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Etymology of Sasuga

2014-05-26T09:15:00.000+09:00

流石　(Sasuga)
The word represents the feeling you have when a person whom you expect to perform well does, in fact, perform well, and you feel a sense of awe all over again at their amazing feat.

To learners of the language, sasuga is a little frustrating in that it's one of those ridiculous ateji words whose reading and kanji characters don't match. But there's a cute little story about why sasuga is written this way today:

A long time ago in China, there was a guy named Sosen.

Sosen was a genius, and knew he was way smarter and better and more humble than anyone else around him. So much, in fact, that he found it hard to get along with others. Above all else, he hated it when someone else tried to point out when he was wrong. (As if he'd ever make a mistake in the first place.) So anyway, one day, when Sosen was feeling really fed up, he decided he'd had enough. I'm gonna go live in the mountains, he told himself. I'm gonna go be one with nature so I can finally stop dealing with all these idiots and have some goddamn peace and quiet.

Despite hating pretty much everyone else, Sosen did have one close friend. His name was Ousai. And Sosen liked Ousai mostly because Ousai actually, sincerely believed that Sosen was an absolute genius. So before Sosen left to begin his hermitage in the mountains, just so people wouldn't think he'd, like, died and get depressed over the loss of such a beautiful mind, Sosen decided to tell his friend Ousai where he was going.

"Yeah, so I'm gonna go into the mountains. Just kinda get away from this crappy world we live in so I can really focus, you know?" he said.

And Ousai was like, "Whoa, that's amazing." But then he thought about it a little more and said, "Wait. The mountains? Man, how are you gonna live out there? Where are you gonna stay? What are you gonna eat?!"

Sosen had this all thought out. Obviously he'd be able to hunt for food, and he said so. And as for water and a place to sleep, he'd just use rocks for pillows and drink from streams in the mountains. And he told Ousai this, too. But when he said it, it came out wrong:

"I mean, duh. I'll just lay my head in streams and fill my mouth with rocks."

And Ousai was like, "...What."

Sosen realized what he'd done. But he wasn't about to get called out now, on the very cusp of his new, enlightened lifestyle. So he came up with a quick save:

"Dude, Ousai. I mean I'll be able to wash my ears in the stream water, and I can use rocks to keep my teeth sharp for all that tough meat I'll be eating out there. Keep up with me, man."

To which all a nigh-speechless Ousai could respond was:

"流石."

Etymology of Arigato

2014-05-12T09:15:00.000+09:00

The word "arigato" (有難う), or "thank you" in Japanese, finds its roots in the word arigatashi (有り難し), an archaic adjective describing rarity.

Arigatashi was used in the Japanese language at least as early as 1000 years ago, as it is documented in both the Tale of Genji and Sei Shonagon's pillow book. Originally, the adjective indicated that an object was difficult to have or come by, or literally, "difficult to exist." This meaning was extended in use to express that something was valued, as it was not easily found.

At least one Japanese translation of the Lotus Sutra, upon which Nichiren founded his school of Japanese Buddhism in the 1200s, used arigatashi to express profound feeling over the mercy and magnanimity of the bodhisattvas. Over the next few hundred years, the linking form of the verb in old Japanese (arigatashi → arigataku) underwent a change in pronunciation and orthography, to arigatau (く→う、有り難う), then once again to the modern form of arigato.

The commonly noted similarity between Japanese arigato and Portugese obrigado ("obliged") would therefore seem to be pure happenstance, considering that arigato had been in use long before Portugal's (or the West's) first contact with Japan in 1543.

By the early modern era, arigato had slipped from primarily Buddhist circles into mainstream language as an expression of thanks, though even in modern Japanese the adjectival remnant can be observed in somewhat more formal expressions such as arigatai desu (有難いです) and arigataku zonjimasu (有難く存じます).

Sources:
語源由来辞典
Kiryu Buddhist Federation

Words to Express Condolences in Japanese

2014-05-02T17:01:00.001+09:00

A quick translation from an all-around useful site on Japanese funerals.

When you want to express condolences to a Japanese friend or acquaintance over his or her loss of a loved one, the appropriate phrases are:

哀悼の意を表します

あいとうのいをひょうします

For written condolences

Something akin to "Allow me to express my sadness and pain."

