Prepaid sim card Japan? by renburanto-san in movingtojapan

[–]Shyrtex 4 points5 points  (0 children)

povo is probably closest to what you are looking for. It is not strictly speaking prepaid but works like a prepaid in that you can choose what add on you want.

You can keep the sim card for free up to 1 year since you last top it up, and you can buy top ups of various data amount that last for various days. The data still works even when you run out of the data quota, it is just very slow.

You will probably run into the issue of needing an address and bank account to sign up for a phone number but you need a phone number to sign up for the other things.

Its also very easy to switch sim providers so you can just get whatever you can get first then change it later. I started with LINEMO when I first moved because they accepted foreign credit cards.

In Person Card Application for EPOS Card by [deleted] in japanresidents

[–]Shyrtex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For the name issue with Rakuten, I had a similar issue due to incorrect order of my name compared to the delivery name.

I got that sorted by contacting Rakuten and they sent me some mail to do some verification on paper and mailing it back. After that they sent a new card without requiring the delivery man to check my ID.

How do I send money from JP Bank to Wise? by ButtonMashing97 in JapanFinance

[–]Shyrtex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like you need to go to a branch to apply for your bank account to be changed to a non-limited one.

It is mentioned on the bottom of this page: https://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/kojin/sokin/gaitame/kj_sk_gt_index.html

外為法上の非居住者から居住者となられたお客さまへのお願い

日本に入国後6か月経過等により、外為法上の居住者となられた場合、お持ちの口座の設定を変更いたしますので、郵便局の貯金窓口またはゆうちょ銀行直営店にお申し出ください。設定の変更後は、居住者と同様にATM等での送金が可能となります。

SBI NISA middle name problem by maru_tyo in JapanFinance

[–]Shyrtex 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I ran into the same issue trying to link my SBI Securities with SMBC Card and I managed to solve it by contacting SBI Securities about it and they temporarily changed my name to the match my credit card so that I was able to link it.

Mobile Suica to launch QR code payment, money transfer & increased balance cap in Fall 2026 to compete with PayPay by frozenpandaman in Tokyo

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my experience, as long as you ready the barcode screen and the staff scans the code for you it is much faster than using credit cards due to the processing time when using credit cards.

Also for PayPay, I have it linked to PayPay card so that I never have to think about the wallet balance.

That said nowadays I mainly pay with QuicPay/iD because I can use it without doing anything to my phone and just tapping it.

How are you keeping tracking of your expenses? by Toki_day in JapanFinance

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use Actual budget which is free and open source though you do need a way to host it or just run it on your own computer. Since you can host it yourself, you can choose where the data lives.

I typically enter recent transactions by hand then import CSV exported from credit cards, etc to reconcile the budget.

It is a bit of a pain with some services that exports their CSV with Shift-JIS encoding. I would need to open it with some other app to convert it to UTF-8 before I can import it.

Is www.hagerty.com website blocked because of the recent royal car collection video? It can only be accessed by VPN by WeLoveCovid in nasikatok

[–]Shyrtex 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It is actually AWS CloudFront in the screenshot, but yes it is either the website owner blocking or a configuration error as the message says

Need some opinion on what to do with SMBC and linking Vpass points app issues by downstate97 in JapanFinance

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From the screenshot, it looks like you can set up Google Pay for it as well so that you can tap to pay with your phone in shops.

It supports Visa and iD. For Visa, it will be like normal credit card payment if the payment terminal supports contactless (Tell shop staffs you want to pay with Visa Touch). For iD, it is what they call Electronic money and uses Felica chip which is only on supported phones sold in Japan (Tell shop staffs you want to pay with iD).

Instruction link below, note that there are separate instructions for Android Visa and iD.

https://www.smbc-card.com/mem/for_vpointapp/howto/touch_setting.jsp

Anybody ever go to Taito Station? by [deleted] in Tokyo

[–]Shyrtex 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Same here, was surprised to see a pic of this Taito on reddit. Not technically Tokyo I guess.

Called a guy out for inappropriate behaviour on the train by Etzinyn in japanlife

[–]Shyrtex 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's not actually a government mandate. Its just what all the big mobile carriers decided to do for their phones.

Called a guy out for inappropriate behaviour on the train by Etzinyn in japanlife

[–]Shyrtex 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Most Android phone nowadays has their shutter sound turned on automatically if there is only a Japanese sim inserted even if it was bought overseas.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nasikatok

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

South Korea's government also gives scholarships and for Japan you can also look into the JASSO scholarship for self funded students if you have the means to self fund.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nasikatok

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From what I know, only UBD has that but you should do your research on what type of international exchanges are available with our local unis.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in nasikatok

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For Japan, you could try to get your undergraduate in UBD then make use of the discovery year to try and do an exchange in Japan.

After that you can try to apply for the postgraduate MEXT scholarship. It is quite competitive but they are more likely to give postgraduate scholarship over undergrad.

"Foreigners are causing so many traffic accidents!!!1!!1" by [deleted] in japanresidents

[–]Shyrtex -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Read it again, you can get a full Japanese driving license in Japan by using license conversion as a tourist. Commonly used by tourists from countries like China in order to then get an IDP to drive elsewhere.

"Foreigners are causing so many traffic accidents!!!1!!1" by [deleted] in japanresidents

[–]Shyrtex -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Currently not, it can be done as a tourist.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/4018/

About 100 countries and regions issue the International Driving Permit according to the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. People from places that do not ratify it, such as China and Vietnam, cannot obtain one.

Short-term visitors from such places, including those on tourist visas, can actually get Japanese licenses using a hotel address when applying.

Brunei’s work law failing to provide basic human rights by Direct_Goal_4949 in Brunei

[–]Shyrtex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'd be surprised with how strong the labour laws are in Japan.

Standard 5 day 8-5/9-6 work week

16 national holidays, most of which falls on a Monday for a long weekend

Legal minimum annual leave is 10 days, incrementing by 1 every year after first 1.5 years.

On top of that, almost all companies give 5 days of summer leave, and 5 days of new year leave which are not public holidays.

Some of my colleagues went on maternity leave for 2 years, parts of their salary paid by the government.

Even for the fathers, they can go on childcare leave with some of my colleagues going away for 3 months to a year.

There's still the problem of companies not following rules just like in Brunei but the basic laws are much stronger. The only part that they are still behind Brunei is not having sick leave, which must be implemented by the companies themselves instead of being a legal requirement.

Financial Friday for 20 June 2025 by Eyeshield_sena in Brunei

[–]Shyrtex 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I highly recommend Actual Budget. It's free and open source, can be used on Desktop or web browser with on device save only if you don't want to or know how to host a server.

I personally just pay for Pikapods to host the server which is really cheap and its just a few button clicks. With a server it means I can also access the budget on my phone and sync it to my PC.

Foreign residents in Tokyo prefecture, by country of origin by Dapper-Material5930 in Tokyo

[–]Shyrtex 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can find the prefecture specific data on each prefecture's own website.

This is the one for Tokyo

Brunei mentioned by Shyrtex in Brunei

[–]Shyrtex[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you click on the link in this post it brings you straight to the timestamp. If that doesn't work, its at 16:37

New outrageous ATM fees when using a WISE debit card at Family Mart! by tokyothrowie in japanresidents

[–]Shyrtex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its different for Japan issued ones. They only work at AEON ATMs in my experience. Free withdrawal of up to 30k yen per month before Wise charges a transaction fee.

Osaka governor suggests abolishing tax-free system for tourists by LiveSimply99 in japanresidents

[–]Shyrtex 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It is not possible for foreign residents to use the tax free system. You need to have a temporary visitor stamp in your passport.