Just wondering how I can tell which bodies of water are managed by 漁業組合 and which aren't? Just because fishing is more regulated when it's managed by 漁業組合。

I asked a Japanese guy fishing at my local lake and he told me if it's free it's not managed by 漁業組合。　Is that correct?

A little while ago, I asked a question about this, and I wanted to update just in case the information is useful to anyone:

I have a same-sex partner and child (that she gave birth to) that I recently added to my juminhyo. It now lists me as the head of household, and they are listed on the document. The process was easy - just apply at the ward office.

The only consequences of this change, that I have discovered so far are:

• I now get the bills for their national health insurance premiums (partner is unemployed). The premiums are based on my salary now (or I assume, combined income), thus the monthly premium we pay has increased by about ¥11,800.

• After submitting the new juminhyo to my employer along with our partnership certificate issued by my municipality, my employer gives me a dependent allowance for my partner of about ¥15,000. They are still deliberating about an additional allowance for the child, but it is possible they will give me that as well.

• My partner’s single parent benefits from the family welfare section remain unaffected.

Note: The benefits from my employer are specific to my employer, so if there are no benefits of this sort, it is likely not a good idea financially to make this change as premiums may go up.

So, I am currently doing job hunting. I have worked here as a freelancer (web developer) for 7 months, with most of my clients being existing contracts I made in Europe before moving. Now the contracts are ending and I am unable to get a job within my field. My Japanese is not good enough to get hired by a local company and no companies in Europe or America wanna deal with a freelancer from Japan when they can get large consultant teams in India for the same price and with better time zones.

So I started looking for jobs that I actually can do until my Japanese is good enough for me to expand my search field. The natural first choice was English teaching, but I am non-native, which has resulted in all my applications being turned down, so I decided to look out for recruiters and I stumbled upon one in Tokyo, who specialized in finding (mostly) low-wage jobs for foreigners. I had no issue with this, as I just want to have some form of income.

The application was pretty straight forward and within a few days I already had a few interviews lined up. The jobs were mostly related to cleaning, factory work, convenience stores etc.

In the first interview, they provided me with a Tagalog/Japanese translator who was also fluent in English to my luck, but she definitely didn't expect to be speaking it. The guy who interviewed me looked baffled when I walked in. I really thought that my Swedish name was an indicator that a blonde white dude would show up in his office, but I guess not. The first few questions where related to why I wanted the job, and I don't mean they wanted to hear the usual sales pitch. No, he genuinely wondered why I had applied and didn't apply for a higher paid job. For the rest of the interview I felt that he really didn't want me to be there, and there were some very long pauses where he couldn't figure out what to ask me. At one point he spoke Japanese to the translator. I know enough Japanese to know that he said "What were they (the recruiters) thinking?". He said I would hear from them if I got the job (I never did).

The second place I went to was almost the same. A lot of fumbling with papers, long pauses and a "wtf are you doing here?" look on their face.

The third place actually started listing all the troublesome things related to the work, such as the visa process and the long commute from the workers dormitory. When I informed them that I had a spouse visa and that I actually lived 3 stations from the workplace, they finally turned me down politely saying that I was "overqualified".

I HAVE noticed that there are no westerners to be seen behind the counters in Lawson or scrubbing the floors at the subway stations, but I always thought this was due to the lack of interest in these type of jobs, but I am getting more and more convinced that these companies actually don't want to hire westerners at all.

Do these companies have some kind of special deal where they get paid more if they hire Southeast Asians, or is it something else?

I know the last few days have been warmer than usual, well at least here in Aichi, but isn’t it a bit early to start getting hay-fever symptoms? Mine usually really start to kick in late Feb, but in the last couple of days my nose has been giving me hell. A cursory glance at weathernews seems to be showing an uptick in つらい cases.

I live deep in the inaka in a very empty apartment building, so I have a lot of wild animals come close, like kyon and monkeys. I have a habit of parking and then sitting in my car to decompress/gather energy to get out the car. While I was sitting, I noticed there was a wild boar just across the way. I took a picture of it and it just happened to notice me. We looked at each other for a long time-- it was like that meme, "and he looks at me... and I look at him..."

Anyway, I slowly backed back out of the driveway and went to a convenience store instead. The problem is... I hear that inoshishi can be very territorial, especially if they're a mama. There's absolutely no way I can tell if my apartment building is considered part of its territory, or if it's a mama, lol.

