Your First Two Weeks in Japan

The visa is the part everyone prepares for. The two weeks after you land are the part nobody prepares for, and they are a chain of dependencies where doing things in the wrong order sends you back across the city.

Here is the order that works.

At the airport

You receive your residence card (在留カード) on arrival at a major airport. Check the details on it before you walk away. Name spelling and date of birth errors are much easier to fix at that desk than later.

If a family member will work part time, or you are on a status that requires it, this is also where you can request permission to engage in activity outside your status (資格外活動許可). Doing it at the airport saves an immigration office visit later.

Keep the card on you. Carrying it is a legal requirement for foreign residents, not a formality.

Day one to three: the ward office

Everything else depends on this, so do it first.

Go to the municipal office for where you live, with your residence card and your passport, and register your address (住民登録). You are required to do this within fourteen days of moving in. Your address gets printed on the back of your residence card while you wait.

While you are there, in the same visit, handle these:

National Health Insurance (国民健康保険), if you are not being enrolled through an employer. Enrolment is mandatory for residents, and it is backdated to when you became eligible rather than to when you got around to it. Delaying does not save money, it creates a bill.

National Pension (国民年金), again if not enrolled through an employer. Also mandatory. If your income is low in the first year, ask about the exemption or postponement system rather than simply not paying.

My Number. A notification arrives by post after registration, and the physical card is applied for separately. You will need the number for the bank, for employment, and for tax. Apply for the card, because the number alone without the card is inconvenient in a lot of situations.

Ask what else you are entitled to. Child allowance, medical subsidies for children, and various local support programmes exist and are not offered proactively. The counter staff will tell you if you ask.

Take a certificate of residence (住民票) home with you, two copies. You will be asked for it.

Day three to five: phone

A Japanese phone number is required for the bank, the apartment, and most services, so it is the next link in the chain.

You need your residence card and, for most carriers, a Japanese address, which is why the ward office comes first. Some providers will also want a Japanese bank account or a credit card, which creates a circular dependency.

The way around it is a prepaid or online SIM provider, several of which accept a residence card and a foreign card, and can be arranged quickly. Start there, move to a main carrier later if you want to.

Day five to ten: bank account

Personal account, not the corporate one, which is a separate and much slower problem.

Bring your residence card, your My Number if you have it, your certificate of residence, a Japanese phone number, and your personal seal if you have one. Some banks accept a signature from foreign residents, many still prefer a seal, and having one removes an argument.

Two things worth knowing. Many banks have a rule about applicants who have been in Japan less than six months, which can affect what you can open and how. And branches differ in how they handle foreign applicants, so if one is difficult, try another rather than concluding it is impossible.

Japan Post Bank and the online banks are generally the most accessible early on.

Day ten onwards: the rest

A personal seal (印鑑). Get one made, it takes a day and costs little. If you will buy property or run a company you will also want it registered at the ward office, which gives you a seal registration certificate.

Utilities and internet. Electricity and gas are quick. Home internet installation can take weeks, sometimes over a month in an apartment building that needs work done. Start it the day you have an address, not the day you need it.

Residence tax. You will not pay it in your first year, because it is assessed on the previous year's income in Japan and you had none. It arrives in your second year, sized to your first year's earnings. Put money aside for it now, because a bill you did not budget for is the most common financial surprise foreign residents hit.

A transport card. Suica or Pasmo. Trivial, and it is also accepted for small purchases in most shops, which solves a lot of daily friction.

The thing nobody tells you about paperwork here

Bring more documents than you think you need, every time, and bring originals.

Japanese administrative processes are precise rather than flexible. A missing certificate means another visit, and offices keep short hours and are closed at weekends. One extra document in your bag is cheaper than one extra morning.

And get more copies than you need of anything you collect. Certificates of residence and seal registration certificates are consumed by the process, not returned. Requesting three at once costs a fraction of what returning for a second one costs in time.

The realistic expectation

Two weeks is enough for the essential chain: address, insurance, pension, phone, bank. It is not enough for everything, and it does not need to be.

What matters is doing the first one immediately, because it is the link everything else hangs from, and because the fourteen day requirement on address registration is real.