r/japanlife

This is too funny so I had to share it. Today I was in Wakuraonsen and went to the recently opened Pokemon 'with you' footbath. It's really cute and I was having a great time soaking my feet. Then this fat otaku-looking japanese guy was sitting next to the Vaporeon statue and his girlfriend was sitting opposite him ready to take a photo using a disposable camera. When she took the photo the flash from the camera was so bright that it physically startled the fat guy so much he flung his arm back and snapped the tail off Vaporeon. It happened so fast and made such a loud sound I didnt immediately understand what happened. The guy ran off and then I saw poor Vaporeon sitting with a broken tail.

Fat guy used Hammer Arm! It's super effective!

First of all, I wrote this text in my native language, Spanish, and translated it into English with ChatGPT because my English is not good enough.

The topic of self-defense has always interested and worried me, but even more so lately because I have a family with small children and I am planning to buy a detached house.

The thing is, a house is not the same as an apartment when it comes to security. For someone to enter your apartment on the fifth floor, they would have to break down your door or climb up the balconies like Tarzan. But in a detached house, it is easier for someone to break a window, or who knows what else.

What I would like to know is what options we have for self-defense in Japan. I have done some research, and from what I have seen, it seems that legally you cannot really defend yourself. There is something called proportional defense or proportional force, something like that, I do not remember exactly. Basically, it means that if someone enters your house illegally, you can get into trouble if you defend yourself or “attack” that criminal with, let’s say, a baseball bat that you have there to play with your child.

What the law says is that you should run away, take shelter, and call the police, but never confront the person who has illegally entered your home, even though you have no idea what their intentions are, whether they came to steal, to assault the women in the house, or something even worse.

Of course, that would be the ideal situation, but in reality, it is normal to be caught off guard, or to have your family sleeping in separate rooms. In that case, the only option may be to confront the criminal, scare them away, or, in the worst case, attack them in self-defense. But then you would already be turning yourself into a criminal, because if you hurt the criminal, you are the one who has broken the law. What the hell?

What I mean is that the law does not seem to consider that you may need to defend yourself in your own home. Seriously, do I not have the right to defend my home and my family? If a burglar enters my house, am I supposed to just let them take my belongings and wait for the police to arrive? And if that person came with the intention of hurting us, am I supposed to let them commit some horrible act because, according to the law, I am not allowed to defend myself?

Honestly, this is something I sometimes think about because I simply cannot understand it. I know that, for example, in the United States, if someone enters your private property, you have every right to defend yourself by any means necessary, which seems logical and reasonable to me.

What do you think about this? What forms of self-defense have you considered using in case something like this ever happens to you?

Honestly, I would rather go to prison than allow someone to enter my home and do whatever they want.

Hi everyone,

Japanese national here but spent most of my life abroad, so I don't have much local knowledge of the Tokyo area. My hometown is in Kansai and I don't have many people around to consult. Hoping to get some real, on-the-ground perspectives.

**My situation:**

- Currently in a 25sqm place near Shibuya Station (2 years here, 2 years in Koenji before that)

- Loved living in Koenji but couldn't find anything big enough within budget when I looked recently

- Ready to move somewhere new

**What I'm looking for:**

- At least 45sqm

- Budget around 140,000 yen/month

- Within 20 minutes of Shibuya by train (not counting time to station), no line preference, just the travel time matters

- A neighborhood with a lot of eating options: local restaurants, chains, good variety. Not especially focused on izakayas

- Ideally somewhere with a bit of life beyond just food, places to walk around and things to do but not a must

**What my agent suggested:**

Gakugeidaigaku came up as a recommendation. I checked it out and liked the restaurant scene, but it felt a bit quiet overall and not much going on outside of eating. Is that a fair read, or am I missing something about the area?

**What I'm asking:**

1. Are there other neighborhoods, anywhere within that 20-min Shibuya window on any line, that might tick more boxes?

2. Any areas I probably haven't thought of that are worth looking at?

TL:DR: Looking to move: want a neighborhood with great restaurants, at least 45sqm for 140,000 yen, within 20 min of Shibuya. Agent suggested Gakugeidaigaku but open to anything.