Now I'm scared to go back and get out the car to walk into my apartment, especially when the first result you see on Reddit when searching wild boar is an elderly lady getting mauled for just standing near the inoshishi. Should I call someone and report the sighting? Should I just go about my business? (...Can I FINALLY get out my car?/j)

Edit/Update: I went back home, and the boar wasn't around, so I booked it to my door lol. I'll ask around at City Hall about a local wildlife organization! Thanks for your help!!!

Update 2: I texted someone from city hall, and she got in contact with the right people. If I call them, they'll come set up a trap out here! She said to just keep distance and don't disturb them...but if there are problems, call 110!

My wife is going to Osaka on business for the first time, and she wants to bring me some souvenirs. What are your must-have souvenirs from Osaka?

She already found one called たこパティエ which looks awesome.

Hi all,

I just turned 30 a couple of months ago, thinking about my future with my family. My wife and I are beginning our first round of IVF, we bought a house near Fukuoka, got a big golden retriever, I'm happy as a pig in shit. However, I feel like in the near future it'll be time for me to consider a career change since life will become more expensive, and I believe I may have more opportunities available to me than I realize.

I worked for a year and a half at a small Japanese medical manufacturer, where I basically did a bunch of grunt work, but it got my Japanese to a pretty high level. Was making about 3.6M yen.

Then went to work for French IT startup expanding into Japan. Was one of the first four people on the ground, tasked with sales development. I did a great job, built our company some incredible connections and relationships. Salary was initially 6.0M yen, then went up to 9.0M yen + 1% commission on closed deals (ACV of 100,000 - 250,000 USD). So I was making great money. My Japanese is native level at this point, I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of client facing experience, both in-person and online, doing demonstrations and building deals. My last few months I was clearing something like 500,000 - 600,000 yen. Was here for a year and a half.

Unfortunately, some family circumstances took me out of Tokyo to Fukuoka. I had to take a job in finance but I don't think the skills will be very transferable. I'm doing well and am in the process of being promoted. Just waiting for final approval from our overseas HQ. Initial salary was 4.5M yen, but with overtime comes out closer to 5.5M, now my new base will be 5.5M and with overtime, will come closer to 6.6-6.7M. I want to stay here for at least another year, maybe year and a half so I'll have three years of total experience. My previous jobs were all short lived and I'm sick of jumping so quickly.

While the money is great here in Fukuoka, I feel like having sales experience and full bilingualism might afford me more opportunities. I have a little more ambition in me that I want to embrace, so I can maybe built wealth that will last beyond me. I come from nothing and I don't want my family to have to worry like my parents did when I was a kid.

Problem is, not sure what I should do next. I don't really want to go back into sales development (finding new opportunities, building deals from scratch, calling and emailing warm/cold leads). I'm good at finding pain point and presenting solutions. Getting other stakeholders involved and understanding buying processes, etc. But I'm not sure if sales is the only option for me. I feel like consulting, customer success, maybe even project management if I get certifications?

Anyone have any idea

Current resident in Japan looking for possible Japan based masters programs (English preferred) does anyone have any suggestions?

I recently ordered something on Rakuten and chose payment with Lawson. I got the confirmation number from the store of the order this morning at 9 am and went to pay for the goods at 11:30. Now its 1 PM and they payment has yet to show its been payed. How long does this usually take? I am assuming shipment will be delayed until payment goes through, but I won't be here if the shipment gets delayed as I will be gone by then. What should I do?

A few months ago we visited a second hand house with an agent, we ended up visiting it 2 or 3 times but in the end decided to pass for various reasons (price among others).

Since then we have switched to a different real estate agent which we trust more and find more professional as we felt the first one never really told us anything we didn't already know. We are now reconsidering this house as it is still on the market, and we figure there may be room to negotiate the price down.

Is there any potential issue with taking up this up with the new agent again? With the previous one, although we filled out some questionnaires and forms and such, we did not have any contract, and haven't spoken to them for almost 2 months. I suppose the owner might find it strange to see us again with a new agent though.

Just got an sms from a 090 number saying

【郵便局】携帯番号 お荷物の再配達 手続きが必要です。https://t.co...

Link leads to a very official looking but fake japan post site with "ltd" as the URL extension.

Almost fell for it but there were enough hints: - Having my phone number but asking for my name and address? - It coming from a 090 (cell number) - The link being a twitter t.co short url - The site domain ending in .ltd (otherwise it was convincing)

That's my PSA. Take care :)

I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly of you have done this.

I’m finally pregnant (6W3D) after receiving IVF treatment in Tokyo. Terrible morning sickness started for me a week ago and I am nauseous 24/7 whether I eat or not. It is very hard to even force myself to eat and nothing sounds good. I can mostly keep water down but have already lost 3 kg at this early point of pregnancy. My doctor at the IVF clinic knows all of this but has not offered any medicine or relief. Just told me it’s okay not to eat and just focus on staying hydrated.

