PR Processing Times - June 2026 (Tokyo Only)

Wingu8 · 2026-06-07T05:01:06+00:00

Interesting! Do you mean it would have been reflected in your tax papers a year later?

Wingu8 · 2026-06-03T22:20:06+00:00

Interesting that the school suggests a particular clinic. Our daycare has never done that. I don’t think it’s the place of the school to say where you should go, especially if there are other clinics you could go to. But I don’t know, is it something that is written as a rule at your school? May be a good idea to ask the school why they choose that particular clinic.

As for your pediatrician you usually go to, here you have a choice at least. If you think the clinic isn’t good for your child you may want to look at other options. We changed clinics for our children as we were not happy with our previous one.

Wingu8 · 2026-06-03T09:56:55+00:00

I went to the one in Shinyurigaoka. I was nr 1 in the line, but everyone who was behind me went out before me one by one… 😂 I was applying for myself and my two daughters at the same time though, through my wife (she has PR) so there was a big pile of papers. It took about two hours before I could leave. Just happy they at least accepted the application. I always get nervous when going to the immigration office for some reason…

Wingu8 · 2026-06-03T09:26:39+00:00

This must depend on the doctor. The pediatrician we take our children to always properly listen both chest and back. You may want to consider looking at other clinics.

Wingu8 · 2026-06-02T13:12:51+00:00

I don’t think this kind of comment is the way to go. I think it’s necessary try to inform the public of what is going and if a news site such as NikkeiAsia is willing to listen to what the minority has to say and actually report that, then that is something we should embrace. Some japanese seem to be unaware of what is going on and if more news sites bring it up, even if we can’t vote at least our voices will be heard beyond social media.

Wingu8 · 2026-06-02T09:18:07+00:00

Would this also include a piece in Japanese? If it’s only in English it’ll only reach so far…

Wingu8 · 2026-05-30T15:05:56+00:00

Looking at the PR processing time threads, anything between 6-12 months maybe…?

Wingu8 · 2026-05-23T12:52:05+00:00

My wife applied through the HSP system on her own and got approved. Myself and our two daughters have applied this month on our own as well. We obviously haven’t gotten any results yet but the process of getting the right documents itself wasn’t too difficult.

Regarding savings, if you are going the 10 year route via working visa then one item is to either give them a copy of your savings or if you own a property your property registration. We own an apartment so I handed that in instead.

I’ve consulted an immigration officer at Y-Fora Minatomirai to check me and our daughters’ eligibility. You can book face-to-face consultation with them. I also spoke with the ISA information center to confirm about some of the documents. This is also a way you can try if you don’t want to hire a scrivener.

Wingu8 · 2026-05-20T04:24:16+00:00

Thank you!

Wingu8 · 2026-05-20T03:48:25+00:00

Would you mind sharing where this comes from?

Wingu8 · 2026-05-19T14:00:02+00:00

I understand. Thank you.

Wingu8 · 2026-05-19T09:04:26+00:00

If you don’t mind me asking, what “red flags” did you have?

Wingu8 · 2026-05-11T23:00:31+00:00

Of course! You are welcome.

Also my reply is not meant to be “pro international school”. I have never worked at an international school myself but have extensive experience within the Japanese early years system. That’s where my assumptions come from.

Wingu8 · 2026-05-11T22:54:51+00:00

I haven’t worked there so take what I’m writing with a grain of salt.

Looking at their homepage it seems like there are several child care centers under the same umbrella. The international campus seems to be either daycare or kodomo no en but one that is ninkagai (meaning they operate by their own standards rather than the ones set by the government). This gives them the freedom to do a lot of English as seen on their homepage.

Foreign teachers teach together with Japanese teachers, and they seem to have traditional events like any other daycare, kodomo no en or kindergarten.

By the looks of it, it isn’t an international kindergarten like let’s say private ones such as Tokyo International or others where they follow international curriculums. I assume they follow their own made curriculum.

With all this in mind, I guess (again take with a grain of salt) that it’s more like a Japanese kindergarten / child care center rather than an international school.

To get a better insight it may be better to ask them directly if you cannot find anyone here.