Really appreciate any local knowledge. Thanks!

Question: Has anyone ever successfully managed to change the owner/landlord's mind about construction to the common space in an apartment (the outside wall in this case) and how did you do it?

Background: I moved into a new apartment in February managed by Sekisui House. Prior to signing my contract I checked about the internet status (there's free wifi but it's bad) and was told I could open my own line. Cool.

I move in and am told there is to be no drilling, but aircon pipes are fair game. Cool. I get a guy to come over and check it out. Long story short, he says that there are no aircon pipes available as they have all been buried inside the walls for aesthetic purposes and that while installation will be a cinch, to get the cable in the room I have to get a ビス止め attached to the outside wall (to screw the cable into the wall so it doesn't sway).

Owner instantly says no and the management company says I should find another way, hinting at the air ducts again. I finally get them to understand this was told to me by NTT and not any individual provider so there literally is no other way.

My realtor tried on my behalf and didn't get them to budge, but he did get the okay for me to individually call them as well. So now we loop back to the question: has anyone ever successfully managed to change the owner's/landlord/management company's mind?

Hi Japanlife, I have a head scratcher of a Japanese bureaucracy question.

I married my husband 6 years ago in Japan. He is Japanese and I’m on his Koseki as a 特記事項/footnote in his entry, so I’m not a full person on the Koseki, as is the norm for foreigners. The issue is when we registered the birth of our baby, we discovered that my name in the Koseki is still my maiden name and was never changed to my new name after marriage. My name has been changed in the US on my passport and social security, and in Japan on all legal documents (residence card, my number, license, junminhyo, etc)

When trying to change the Koseki entry, the clerk at city hall told me I need to submit documentation showing when and why I changed my name, and that the documentation needs to come from my home country (USA). He suggested the proof of marriage eligibility document, but the embassy doesn’t issue them anymore and I don’t have the one from 6 years ago. He also kept telling us that there has to be something from the US that evidences we got married. I even pulled up the embassy website that says clear as day the only evidence of marriage is the Japanese Juri shomeisho but he didn’t care. Nor did he care that everyone else in Japan was happy to update my name with just my passport, or that the embassy used the jurishomeisho to change my passport.

He said that ultimately after we submit something it would be up to 法務局 to approve. So before I go directly there to ask, has anyone run into this issue and how did you resolve it? If I leave it as my maiden name, even though I have no more proof that’s me, will there be issues in the future? My top concern is that (god forbid) something happens to my husband, our house is in his name and it won’t transfer to me because my name is wrong in the Koseki and therefore I won’t be seen as a legal heir.

PS: it’s also silly to me that the Koseki people were happy to register our baby when the birth documents all had my married name on them, and my husband literally signed a paper that said “this is my baby” in front of them. The cognitive dissonance is strong with these guys.

A bit of backstory first.

3 years ago we moved into a brand new rental mansion, nobody lived there before. It has 4 new AC units with all the bells and whistles like thermal camera, remote control, self cleaning, various features etc. Kirigamine MZS-ZXV2822-W.

First summer was fine, no issues. But starting from the next summer, 2 out of 4 ACs (living room and office) started giving off musty stinky smell after some hours of operation.

Then I read online that you're supposed to run them in fan mode for 30 min after using cooling mode to dry off condensation. So I turned on a cleaning feature that kinda does that, plus it warms up the air to dry the radiator fins.

Now my room is stinky AND warm. This warm air seems to only amplify the smell and make the room super humid. I literally have condensation on cold objects.

We do clean ACs from dust and wash removable parts twice a year. Plus it has dust collecting mechanism that runs automatically.

Last year we tried anti mold spray - didn't help. So this year we called professional cleaning for those 2 ACs. The guy spent 1.5h on each, disassembling, washing. Circuit board on AC is bigger than on my laptop. I swore that my next apartment will have the dumbest ACs.