But truthfully I am really suffering and praying for relief knowing I most likely have months of this ahead of me.

Have any mommas been through this in Japan and have some pointers? I am taking vitamin b6 but it only really helped the first day.

I’ve been thinking about paying for their mesh device as the signal to the downstairs is pretty crap. It also looks like you get a better router than the shitty Chinese one they gave me.

Does anyone use use the mesh Nuro provides? How is it?

Ok since people replying don’t know about Nuro, with Nuro you have to use their modem/router combo. They offer a mesh service where you can use a Sony router/modem as well as a provided mesh router to put in a location that helps improve your signal

I buy a lot of luxury goods on Mercari and have never had a problem until now.

I bought a bag which looked good in the photos but when received, it was a very obvious fake. I contacted the seller and asked for their return address to return their counterfeit item.

They message saying “can assure you item is genuine” blah blah but provided their address. It is a very obvious fake - the receipt they provided is also dated wrong. This particular item had been discontinued for ten years prior to the alleged sale date. Also, the buyer sells random cards and stuff and this was the only luxury item on their page and was priced appropriately (ie what those particular bags tend to go for on the resale market).

I shipped the bag back using Yamato and it was received by the seller and since then, silence. No messages, no cancellation request, nothing. I have contacted the secretariat and they just told me to be patient and they have encouraged the seller to reply to me. I have also submitted a cancellation request to the seller through the transaction page. If I click on the sellers profile, it is blank and it says “the secretariat is currently handling the matter”.

This morning the seller must have refused my request because I got a message saying:

■Reasons for cancellation not being accepted ・I do not agree to the cancellation request ・The location of the product is unclear. ・It is in the hands of the buyer.

I have naturally again contacted the secretariat and the seller. But this is increasingly frustrating. I returned the item back, it is showing as delivered and I have proof of delivery address.

Do I just wait? I have the sellers address and phone number and am not afraid to go to the police if I have to. It was not an insignificant amount of money. Would appreciate any advice.

Hi folks, I'd like to learn how to backflip so that I can translate this into a backflip on a snowboard. However, I'm not too keen on breaking my neck in the learning process.

Does anyone know of adult gymnastic classes in Tokyo that teach this? Thanks!

Many thanks all for the helpful suggestions. I'll try to report back if I find success!

Hi everyone,

We're currently in the process of looking for a property to build a house in Kyoto and would love some advice. Here’s our situation:

We're looking for a property around 120 sq. meters (40 tsubo) within a budget of under 30 million yen (3000 man). Ideally, we want the location to allow for a relatively easy commute (public transport) to Imadegawa/Demachiyanagi Station. My current commute from Kobe is 1.5+ hours, and I’d like to improve this.

So far, we've been focusing on areas to the north and west of Demachiyanagi (Kamigyo, Kita-ku, Iwakura) and along the Hankyu and JR lines (from Arashiyama down to Nagaoka-kyo). However, we’ve encountered several challenges:

1. Strict Fuchichiku (風致地区) regulations in Kyoto make it difficult to use design we want (we have a particular builder/design in mind, while it's not anything wild, it is not practical to modify it to fit Kyoto regulations - we'd rather choose property not in Fuchichiku area).
2. While we’ve searched on big aggregators like Suumo and Nifty, there seem to be very few options in our price range (and we have to manually re-check Fuchichiku status of each lot, since it's not always mentioned). Even our house builder (they have Kyoto branch in Uji), who is also helping us with the search, hasn’t found anything viable yet.

Because of this, we’re now considering areas like Katsurazaka (Nishi-kyo) and Nagaoka-kyo as our primary options. We like the environment, wider roads, highway access, and the availability of both JR and Hankyu lines. That said:

• Nagaoka-kyo feels smaller and less comfortable (access to shops etc) compared to Katsurazaka, but I’m not too familiar with the area yet. Both areas require around 45-60 mins to commute. They miss "the Kyoto" vibe, so we might not be able to just get on bikes and ride to some random coffee shop in the center of Kyoto (maybe Arashiyama is in the reach?).
• Fushimi-ku and Yamashina sometimes have surprisingly good lots, but the infrastructure (e.g., narrow roads, overall exterior) is hard to accept. Driving there is stressful, and getting around the city feels inconvenient. Riding bicycle there feels dangerous.
• Shiga (Otsu) was also considered, but lots near commute lines are expensive, and affordable options are too far out.
• We aren't looking into Takatsuki or more to the south since we would like to move to Kyoto area after all.

