Banking Overview Once you have your Residence Card, you are ready to set up your bank account. Some banks require a hanko as well, but others such as Citibank and Shinsei Bank don’t – you can just use a normal signature. Your supervisor or one of the English teachers at your school should go with […]
There are several ways to send home money from Japan. Popular options have been Lloyds Bank and the post office. The post office used to be cheaper than Lloyds but the handling fee has since increased to 2500 yen. Although this is more expensive than Lloyds, non-Lloyds TSB customers will also have to pay a […]
Once a month, when you get your paycheck, your school (or BOE) will probably also give you a piece of paper describing it in detail. Here’s an explanation for those of you wondering how everything adds up. For most JETs in the Hyogo , Payday will be on the 16th of any given month. Salary […]
Your school takes care of your shinkansen ticket and room reservation for that upcoming conference, and then asks you for money. Or, without giving you a single yen, they ask you to take care of it all yourself. Or perhaps one day someone at your school comes up to you and asks you to pay […]
One of the nice things about Japan is that the company takes care of the taxes. No April 15th, no frantic and confusing filling out of pages of forms. Your company (school, BOE) takes care of everything for you. Unfortunately, the same is not true for most other countries, and even though you’re over here, […]
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 gensenchoshuhyo, and is issued to you in January of each year. It covers the period from January 1st to […]
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 Depending on your job status, nationality, and how long you have been living in Japan, you may or may not be excused from the resident […]