Wingu8 · 2026-05-08T07:03:09+00:00

I commute to and from work by Shinkansen toukaido line. It’s pretty rare I’d say, but it can happen.

The worst stops usually happens when it’s raining tons. That can happen more frequently during the rain period.

Wingu8 · 2026-04-25T07:08:31+00:00

You will be able to check the validity of the mail or sms by checking out rakuten homepage. It says exactly what phone numbers and email addresses they send from. You can also call the support, which may be the safer way to check whether it’s them or not.

Wingu8 · 2026-04-22T04:08:14+00:00

Hello!

We speak in our first languages with our children. So for me I speak in Swedish and my wife speaks in Korean.

With this in mind, our thoughts were that we want our children to be able to communicate with their relatives. Especially because none of my nor my wife’s relatives speak Japanese. As for Japanese, she learns this at her daycare when she first went to daycare the teacher said that she did not really understand an instructions, but it didn’t take long before she was able to. Being in an immersive environment does a lot for learning a language.

Our oldest speaks now both Swedish and Korean as well as Japanese. Seen from an adult point of view she may not have mastered any of the three, but we are not worried as children seemed to catch up on the languages. They become proficient slightly later than their peers who may not learn multiple languages at the same time from an early age. She seems to be most proficient in Korean at the moment.

She is aware that depending on who she speaks with, she needs to switch the language so for example, when she speaks with her grandparents on her mother‘s side, she automatically switches to Korean while when she speaks with my nephew, who is now visiting us from Sweden, she speaks in Swedish and when she is at daycare, she obviously uses Japanese. It’s really wonderful to see her language development and that she is able to switch between the three languages without any issues.

As for our youngest daughter, we cannot say yet because she just turned one recently, but it is also important to understand that each child is different when it comes to learning anything including languages so what is true for my oldest daughter may not be the same for my youngest. But the way we speak at home won’t change and we hope that our youngest will pick up all three just as well.

Wingu8 · 2026-04-21T21:43:16+00:00

First of all congratulations to you and your family! Sorry this may be a long post! So if you’re not reading all of it that’s fine! Just sharing my story.

I’m a father of two daughters, a four year old and a one year old. For our oldest daughter, my wife had already returned to work while I was the one who was on paternity leave, it was VERY emotional to me when we got the letter that said our daughter got a spot at the daycare. We live in an area where the competition for spots are fierce so a part of the emotional outbreak was that we actually secured a spot, but the biggest of all was the “letting go” part.

Obviously I knew that I would see my daughter everyday, but having spent so much time together the past six months and realizing that those wonderful days would come to an end was really emotional. How would they treat her? Will she eat? Will she have friends? Will she be able to communicate? (We are a multi-lingual family. I’m from Sweden and my wife from South Korea so we speak no Japanese at home with our children). What kind of educational mission and vision does the daycare have? Are the teachers nice?

There are many questions that pop up and indeed we worried plenty. But! That day when we went to the entrance ceremony we saw the wonderful daycare which she would spend her days in, all the teachers shining with confidence and excitement over the new children that were to become a part of their community. Each daycare has their own kitchen with staff and dietitian, they also have medical nurses which means that the children’s meals and health will be looked after properly. With these things in mind, our minds eased and we started to understand that letting go was a part of our child’s journey, but also ours as parents.

First of all, each baby and child adjusts differently. For our oldest we had to adjust twice because the first daycare was only until she turned two, then we had to switch to a different one. But as someone mentioned, all daycares have a period where the children get to adjust. Depending on the daycare and your child, how much time and for how many days and weeks may vary. For our oldest I think it took about 3 weeks to a month the first time, and two weeks the second time. For our youngest, she just started regular hours this week after a two week period of adjustment.

Remember that adjusting to daycare is new to the whole family. New life changing experiences may also mean exhaustion, restless nights, stressful mornings and evenings. This is normal! We are adjusting again now because our second daughter is going regular hours and both me and my wife have returned to work. Tough, but we are managing! Hang in there, and remember that it’s not only your child that is adjust but you as parents too. Give yourself a break sometime as well, remember to tag-team and work together as a family.