お悔やみ申し上げます

おくやみもうしあげます

For written or spoken condolences

A humble way to say, "Allow me to tell you of my mourning and regret."

ご愁傷様でございます

ごしゅうしょうさまでございます

For spoken condolences

A very respectful way to say "You must be in great sorrow." (Thus acknowledging the recipient's loss and hardship.)

The English translations are only here as an accompaniment to help readers unfamiliar with Japanese to understand the phrase. The Japanese phrases themselves are set, standard expressions to use when greeting a person in mourning and not usually meant to be altered or combined. As with standard Japanese greetings in formal correspondence, it's most common to use these phrases as a greeting in a letter (or conversation) with a friend in mourning, then follow it with your own, more personal message about the deceased or your sympathies.

Credits again to funeralservice.livedoor.biz for their informative and tactful archive of information on funeral services in Japan.

TP#9: 英作文：京都大学2006前期

2014-02-01T10:02:00.000+09:00

問題：
子供の頃にわたしが毎週欠かさず観たあるテレビ番組があった。その主役はどこにでもいそうな犬で、そいつがある町にふらりとやってきては、そこで起こった事件の解決に協力し､人間からほめられる前に姿を消して、また次の町に向かって旅をつづけるのだ。わたしをとりこにしたのは、一つの場所に安住せずに、たえず動きつづける、その姿だったに違いない｡

解答例：
When I was a child, there was a certain television show that I watched every week without fail. The hero was a run-of-the-mill dog who would wander in to some town, help solve some problem troubling the people there, then vanish without a trace before the townsfolk could find him and thank him. He'd then start toward the next town, continuing his (endless) journey. I was captivated by the fact that the dog was always on the move; he refused to settle in one place.

Translation Notes:
欠かさず without fail
主役 main character, hero, leading role, title role
どこにでもいそうな average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill
→ どこにでもいそうな犬 just an average dog, just your average-looking dog
ふらりとやってくる stroll into, wander into
事件 problem, incident, (mystery)
とりこにする captivate, hook, enthrall
安住 settle, live comfortably (in), reside, stay

TP#8: 英作文：京都大学2006前期

2014-01-31T09:30:00.000+09:00

問題：
ものの見方や好みは人さまざまである。たとえば、駅前のハンバーガー店は、人々にとってどのような意味を持つだろうか。多くの人にとっては、ハンバーガーを味わう場であろう。しかし、肉が苦手な私にとっては、ハンバーガーを楽しむというよりは、仕事帰りにちょっと立ち寄り、コーヒー一杯で一日の疲れをいやす、くつろぎの場である。本を持ち込み、書斎代わりに使うことも少なくない。

解答例：
Different people have different perspectives and tastes. Take a hamburger shop in front of a station, for instance. What meaning does that shop hold for people? Many consider it a place to enjoy the taste of a hamburger. But I don't care much for meat; to me, it isn't a place to enjoy hamburgers but rather a hideaway I stop by after work to have a cup of coffee and easy my tired body and mind. Often I bring a book along and use the shop as my personal reading room.

Translation Notes:
くつろぎの場 a comfortable place, a place of relaxation, a hideaway, a safe haven
書斎 den, library, study

TP#7: 英作文：京都大学2007前期

2014-01-30T09:55:00.000+09:00

問題：
教育とは何かを考えるときに、私が決まって思い出すのが小学校の恩師の顔である。先生は、私たち生徒に、物事に真剣に取り組むことを教えてくださった。その教えは、これまでの私の人生の指針となっている。今から考えると、先生の教えが私の心に響いたのは、先生の尊敬できる誠実な人柄によるところが大きかったように思う。教育において考慮すべきことは、教える内容だけではなく、教える側の人間性でもあるのだ。

解答例：
When I think about what education is, always comes to mind the face of my favorite grade school teacher. He taught us to labor in earnest. That teaching has formed the philosophy of my life. Thinking back now, it is certainly because of my teacher's sincere character that (I respected him and) his lesson resonated with me so profoundly. Thus, in education not only the content of a lesson but the nature of the teacher must be taken into account.