So the last few days were hot, and we tried those ACs again and the smell is still there, at least 50% of it. Very disappointed.

Is it normal? What am I doing wrong here? I've lived in much older apartments and never had such smell even without professional cleaning.

NOTE: In winter there's no smell at all in heating mode.

Hello! I am trying to return a package to Amazon but getting confused. I’m shipping within Japan. The item is a yoga mat measuring 188L x 61W x 2.5Th cm and about 2kg. My main problem is that I need to purchase a box since I thew away the original packaging (the reason for return is the horrible lingering smell on the mat and everything it touches). Aside from the box, I think all I’d need to do is print the return id, shipping label and arrange pick-up with Yamato?

JP Post Yu-Pack only ships up to 170cm. Yamato says they can ship up to 200cm, but I cannot find any 200cm size boxes on their market website. I checked on Amazon and they have some 200-ish cm boxes, bigger than what I need, and about the same price as the yoga mat itself. Is there a better place to buy boxes for shipping ?

Sorry if this is stupid and there’s an obvious solution.

To start, I did search around for this, but couldn't find specifically about quitting before actually starting the job. From my research, it sounds like if i did start the job and then quit after 2-4 weeks then I would be able to job search while unemployed for 3 months before immigration might start asking for proof of my job searching. But is this also true if I quit before starting? Is this a question for an immigration lawyer?

I was on a student visa at a Japanese language school, and then got a job offer for a 6 month contract job that starts in June. I was just approved for the change of status to the Engineering/Humanities/International Relations work visa which I plan to pick up next week.

The problem is that this job is super rural and requires you to live in the company housing, which doesn't allow pets (I asked if pets were possible during the interview and they said no). I have a cat, but the job was a kinda unique opportunity, and I had a good friend who my cat knows well who said she was happy to take her in for 6 months. But due to very unfortunate circumstances, that friend can no longer take in my cat and I don't have any other friends who could.

I could board my cat at a cat sitter's place for 6 months, but it may be hard to find one who can do that long, and I'd have to worry about how good they are actually taking care of my cat, and even if they do it would be stressful for the cat since it's not someone she knows, and besides all that it's going to be pretty dang expensive which I don't think it's worth especially since I can't verify the quality of care.

Due to the above, I am wondering if I could quit the job before moving to the job next month and then job search while on the work visa. I'm currently in Tokyo and have 6 YoE in software engineering so I'm confident I could find another job within a few months.

I know the "smart" choice is always to have another job lined up before quitting, but I think starting the job and leaving after a month or so is worse for both the company and myself which is why I would prefer to just let know know asap. Plus I have enough money to live in Tokyo for a year so money is not a big concern. I also know they may ask to be reimbursed for immigration lawyer fees for applying for my change of status, which I think is totally fair.

It started 2 days ago, I noticed a white worm looking bug on my living room floor. It was the only one I had seen that day so I thought maybe it came in through a crack orsomething. Fast forward to today, I decided to sweep up my apartment and I notice a bunch of small black pellet looking things in different corners of my living room, and near some of them were more of the white worm looking things.

I googled what this could be a different things came up: that theyre eggs, the could be maggots, they could be caterpillars in the early stages, etc. And I also looked up some of the causes and tried to take care of it.

Some said it could be a dead animal nearby (there is none so that situation doesnt apply to me), some said it could be because I need to throw away some old food/empty my garbage (even though none of the bugs/shells are appearing anywhere near the kitchen), some sites said it could be larvae that feed on fabrics (which might be the case since a bunch of the black pellets were found directly infront of my closet).

I just want to know if anyone has had this issue and knows exactly what it is and how to fix it. Ive never ever in my life had any bug problems even back in America, is this just a Japan summer issue? This never happened in winter. Any answers are greatly appreciated as I'm freaking out.

I bought a rare-ish Kamen Rider figure on Mercari, got a message from the seller saying they'd have to go and get it from their remote stock location and that it'd take a few days. After a couple of weeks I sent them a message asking if they'd found it, and nothing. Sent another message and nothing. The transaction's now been sitting at 'Hassou Machi' for almost two months. I've heard about potential penalties for the party that initiates any cancellations, and there's also a part of me that doesn't want to be the one who caves in.

