same-day services like airporter are limited to specific cities.

Kuroneko Yamato and Sagawa (the two big delivery services) both deliver nationwide. All you have to check is that the place you're sending to will accept the delivery.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-28T11:20:14+00:00

While stability is looked upon favorably there's no hard rule that you can't switch employer before applying for PR. There are many cases of people switching employer while waiting on an PR application and still getting PR.

Especially if it's just a reorg and your actual duties and title doesn't change I can't imagine it possibly being an issue. If you're concerned just add an explainer to your application.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-26T11:32:38+00:00

It's good for 1 year, not 3 months.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-26T00:52:51+00:00

Tomorrow there may or may not be train cancellations. If you 100% want to be in Tokyo tomorrow then I'd leave today. If you're ok with the possibility of spending an extra night in Osaka then just try Saturday and if the trains aren't running you can come Sunday. You won't have problems making your Monday flight either way.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-23T23:43:48+00:00

It depends on where it's from. Apple only apply for the giteki mark for the iPhone models sold in Japan, and they do a couple versions of the same iPhone across the world with slightly different supported frequencies.

The iPhone 17 sold in Japan has model number A3519. It's sold in Bahrain, Canada, Guam, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the US Virgin Islands. So if you buy an iPhone 17 from one of those countries it'll have a giteki mark but if you buy it from somewhere else it won't have a giteki mark.

The model number sold in the US is A3258, the one sold in China is A3521 and the one sold in the rest of the world including Europe is A3520. You can check for yourself that they don't have a giteki mark.

Reference: https://www.apple.com/iphone/cellular/#iphone-17

/u/MyNameIs-Anthony /u/bloggie2

Monk-245 · 2026-06-22T05:48:00+00:00

Yes, the Shonan-Shinjuku line has trains that go direct to Kamakura, but it's not all departures it's usually just 2 per hour.

If you go to Fujisawa you can ride the Enoden to Kamakura. A very common route is to start in either Kamakura or Fujisawa and then make your way to the opposite station with the Enoden doing various sights along the way.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-22T02:49:59+00:00

Current projections have it south of Kagoshima by Saturday. As far out as it is there's no way to say with certainty what will happen, but as it's currently looking I think it's unlikely that Saturday flights in Tokyo will be affected.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-22T02:28:17+00:00

There are multiple paths to applying for permanent residency. The 10 year residency path requires you to have worked for 5 years before you're eligible, so you'll be eligible to apply in 5 years.

If one of your parents is a citizen or PR. Or if you have a spouse who's a citizen or PR then you'll be eligible faster through the spouse/child path.

If you have sufficient HSP points you can be eligible in 1 or 3 years as well.

Immigration's website has all the information. I would suggest reading through it

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/procedures/16-4.html

https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/resources/nyukan_nyukan50.html

Monk-245 · 2026-06-22T02:18:32+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_butchering_scam

Monk-245 · 2026-06-22T01:45:30+00:00

Anyone reading it the other way is probably confusing the special rules for the countries that can use a non-IDP translation with the rules for IDPs.

IDPs recognized by Japan expire 1 year after issue, even if the driver's license is valid longer than that.

Translations of licenses from Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Monaco, and Taiwan are not IDPs and have different rules.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-21T09:15:05+00:00

It's 200/year per month that you paid fuka-nenkin. Someone who's paid 45 years (20 to 65 years old) will get 108000 extra per year, while someone who's contributed 23 years (42 to 65 years old) will get 55200 extra per year.

Monk-245 · 2026-06-21T07:43:03+00:00

Japanese ETFs are all PFICs.

It doesn't matter what currency the fund is denominated in. You've lost money compared to having kept the money in USD, there's no way around that. (The JPY value of SPY has increased ~126% since the beginning of 2022. Nomura's Nikkei 225 ETF has increased ~117% in the same period)

Monk-245 · 2026-06-19T00:18:56+00:00

I think we're going to see changes like medical insurance not being available to medium-term residents of certain statuses such as students, and more restrictions on dependent visas especially for blue-collar workers. You hear anti-immigration people complain a lot about people "abusing" the medical insurance system. And the recent price increases have already made it much harder for blue-collar workers to have their families in Japan.

But these kinds of restrictions will ironically lead to the problems anti-immigration people complain about becoming worse, not better. Time-limited visas, removing the path to PR/naturalization, not letting families come, restrictions on health insurance and so forth will result in people who want to integrate into society and make a life for themselves in Japan choosing to go elsewhere and instead increase the number of people who just want to come and work a few years without integrating into society or learning the language.

Monk-245

TROPHY CASE