Translation Notes:
恩師 former teacher, old teacher
取り組む tackle, engage in, work on
→ 物事に真剣に取り組む to labor in earnest, to toil in earnest, to tackle our responsibilities seriously
指針（ししん） guiding principle, guideline, philosophy
誠実な人柄（せいじつなひとがら） sincere character, straightforward personality
考慮（こうりょ） take into account/consideration
人間性 humanity, [perhaps] personality

「先生の尊敬できる」という部分を英訳に含めるのがややこしい・・・

TP#6: 英作文：京都大学2007前期

2014-01-29T16:22:00.003+09:00

問題：

最近久しぶりに旅行して実感したのですが、田舎の夜空には星が驚くほどたくさん見えます。科学的に考えれば、汚染がなく空気がきれいだからでしょうが、風景はそれを見る者の心を映すとよく言われます。雑事に追われて忙しいだけの生活からしばしの逃避行したあの時の私は、もしかしたら、めずらしく無邪気な子供のように心が澄んでいたのかもしれません。

解答例：

During a recent trip into the countryside--my first in quite some time--I was awestruck by the multitude of stars gracing the night sky. Science tells us this is because the air there is free of pollutants. But a certain old saying suggests that scenery reflects the eye of the beholder. Perhaps, in my momentary flight from a life busied by menial chores, my mind had achieved unusual tranquility, like that of an innocent child.

Translation Notes:

雑事（ざつじ） daily affairs, menial chores, mindless routine

→ 雑事に追われて忙しいだけの生活から（逃げてた私）I, who was escaping from a busy life of unending trivialities, ... / I had taken brief respite from my life in which I was constantly assaulted by things to take care of

しばしの for a brief while, for a moment

逃避行（とうひこう） elopement, flight, exodus, abandonment

敢行（かんこう） take a decisive action, undergo, press ahead (on a plan)

心が澄んでいた (my) mind had settled down

TP#5: 自由英作文：東京大学2011前期

2014-01-26T14:41:00.000+09:00

問題：
次のKiyoshiとHellenの会話を読み、空所①と②をそれぞれ15-20語の英語でうめよ。①と②のそれぞれが複数の文になってもかまわない。
(Nishikawa) Kiyoshi: Have you read today's newspaper? Apparently, in England, it's illegal to sell pets--even goldfish!--to children under the age of sixteen because they may not be able to take proper care of them. Offenders can be put in prison for one year.
Helen: Wow! (1) ________________________________
Kiyoshi: Yes, that's true. But (2) ________________________________
Helen: I guess you're right.

解答例①：
(1) (Wow!) That's unbelievable! Kids shouldn't be discouraged from having pets. It's a great opportunity to learn how precious life is. (19)
(2) (But) kids shouldn't be able to buy pets by themselves. That's a decision they should make together with their parents. (19)
書き換え：
(2) (But) even if kids can't, they can still ask their parents, right? I think that's a decision kids shouldn't make alone. (20)

解答例②：
(1) (Wow!) What a progressive law! It's definitely irresponsible for shop owners to be selling pets to unattended children. (17)
(2) (But) I'm more concerned about the legal precedent. This is an example of the government infringing upon consumer rights. (18)

Writing Notes:
・(1) 「信じられない！」→(2) 「でも、やっぱり子供に売っちゃダメでしょう？」という流れが一般的。別例として解答例②を参照。
・"Wow!"、"I guess..."などの発言に合わせて、解答に硬い言い方を避けたほうが良いでしょう。

TP#4: 自由英作文：東京大学2011前期

2014-01-20T14:30:00.000+09:00

問題：
次の英文を読み，その内容について思うところを50ｰ60語の英文で記せ。
ただし，understand と pain は，一度しか用いてはならない。
It is not possible to understand other people's pain.

解答例①：
Of course it's impossible to truly understand another's pain, because we cannot experience anything in the exact same way another person would. But that doesn't mean we cannot see when someone hurts and commiserate. Humans are empathetic creatures. We are able to detect others' feelings, and often we mirror them. Seeing others hurt, especially those we love, causes us anguish. (60)

解答例②：
Watching a person receive a beating or hearing the shriek of a distressed child causes an unpleasant emotional reaction in most psychologically healthy people. I argue that this reaction is evidence that we can understand others' sensations to at least some degree through visual and linguistic cues. To say it is impossible to comprehend another's pain is therefore an overstatement. (60)