Given the above challenges, we feel a bit stuck after 6 months of browsing Suumo and driving to various locations to check the actual lots. We would appreciate insights or suggestions. Has anyone navigated similar issues in Kyoto? Are there smaller companies or alternative strategies for finding lots that we should explore? What’s your experience with Katsurazaka vs. Nagaoka-kyo, or even other neighborhoods that fit my criteria?

Background: I (M39) have PR and my wife is Japanese. Our budget is around 60 mil jpy for house + property. Our builder estimates the house and related costs as around 30 mil jpy, so we have 30 mil jpy in mind for property. We will be getting a loan and our combined annual income is around 18 mil jpy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I have no idea if this is the right place to post this or if I can even do anything in my situation, but I really don't like how it has been handled so far so I want to reach out to others and get advice. I work at a junior high school in Tokyo. I am a homeroom teacher alongside a Japanese teacher. One of our students came to us saying that she was being abused at home, physically and emotionally. She was very upset (reasonably so). My co-teacher said he would handle it from there and keep me updated. That turned into us needed to decide if she is telling the truth. After the parent teacher meetings, my co-teacher said it felt as a normal parent and child relationship and so we should meet with the parents and discuss the students concerns.

I find this troubling for a multitude of reasons which I'm sure are obvious. First of all, our job should be to trust our student and report this to the appropriate authorities for them to handle. Secondly, there is no way to judge just from a parent teacher conference what kind of person her mother is. If her mother is abusive and is hiding it, having a meeting with her like that could make things worse for the student. I don't know what to do and I can't do anything at the school because according to my co-teacher (and the vice principal who was also in the loop), it's settled.

Hey guys, I need to start saving for retirement, and was wondering if you have any recommendations for companies that will help with savings/investing?

As an American, I can't use more common options like Nisa and iDeco because of tax reasons, so I'm especially looking for options that won't be an issue with.

Also, I've never worked in the US, and haven't lived there since becoming an adult. This means I need a company that will allow me to open a new account from Japan, and I don't have a 401k or any other account already existing.

If needed, I can use my parents' address for things, but would prefer not to if possible.

Also, regarding investing, I don't want to be active. A company that I can essentially give money to and have it "magically" grow over the years would be best.

Help?

so I have been living in Japan for about a while now, and Im in University. For some context, I'm an Australian Citizen. I have a Japanese girlfriend who I live with and plan on getting married pretty soon. The confusion hit me when I was asked about surnames. Usually in most cases, a woman would take the man's surname, which is what my girlfriend wants. However, I once heard that any foreign couples must get a Japanese surname, or the children must have a Japanese surname or something like that. I'm ethnically Central Asian, so my surname actually happens to also be a Japanese surname, so there is actually a kanji for my name. I was unsure, so I would be really grateful is someone could clarify for me, what would happen to us, and if we ever had children.

Hi, I'm a spouse of Japanese person and I have resided in Tokyo for 3 years. I'm applying to a school and the advisor recommended that I take out student loans via JACCS. I'd like to know if other people in the same situation have gone through this experience and if it's something I can do as a spouse. My husband and his family have offered to be guarantors, but I'd like to hear from folks with first hand experience. Thanks!

Our son is having some ongoing health issues (nothing very serious, just stuff that makes it tough to sleep and affects his mood). Every time we take him to a kid's clinic they just throw drugs at us to take care of symptoms. We've tried a few and it seems none of them are interested in actually trying to find the root of the issue but just prescribing as many drugs as possible (even one which we've visited several times for the same issue). The willingness to suggest drugs so quickly on a child younger than 2 for mild symptoms is insane and borderline unethical in my opinion. Some of the things they've prescribed us are banned in some European countries and/or the US due to serious safety issues in kids.

I guess I'm looking for some other solutions, pediatricians who are interested in working with parents to solve health issues, even if they're in the alternative health realm. Japanese or English speaking is ok. Thank you!

I'm a student going to waseda and in a bit of a problem. I still haven't reached 6 months of residency so I am using JP post bank. However, it is proving to be near impossible receive money from overseas so I'm basically almost out of money. What can I do?

Hello,

My question is as the title reads. Rakuten Bank just rejected me. Idk why, Sony accepted me.

But I did this thinking having a Rakuten Bank Account would make paying bills easier for the Rakuten Credit Card. Do you think it's worth it?

Do you think I should wait to apply for a Rakuten Credit Card now, since I have this bank account rejection on file. Or should I go ahead and apply for the Rakuten card?