Few questions about moving to Japan

Hello,

I will be moving to Japan next year for study (1.5 year language school and technical college/university after that). I have some questions and was hoping somebody here can help me.

- When do I need to apply for National Healthcare? Can I do it when I move there or do I have to do in advance?

- Same with opening a bank account, can I just go to a bank and open a bankaccount? I can do this in Japanese if needed but I prefer English if possible.

- How hard is to rent an apartment as a foreigner? I have a girlfriend living in Japan, she can be my guarantor if needed. I saw some companies who specialize in renting houses to foreigners but of course they charge a fee. Also is it a problem that I'm living abroad? In the worst case I will stay at a guesthouse for a month or so and then look for a place. But of course I prefer getting a place before I arrive.

- I've heard that if the police asks you for your alien card and you don't have it with you they will jail you for at least 5 days. Is this true? And if so, how strict are they with this? (I'm a bit worried about this)

Thank you very much!

 

-When you go get your gaijin card at your ward office, they'll ask you if you want to get on National Healthcare. Just say yes, and the rest happens almost automatically. Don't worry if you have an emergency before you can register. Most hospitals will just bill you after the insurance starts. They're pretty lenient like that.

-Bank account takes WAY more work. You must have a gaijin card at least, and probably they'll want to see your passport. It's been ages since I've done one. It really is a ball ache. Expect this to take a few hours and be annoying as shit.

-Apartments: Even more annoying than the bank account, potentially. The guarantor needs to make a certain amount of money to qualify. The main thing is they need to be Japanese. Getting a place before you arrive is probably going to be difficult. A lot of these renters are real assholes, and if you don't speak Japanese they want you to live there even less. I'd recommend the guest house for a month and then go from there. You have a guarantor which is the first and biggest hurdle. But don't expect it to be super easy b/c of that.

-You are required at all times to carry your gaijin card and or passport. Yes, this is true. Will they jail you? Almost certainly not. They will at best give you a lecture for not carrying it, and at worst, take you to the koban or police station to really give you a lecture (and maybe take you to your home to get it). I've only been asked for mine a couple of times - once when the city was on high alert during elections, and once in a shady area late at night. I didn't have it on the latter, as it was in the hotel with my better half of the time. Since the hotel was across the street they had me call her and have her bring it down. (I wasn't a resident at the time - just visiting). They were pretty cool but ended it with, "the rules are the rules - please carry it with you". I'm personally not a fan of carrying my passport around and would probably risk the lecture. Just play the dumb gaijin card. Pretty sure nobody in history has ever been jailed for it.

 

Thank you very much for your answers, this helps me a lot!

Staying at a guesthouse would be the best option I guess, this way I can also view the apartments before renting them. The school I will attend also has some dormitories but I prefer to get my own place.

 

Sorta makes me glad I came over on a government program. All that stuff was done for me I've only once been asked for my residence card and that's when I was going though the gates at the airport to pick up my family.

 

The JET program is a cakewalk in comparison. You basically have to just show up.

 

They pay your airfare and put you up in a hotel too, it's awesome

 

There is a similar program for students, where they pay your ticket, university, language school and some cash each month. Unfortunately they do not accept Dutch citizens so I have to pay everything myself. However this gives me more freedom in choosing housing and the school I want to go to.

 

I know that feel. Americans don't have to pay tax until their third year, where as we Australians have to pay tax from the get go. Considering how Americans have a reputation for misbehaving in Japan, I'm surprised they want to encourage them to come

 

Hmm... that must be for the JET only. And on the whole, we have it WAY shittier than any of you. As a non-jet American, you...

1: Pay your J-taxes every year
2a: Declare your Japanese income to the US every year, even if you make $0.
2b: Pay taxes to the US on your Japanese income if it's over X amount.
3: Have no NHS to return to (well, maybe we have something now) and join if you get long term illness abroad. There's a guy on FG that basically won't go back to the US b/c he's on disability here. Pre-existing condition. Nobody would cover him.

 

I also have a question about medication. At this moment I use 2 pills daily, one for allergy (but any random anti-allergy pill will pretty much work) and a medicine called oxybutynin (anticholinergic medication, but it prevents me from sweating heavily) can I continue using these pills in Japan? Can I bring my prescription from my homecountry to a Japanese doctor and ask him to give me these pills? Life can be pretty annoying for me without these pills.

 

You should do a Google search and see. The answer is probably, but make sure they're properly labelled. There are some common drugs that are disallowed full stop: Aderal I believe is one. After that, look around for a decent doctor. Most of them can figure out an equivalent by the name, but if you're on NHS you'll likely only be allowed a generic.

 

I just have my pills sent over from Australia, 'cuz my medication is too expensive here. Provided it's not medication that's illegal in Japan, there's only a limit on the amount you send over.

 

That's a nice idea! Last times I went to Japan they checked my meds and there was no problem so I assume they're legal, but I will check just to be sure. In my country my medication is free so shipping it would be ideal.

 

As I recall, you can apply for some medical thingy that allows you to import a large amount at a time, but I don't go though his particular medication that quickly, so I didn't bother. You could also check with a local doctor and see if they could do you up a prescription for something local, you'd probably just need to show him your current documents.

 

Thanks, I will look it up!

 

Just out of curiosity, is it the MEXT programme that you're participating in?

 

Unfortunately the MEXT scholarship is not available for my country, so I pay for everything myself.

 

Does anybody here has experience with renting an apartment trough gaijinpot.com? I see a lot of them don't need a guarantor.

Also, does anybody know any good websites to look for, cheap, apartments? (in Osaka)
Can be both English or Japanese.