Has anyone else been in this kind of situation before? Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!

TLDR: Suggestions for in-person practice/refresher/study options in the Tokyo area for primarily kanji writing for someone who speaks and reads quite fluently, but has forgotten how to write most kanji without the aid of a smartphone?

Hello! I’ve been in Tokyo for 12 years, and I have close to native level spoken/listening Japanese language ability. Before coming to a Japan, I was an absolute language nerd, andsince coming to Japan, my vocab, grammar, and reading skills naturally improved quite drastically…. all except for my writing skills.

Once I began working in a Japanese office, I began to fully rely on my computer or phone to find the right kanji for me, so although my kanji recognition/reading is quite good (I can probably read about 90% of a newspaper), my recall is absolutely terrible. I almost always type even beginner level kanji into my phone before hand writing it.

I know that forgetting kanji is common even for Japanese people and am wondering if there are any refresher classes for local Japanese people (who often also forget kanji to some extent). Would calligraphy classes perhaps help?

I already have so much going on in life, I fear that self disciplined study alone will be hard to stick to, so any suggestions would be great! Of course suggestions for self study would be appreciated too.

I got quoted 4.53 million yen for a 2.325 kw solar panel system and a 14.9 kWh battery system. I will be eligible for 3.09 million yen subsidies according to the solar panel installation company. Out of pocket cost 1.42 million yen. Is it too pricey or this is the market rate ?

I made the difficult decision to leave a job I love, due to a bad boss, unrealistic workload and unsustainable working hours. I have worked hard and achieved excellent results, but it is never enough and has been at the expense of my physical and mental health. I realize a lot of my issues are the norm for Japan, but I am not okay with regular twelve hour shifts without breaks. Or having management tasks foisted on me without proper discussion or increased pay. Or late night demands despite already completing a busy shift that was originally supposed to be a half day.

I attempted to discuss my concerns with management and my boss. Repeatedly. I pointed out the human need to rest and recharge. How unsuitable I was to perform certain management tasks. That I wasn’t comfortable with being spoken to the way my boss talks to everyone. Much of the issue has been that my manager does more than twice what I do. Especially when it comes to unpaid overtime, extra tasks for the affiliated business and the community, and jumping in to help everyone when they’re overwhelmed because we are understaffed. I always feel like because I have it so much better than her, I shouldn’t complain. I did anyway. She took on more to send me home on time, etc. Felt worse.

Knowing that my position is unique and difficult to fill, I have attempted to do the right thing and give the three months notice I was asked for. Not wanting to dox myself, I will only say my job requires high level bilingual language skills and contains a wide variety of tasks that will only suit someone with a similar skill set. I tried pointing out that hiring another manager would be way easier than trying to replace me. They didn’t budge, and the obsession with sending me down that route is the main reason I quit. That, and I discovered my time sheets were being "adjusted."

I am now being harassed about quitting according to my timeline. My new job starts after Obon. In my mind, staying until after this busy period is a kindness I am doing them. As is giving proper notice when I could have just stayed until after I got the June bonus, then given the legally required two week's notice. There have been threatening notes on my desk, shouting fights in the office, and they are withholding paperwork I need.

I’m not a confrontational person, but it seems my only recourse might be reporting them to labor standards and leaving early. Thoughts?

It's the weekly complaint thread! Time to get anything off your chest that's been bugging you or pissing you off.

Remain civil and be nice to other commenters (even try to help).