Writing Notes:
・制限語数内に論じるのが厳しい。語数を悩む生徒は少なくないでしょう。
・I agree with this statementという意見を使う解答例がよく見られる。理由として、
→ It's impossible to have exactly the same experience as another person
→ There is no way to perfectly convey that information from one mind to another
→ Different people can react differently to the same event などが考えられる。
・"It is not possible"という絶対的な言い方に注目。相手のpainを十分理解できる例外をひとつ挙げれば、disagreeの立場を支えられるかもしれません。
・understandとpainはそれぞれ一度しか使えないため、類義語をいくつか考えておくと良いでしょう。
→ understand: know, comprehend
→ pain: suffering, hurt, anguish
→ 例えば、"It therefore must be possible for us to comprehend another's suffering."

TP#3: 英作文：京都大学2005前期

2014-01-13T13:04:00.000+09:00

問題：
女性が従来学問の世界で十分活躍できなかったのは、男性中心で作られてきた社会に原因があったことは疑う余地はありません。とくにわが国は従来年功序列の社会でありましたので、出産、育児のため女性が休むことは昇進の面で著しく不利でありました。今後は休んだ後の復職を容易にするとともに、復職後業績を上げれば速やかに昇進できる体制を作り上げて行かねばなりません。

解答例：

There is no denying that women's role in academia has been limited because the field has been constructed around men. Especially in our country, which has long rewarded seniority, taking a leave of absence for childbirth or child-rearing hinders a woman's opportunities for professional growth. In the future we must make it easier for women to return to their careers after absence and provide a system in which they can achieve swift advancement according to their job performance.

Translation Notes:

学問の世界 academic field(s), academia, the academic community

男性中心で作られた dominated by men, built with a bias in favor of men

年功序列の社会 meritocracy, a society in which status is awarded in accordance with age/years of service

著しく不利である a hinderance, a serious disadvantage

業績を上げれば・・・ in accordance with their accomplishments, as they demonstrate their workplace achievements

Pain Medication in Japan

2013-11-25T09:20:00.000+09:00

So, recently I talked a little about the big pharmacy chains in Japan. But if you're like me, even after you find and walk inside a Japanese pharmacy, you have a bit of difficulty identifying and choosing what you want to buy. Part of this is simple brand unfamiliarity, and part of it is the language barrier--and I'm sorry to say that in my experience, it doesn't get much better with time. Even after I learned Japanese to a tolerable degree, I found that it is a skill of conscious effort. It is still very easy for me to just "tune out" Japanese characters when I'm presented with advertisements, billboards, and product packaging. If I want to know what they say, I have to stop and think about it.

So, anyway, let's get to the point: You've got a headache, you're in Japan, and you want something OTC to take care of it. Here are some of your options:

Eve [Type A] (イブA錠)
Generic Name: ibuprofen
Also Contains: apronalide (mild sedative), caffeine
Eve is one of the best-selling, best-known painkiller brands in Japan. (As of 2011, in fact, it edged out its next competitor, Bufferin, for the #1 market share.)

This may be purely my take on the product, but Eve's brand name, tiny tablet size, designer packaging options, soft-toned TV commercials predominantly featuring female celebrity endorsements leads me to believe that this product might have a gender bias in its marketing patterns and sales figures. (Hell, even one of the main tabs on its website links to a page of tips for "How to reduce/relieve menstrual cramps.") But inside the box, Eve is just garden-variety ibuprofen, good for reducing swelling, fever, and sensations of pain. The dosage size is somewhat small by western standards (I think a regular adult dosage is two tablets, but always check the packaging); if I take that dose and give it a little time to kick in, it tends to work for me for minor headaches. A few of my expat friends use slightly adjusted doses for their particular weights and levels of pain (or pain tolerance).

I did not notice myself getting really sleepy after using Eve--I've taken it at work for headaches--but because of the inclusion of a sedative, driving and operating machinery is not advised after taking it.

Bufferin [Type A] (バファリンA)
Generic Name: acetylsalicylic acid ( = aspirin)
Also Contains: hydrotalcite (antacid)
Bufferin and Eve are nearly tied for first place in the analgesic market. Produced by healthcare company LION, Bufferin comes in at least half a dozen varieties. But, that doesn't necessarily mean they all contain aspirin:

You probably noticed the weird [Type A] indications after both product names thus far. It's popular for Japanese pharmaceutical companies to keep medications used for the same purpose under the same brand umbrella in order to strengthen the brand's general recognition. Therefore, when the same company puts out two different compounds both meant to treat, say, headaches, they'll use the same brand name for both compounds and instead distinguish the two products with an addendum after the name. So, drugstores end up packed with products like Bufferin A, Bufferin EX, Bufferin Plus S, Bufferin Luna, and Bufferin Luna J.

