I received a residence card at the airport. Now what should I do?
You must take your residence card and passport
to your nearest city hall or ward office and register your address information
within 14 days from when you decide the location in which you will live.
I have moved to a different location. Is there anything I should do?I
You must take your residence card and passport
to the city hall or ward office nearest the new location in which you moved to
and register your new address information within 14 days from when you moved.
Also, we ask that you please report your new address to the office here at
school
I am currently enrolled in the one and a half year course here at school, but the expiration date written on my residence card will expire soon. What should I do in this situation?
I will need to go to the nearest immigration
office and apply for a period extension for your residence card. We conduct
renewal applications for students enrolled in the one and a half year program
here at school. We ask that you submit all the necessary paper work required
for the renewal application by the specified date made by the school office.
I have lost my residence card. What should I do?
在In the situation that your
residence card becomes lost, stolen, or damaged, please go to the nearest
Japanese immigration office and apply for
a re-issuance within 14 days from the day you became aware of the cards
condition (or within 14 days from the date you return to Japan if lost or
stolen overseas). residency
(Note) When applying for residence card re-issuance, you must provide proper verification that proves that your card was lost, stolen, or damaged.
I was stopped and spoken to by a police officer, and was told present my residence card. Do I have to show it to them?
You are required to hold with you your
residence card at all times. If you are asked by any legal official from the
immigration office or from the police department, you are required to present
to them your residence card.
I am thinking about returning to my home country in the summer. Is there anything I should do?
Please submit a temporary return form to the
school office if you have any plans to return to your home country. Also, when
you leave the country, you will be asked to present your residence card at the
airport, so please take your residence card along with you. You are able to
legally return to Japan either within one year after leaving the country, or
within the time of the written date on you residence card.
Do I need to enroll into the Japanese National Health Insurance system?
「Anyone entering Japan with a
student visa is required to enroll in the Japanese national health insurance.
With the Japanese national health insurance, you only pay 30% of the actual
price for any medical bills. Exchange students also qualify for special health
insurance price reduction plans, making monthly health insurance really
affordable. Students should proceed with filling out the application for
national health insurance at their nearest city hall or ward office within 14
days after beginning to live in their home. When filling out the application,
you will need to present your residence card. If your application for the
national health insurance is late, you will have to pay an amount
The walls in my apartment are filthy, and I would like to paint over them. Is that a problem?
The rules and contract
content vary depending on the contract for the apartment in which you signed,
however generally it is not considered acceptable to remodel or change the
interior of the apartment in which you are renting. There are many cases where
using nails and/or thumbtacks to pin or hang things up on walls are not
acceptable. In the situation that you wish to alter the interior of your
apartment, please ask the landlord or real-estate agent in which you made a
contract with. If you make any alteration to the interior of you apartment
without consent from the landlord or real-estate agency, you may face huge
fines at the time of moving out from your apartment.
I want to live together with my friend in the same apartment. Is that OK?
Any person other than
the contractee may not live in the same living quarters as you. This is one
sociological custom of Japan that may differ from various other countries. If
in the case that two people wish to reside under the same house, you will need
to discuss that from the beginning with either the land lord or the real-estate
agency.
Although I threw out my garbage in the proper designed area, my neighbors still got angry at me. Why is that?
Perhaps you threw out your
garbage on the incorrect day or at the incorrect time. There is a set method,
time, and date for properly disposing garbage in each area throughout Japan. As
a rule that everyone living in your neighborhood must follow, garbage must be
thrown out on the correct day within the correct time and in the correct
manner, otherwise your garbage will not be collected and disposed of. Depending
where you live, rules for garbage separation, take-out days, and time spans
will vary. On average, burnable garbage is gathered two times per week and non-combustibles
are gathered one time per week. For more details on proper garbage disposal,
please ask the person who manages your dormitory, your land lord, or your real
estate agent.
I was talking and laughing with my friends late at night, and the next door neighbor yelled at us saying we were being too loud. Don't we have the personal freedom to do whatever we want to do in our own home?
For
many foreign exchange students, it is certainly very fun getting together and
talking with friends from the same country. However, while having fun with your
friends, there are tendencies to not realize how loud you are talking or
becoming. When gathering at your home and hanging out with your friends after
10:00pm, please don’t forget that those living around you also need their time
to sleep, so please avoid speaking in unnecessary loud voices.
After
10:00pm, no matter where you are living, try to minimize unnecessary loud
noises and behavior. Keep doors closed, and be considerate while going up and
down stairs cases. Also, when watching television, keep the volume to a
minimum. While listening to music, using headphones is very considerate to the
others living around you. Please refrain from using vacuum cleaners, washing
machines, or any other machines/devices that shake and produce a lot of noise
during late hours of the night.