• No politics
• No complaints about users of JapanLife

Hi guys, just wondering if anyone has any advice. I am not knowledgeable so please excuse any incorrect terminology.
I contracted Docomo to install fiber when I moved to a new place in around late February/early march. They were supposed to come around the second week of March, but the day before cancelled and said they had to “check out the area” and rescheduled for late March. They (NTT?) came to install the fiber? wire? thing into the wall. They were able to do so, then the guy left? and said to wait for them to call back to finish the installation at another date (instead of just doing everything at once? I don’t get it.) They said it would take about a week for them to contact me but now it is late May. Called Docomo and they said that NTT hasn’t “given them the results” yet.
I depend on using the internet for work with high usage so I don’t think the plug-in types would work for me. I’m getting really frustrated at this entire situation and it’s disrupting my work lol.
Looked at other companies and it seems it’s not available in my apartment with them. Not sure what else to do.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

I'm not talking about plain shokupan or fresh bakery bread, but the cheap flavored breads/pastries that sit on supermarket or conbini shelves for days. Stuff like cream buns, yakisoba pan, sweet breads, etc.

I remember someone once complaining to me that there must be a ton of preservatives in them because they can sit on shelves forever. I never really thought much about it until recently because I never ate them.

Lately I’ve been eating them because I walk around 8–10km a day commuting, so I wanted some cheap, fast energy. Big mistake. Every single time without fail I end up with horrible stomach problems afterward. Bloating, acid reflux, upset stomach, just feeling gross in general. What are they putting in these things?

The funny thing is I normally never eat them, but I started buying them because I was collecting those sticker points for the bowl campaign at the store.

Back home I could eat packaged junk food without much issue, so now I’m wondering if it’s the ingredients here, the sweetness, preservatives, oils, milk content, or maybe I’m just getting older? Might have to start grabbing a healthy alternative from now on but fruits are getting ridiculously expensive, and you normally can't get just one at the store.

Curious if anyone else experiences this or if it’s just me.

Hey guys.

Can you recommend me some hiking places close to Tokyo? From autumn to spring I just go to Tokyo mountains like Takao and Okutama and it's okay, but I can't imagine how I can hike them in the summer (I should say, already). The last year I went to Utsukushigahara and the trip was really nice, but too far and not cheap.

Any ideas?

I've been waiting for my husband's certificate of eligibility for 10 months now. We weren't able to celebrate our wedding anniversary, Christmas, New Year's or his birthday together.

Immigration advised that he can visit with a tourist visa for now. My birthday was coming up so, that's what we tried.

Then like a cruel joke, they declined his tourist visa application. He has to wait 6 months before he can apply again.

So now we're not going to celebrate my birthday together. I cancelled my leave, so I'm going to work on that day instead, maybe have a drink with work friends. And I'm going to come to my apartment, that we were supposed to share by now, eat dinner, and go to bed without him... again.

I don't understand how a married couple wanting to live together is such an impossible ask here. It's supposed to be so simple. We've been together for 8 years. Apart for 3 years (he was still my fiance when I moved back to Japan). All we want is to start building a life here, together.

If the CoE for his spouse visa ends up declined, I think I'm legitimately going to lose it. Maybe I'll just quit my job and leave this stupid country and abandon my stupid Japanese citizenship.

Anyone have experience with this test? The practice test questions are fine and I'm getting used to doing it in English with the wonky translation, but a few questions

1. Do questions from the normal car test pop up? Questions related to operating a normal car instead of a gentsuki? I heard about that happening to a random commenter but wanted to see if that matched anyone else's experience.
2. Are the English translations worse with online apps than they are when you take the test? I'm passing these tests most of the time, but it would be a relief to hear that it's better irl. (追い越し and 追い抜き both turning into ”overtaking" for ex making some questions impossible to get 100% of the time)
3. Anyone have any misc tips regarding the test / translation to get easy points? I've noticed that most questions that use some kinda extreme verb tend to always be false. (I panicked and moved forward, obviously false)

I'm using the app called 原付免許GET btw if anyone has experience with it. Taking it in Shiga if that matters.

Hi, I'm Niji and I work at a high school in Tokyo. We are looking to rebrand our school uniforms. Our concept is "Students First" and we value students' opinions and views more than any other schools in Japan. So, students and I will be doing most part of designing, but I need someone professional to give us feedback on our designs and take care the manufacturing part. Even if you are not a designer or a manufacturer, please let me know if you know anyone who does that. Thank you.