In Japan, employers have a duty to provide their employees with a yearly health check. They are required to pay for it, and they will let you do it during work hours. The contents of the examination are specified by law, and without a physician’s explicit authorization, nothing may be omitted. For many professions, including […]
Types Of Special Leave Special Leave includes all forms of leave other than your paid leave. The details will vary from contract to contract, so this list is just for reference. These types of leave may be paid or unpaid, and are usually only allowed to be taken for a specific time period. For example, […]
Aside from the specific cases provided for in your contract, unpaid leave technically does not exist, and your contracting organization is not able to grant it. Every now and then a JET will use up all of their paid leave, and then when an emergency comes up they are unable to take any more leave. […]
Paid leave, or nenkyu, is a precious commodity for most JETs, and therefore many questions/problems seem to revolve around it. Read the following points so that you can avoid some common problems. Summer Leave Many public offices/schools give their employees a few days of special/summer leave (夏休み natsu-yasumi). At some point you might even see […]
You may have heard or read (or even just experienced) it but almost every JET buys stuff from their predecessor. Your predecessor might give you a flat rate just to take it all, or they might give you a line-by-line price tag on each item, or they might realize that the used couch that they […]
Illegal Medicine This list is by no means definitive, and you should contact the Japanese Embassy or Consulate nearest you to make sure any medication you plan on bringing to Japan is legal. Some associations such as the Epileptic Association of America have listings of comparable medications legal for import to Japan. Antipsychotics cannot be […]
When people in Japan travel, they often bring back omiyage (お土産) to share with their coworkers, friends, and families. Omiyage is often translated as souvenirs, though the connotation is slightly different, as while a souvenir is usually a small present you get for one person (a keychain, those snowglobes), omiyage is usually something that you will share […]
Depending on your country of origin, when doing your home country tax return, you may have to include a statement from your Contracting Organization in Japan about your annual earnings. This statement is known as your 源泉徴収票 (gensenchoshuhyo), and is issued to you in January of each year. It covers the period from January 1st […]
Resident tax (住民税, juuminzei) is a tax charged by the local government every June that covers the period of the previous calendar year. Who Has To Pay The Resident Tax In general, you are excluded from paying in your first year (since you weren’t here for the whole year). However, from year two onward, depending […]
Hyogo AJET provides general information only and does not constitute tax, legal, or financial advice. Tax laws, regulations, filing requirements, rates, and procedures in your home country may change, and individual circumstances vary. The author takes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the information provided. Always verify details with official sources or […]