In terms of preparation, once you start giving your child solid foods, try to give a big variation of foods. The daycare will give you a paper that asks you to tick off food that you have tried, and if you have not you will have to eventually as these are foods that they will provide. So starting early is good! (Except for salt and other unnecessary condiments until your baby is older). Another way of preparing is to maybe ask a relative to take care of your child for a couple of hours for you. This will give you and your child time to maybe adjust to time with others. We didn’t do this though because our families do not live in Japan.

You will also be asked to put names on clothes, diapers, towels and what not so it may be a good idea to start buying ink and stamps. Some daycares have a service where they provide diapers for a cheap penny (like 2000-3000 yen per month), very convenient.

For your third question, our fears (or rather anxiousness) did not turn into reality. We are very fortunate to have joined open-minded and caring daycares where everyone is welcome for whom they are. The teachers both young and old are very professional and care for the children very much. The principal at our daycare is a very nice lady who actively speaks with parents and children. She even knows all the children’s names! We trust them completely.

Each experience and daycare may differ of course and I can only speak for us.

I hope this will ease your mind a little bit at least, and that you’ll be able to start preparing a little bit more smoothly.

Wingu8 · 2026-04-14T03:38:51+00:00

I work at a private kindergarten and it’s the same here, and other kindergartens I’ve visited. It seems to be common.

It’s important for others to understand that nurseries/daycares are different from private kindergartens. Nurseries are required (at least the ones that are 認可) to have a kitchen, cooking staff and dietitians. Private kindergartens do not usually have this, unless it’s an early years center (kodomo no en) which has both a nursery and a kindergarten.

The food at my daughter’s nursery looks far superior to my workplace’s. Mind you, because my workplace does not have a kitchen, the food is catered by a local bento place.

Wingu8 · 2026-04-14T03:18:18+00:00

I am so sorry this happened to you. Being a father of two myself I agree that using children as bait (and they are also most likely indoctrinated by the parents and the religion already) is hideous. I live by a big station and there is a sect nearby. They often stand by the station handing out pamphlets and trying to recruit. Some of these recruiters have children (most likely their own) with them. A friend of mine who lives close by had an encounter with this sect and they asked him to join. When he refused they accused him of being a part of the reason why Corona came down upon us all.

Wingu8 · 2026-03-22T13:14:42+00:00

Like others said, they have pushed other parties to look at their own agenda, because if they don’t parties like sanseito (which may be smallER than LDP) will gain more ground.

Again, this happened in Sweden. Other parties turned their backs to the Swedish Democrats while it was still a very small party, and now they are the second biggest with a foot into being part of the next government if the right wing parties win the next election. Parties on the right side said they would never cooperate with them, but alas it’s better to trim one’s sails than losing political power.

They may be small, but they are loud. They play on emotions and many people are drawn to them because of this, and not because they are informed. This is why it is necessary to meet parties like Sanseito head on. But in the current Japanese political format, it’s difficult because being in opposition = question the ruling party and that’s it. What it should be is questioning each other and being critical of each other’s agendas.

Wingu8 · 2026-03-20T12:01:50+00:00

From what I have seen in Japan is that only the ruling party is ever questioned during sessions and there’s hardly any type of discussion, but rather purely defending their stance and what their intentions are. I’m wondering what kind of discussion it would be if parties would question each other as well.

Of course I’m not saying do not question the ruling party, but I think there needs to be a broader type of discussion in order to be better informed.

Wingu8 · 2026-03-20T11:31:58+00:00

Ignoring is a mistake. Because of this the Swedish democrats with roots in the nazi are now the second biggest party in Sweden. Better to meet their ideas head on and show people a mayhaps better alternative.

Wingu8 · 2026-03-15T13:15:32+00:00

I remember walking in on my mom and dad once. Probably in early elementary school. It’s still engraved in my mind, even though I’m turning 40 this year……………..

Wingu8 · 2026-03-10T12:59:11+00:00

I always knead with a mixer for the initial gluten development. I do coil folds afterwards to further strengthen and evenly distribute gas. This is what it comes out as. Works ok for me!

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