First step in Japan: the residence card

I arrived in Japan on the 4th of July 2019. From the first moments there, still at the airport, I was delivered the residence card by the autorities. It is valid for one year, the time that my working holiday visa allows me to stay in Japan. This card is my ID here. I need to carry it all the time in case I am asked to show it such as when I went to ask informations for a SIM card (or if you want to open a bank account or rent a flat or for any other administrative tasks).

On the residence card you can find your name, surname, DOB, status, the authorization to work or not and the period of stay. On the back of the card you can find the address you’ll live in.

One of the first thing, then, is to go to the ward office in your district to have your address written down on the back of your card. Easy isn’t it ?! Well, not so much. I read before to go that Japanese don’t speak English so it’s pretty complicated to be understood. You were even advised to go accompanied by a Japanese friend. I had just arrived so I didn’t have a Japanese friend yet but I had my day free and google translate on my phone so I decided to be brave and go there by myself ! Not scared at all. So I don’t know if I was very lucky or if it wasn’t that of a big deal at the end but it went very well.

There were signs in English to guide you to the right desk where you need to queue. To do so I needed to get a ticket from a screen with many options but all in Japanese. To select the right one I used the camera function on google translate, it’s very useful. Once in front of the Japanese cashier I started with a shy « konnichiwa » and added straight away « Eigo??? » which means « English ??? ». The lady didn’t speak English unfortunately but she helped me anyway and handed me the form half in english/half in japanese to fill in. I have to admit at this point looking at the form, I was totally lost. I didn’t know what they wanted from me, what I had to write, how to write it and I was especially afraid to write some nonsense. Go ask some information to a person who doesn’t understand English and you who can’t speak a work in Japanese… That was promising ! But once again, thanks to the internet, I found an example of a form filled in in English. It saved me !

Once done, I went to the next desk. « Eigo ? » Still no but that wasn’t a problem. The cashier who was taking care of me looked up in his (many) folders in which he could find the translations of all the questions he could have asked. It took a bit of time but I had a free afternoon and 5 minutes more or less didn’t make a difference especially when I had spent half an hour to fill in 10 lines of the form earlier… They took my card and wrote down my new address on it. I officially live in Sapporo from that day on !

In the end, patience, the power of the internet and the kindness of the japanese cashier helped me to do it by myself. I am a big girl ! And I am pretty proud of it let me tell you. I have started my time in Japan pretty well, administratively speaking at least. Next September when I’ll move to a new place, I’ll need to go back to the ward office and start the process all over again.