There are bicycles that have been parked in the same spot for a very long period of time. I think that maybe these bicycles have been abandoned, so is it OK if I take them?
These sort of bicycles are called
“Abandoned bicycles”, and dealing with these bicycles is becoming a problem for
the Ward Office that manages bicycle registration. Though they are not being
used, and have been parked in the same spot for days, it is still not acceptable
to take and use these bicycles. In Japan, it is necessary that all bicycles be
registered, so if you are caught with a bicycle that is identified as an
“abandoned bicycle”, you are considered a bicycle thief and may face forced
repatriation.
I am having a hard time making a living, so I would like to get some scholarships.
If you thoroughly search, you will find that
there are a comparatively large amount of scholarships available for exchange
students in Japan. Here
at school, there is a lot of scholarship information provided and displayed on
the notice board. Be attentive and aware of scholarship information, and look
for any scholarships that you may qualify for. There are no restrictions or
limitations to scholarship applications, so take advantage of this and apply as
much as you can!
I am having a hard time making a living, so I would like to get a part-time job?
For those who hold residence
status as a student are allowed to hold a part time job. However, students who
have come to Japan as temporary visitors are not permitted to work while
studying.
For the sake of paying for living
expenses and school tuition, the number of foreign exchange students who not
only study, but work part time is rather high. However, there are set
guidelines and restrictions for those residents who hold status as a student.
Therefore, it is required that one first applies for and receives work
permission from the immigration office. In the case of those who didn’t receive
work permission upon arriving to Japan, please follow the guidelines as listed
below. Also, please do not violate any set conditions/laws while working in
Japan.
1.
First, you
must apply for part-time work permission
In
the case of wanting to work a part-time job, please apply for work permission
before hand. Once you receive part-time work permission, the permit is valid
until expiration (even if you change jobs).
2.
Please report
to your school immediately after receiving you part-time work permit, and also
when you get a job.
3.
Part-time
work, condition number 1 About working
time
Those
holding residence status registered as “student” are limited as to the amount
of hours one can work. While attending school, you are not permitted to work
over 28 hours in a single week. (Summer vacation/winter vacation/spring
vacation is an exception. You are legally able to work up to 8 hours in one
day).
4.
Part-time
work, condition number 2 About fields of
work
Along
with specifically set weekly working hours, students are strictly prohibited to
engage in any sexual field of work. Bars, cabarets, or any sort of service
where you sit alongside with customers directly, manners and customs of sexual
behavior related jobs, any sort of work
involving encouraging customers to gamble is prohibited (such as Pachinko
slots, Mahjong, etc…). Even working as a dish washer at these sorts of places
is not acceptable.
I heard that there are a lot of earthquakes in Japan. Is there anything I should be careful of?
There is no need for unnecessary fear or worry.
What an earthquake is and how to respond to one is not simply information that
you should know, but something that you should learn from experience. Here at
our school, as part of our class course, we will visit the Ikebukuro Disaster
Prevention Center and conduct a disaster prevention trial. The Ikebukuro disaster
prevention center provides a lot of useful information, as well as providing an
actual earthquake experience corner and a fire extinguisher experience corner. It
is very important to become accustomed to these events by watching and trying
these skills out for yourself. To avoid panicking in
the event of an earthquake, we will also conduct and disaster prevention drills
here at school.
My stomach began hurting very much last night, what should I do?
Normally, medical facilities are
closed on Sundays, holidays, and at the end and beginning of the year. There
are also medical facilities that are closed during Obon (during mid-August) and
operate on Saturday mornings, but closed in the afternoon.
If you begin to feel ill, try
taking some over-the-counter medicine, and watch your physical condition. If
the pain or sickness doesn’t seize to stop, it is advised that you seek medical
support from a doctor.
In an emergency, you don’t necessarily
have a lot of time to search for surrounding medical services and facilities,
so please check your local area for which medical services are offered and
available in advance.
Also, in Tokyo, the “Medical
facilities guidance service” offers telephone services regarding information
about hospitals that provide emergency hospitalization: 03-5272-0303（24 hour service）
If it is clearly a life
threatening state of emergency, please call an ambulance immediately! Below are
the steps required for successfully calling an ambulance:
I.
Dial “119”
II. You
will be asked “Is there a fire?” or “Is this a medical emergency?”. Reply by
stating “It is a medical emergency”.
III. Correctly
inform the operator about the situation. (When did it occur? Who was involved?
Where did it happen? Why did it happen?/What was the cause of the incident?
What is the current condition of the issue?)
IV. Inform
the operator of the location (address) or any particular noticeable buildings
or landmarks that stand out, give them your name as well as your phone number.
I have gotten involved with a sort of problem. Who should I contact for help?
Firstly, we ask you to please
contact the office at school.
