Checklist for Leaving Japan

  1. Organize the teaching materials you used for your successor.
  2. Designate a Tax Representative (for your The Pension Refund).
  3. Cancel your newspaper and magazine subscriptions, your keitai contract, your Internet service contract, car insurance contract, etc.
  4. Pay your bills! (Your office should help you with this.)
    1. Rent
    2. Electricity, gas, and water bills (Arrange ahead of time for your meters to be read on the last day. The bill can be paid on the spot.)
    3. Domestic and International telephone bills (Do you own the phone line? Are you selling it to your predecessor, or are you cancelling it?)
    4. Other (Internet, keitai, satellite TV, etc.)
  5. Transfer bank balances and/or close bank accounts.
  6. Return your medical insurance card to your Contracting Organization.
  7. Leave your forwarding address with your office and the post office. If you leave Japan, the post office will only forward mail sent to you that has come from overseas. Mail from Japan will be returned to sender. If you stay in Japan, all your mail and parcels will be forwarded to you for up to one year. If possible, it may be helpful to have your mail forwarded to a Japanese friend who will agree to send it to you.
  8. Clean your apartment (Your Contracting Organization may also require that you have the futons cleaned and replace any damaged shoji or tatami.)
  9. Leave for your successor:
    1. All your contact information
    2. Town map and information about the local shops, restaurants, etc.
    3. Bus and train schedules
    4. List of emergency and work phone numbers
    5. Garbage arrangements: time and categories
    6. Copies and explanations of your bills
    7. Office/school seating chart with names, job titles, responsibilities
    8. Notes on projects, team teaching, class levels, lesson plans etc.
    9. Anything else you wish your predecessor had left you!
  10. Encourage at least one JTE to get in contact with the new ALT before they come to Japan so they will feel welcome.
  11. Be sure to tell your school not to throw out things in your apartment that you have left for your successor.
  12. Tell the immigration authorities at the airport that you are leaving Japan permanently. They may punch your Alien Registration Card or ask you to surrender your Residence Card.

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