Think of it kind of like distinguishing between Tylenol, Extra Strength Tylenol, Tylenol Cold, and Tylenol PM. However, whereas the brand name Tylenol is strongly associated with the generic drug acetaminophen, and all Tylenol spinoffs still contain this same active ingredient though they may have added something else to the mix, this is not necessarily the case for products like Bufferin. (And, from my very limited knowledge, I also need to concede that it may not even be the case for most US pharmaceuticals.)

Anyway, the point is: Check the label of any OTC product you consider buying. Just because it carries the brand name Bufferin doesn't mean it's going to be an exclusively or primarily acetylsalicylic acid product. Eve Quick, for example, contains a sizable dose of magnesium oxide (analgesic, antacid) as well as the ibuprofen present in original Eve A.

As for the antacid present in Bufferin, I have my own guess as to why it's present in the drug. Read on:

Loxonin [Type S] (ロキソニンS)
Generic Name: loxoprofen sodium
Loxoprofen is a pet development of Daiichi Sankyo, who has secured the rights for the compound (or their process of compounding it, anyway), and markets it in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and India, as well as Japan.

Loxoprofen is a drug not approved for use in the US--not necessarily because it has been found unsafe, but just because it has not been lobbied through the FDA approval process yet. The drug is in the same class as ibuprofen and works in the same way, producing an anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect by interfering with an enzyme in the body that stimulates inflammation. (For pharmaceutical junkies, it is, along with the other two drugs on this page, a non-selective cyclooxygenase inhibitor.) As with ibuprofen and aspirin, it carries the same risk for gastrointestinal side effects like diarrhea, gas, or an upset stomach. (This is the reason I presume the basic Bufferin formula also includes an antacid.)

Off Brand Medications in Japan

2013-11-22T09:00:00.000+09:00

Getting over the counter (OTC) drugs in Japan can be an expensive proposition. The Japanese drug market is heavily protected from foreign competition and large pharmacies and drug companies still have a cartel-like lock on the market, even after the liberalization of online drug sales. If you are looking to by in bulk it is actually sometimes cheaper to go to the doctor and get a prescription as prescription drugs are heavily price controlled.

While it seems unlikely that you will be able to buy drugs in American quantities for American prices anytime soon (500 tablet pack of Advil, anyone?), there are a few emerging bright spots in the market. One of the best hope for relatively cheaper drugs are so-called "off brand" or "private brand" medications.

What is and off brand drug? Well its basically a medication that is chemically identical to a major brand name drug. As a matter of fact, it is often manufactured by the same company as the more pricey brand name version. While the concept of generic, off brand drugs seem to be common in North America (think CVS or Walmart branded pharmaceuticals), the concept is relatively new in Japan thanks to drug patent laws, regulations, and manufacturers who jealously guard their turf.

One of the biggest off brand drug labels is Hapycom (see above). This is a brand formed by a collective of large chain pharmacies including Welica, Tsuruha Drug, and Aeon. The drug lineup offered by Hapycom is slowly expanding and it includes everything from disinfectant to cold medication. In my experience, I have found Hapycom to be on average 300-500 yen cheaper than the equivalent brand name product.

Japan's biggest pharmacy chain, Matsumoto Kyoshi, does not participate in the Hapycom consortium. However, the company has been slowly expanding its own line up of "MK Consumer" branded medication. This includes everything from anti-nausea pills to cold medicine.

Some customers of medication may be worried about the quality of non-brand name good. However, pharmaceutical laws in Japan require the original manufacturer to be clearly labeled on the inside and outer packaging so it is extremely easy to tell which drug company makes what generic OTC medicine.

Chain Pharmacies in Japan

2013-11-18T09:03:00.000+09:00

This is a list of some of the major nationwide and regional pharmacy chains in Japan where you can purchase OTC medical supplies. This list is by no means complete, but covers many of the major players in the Japanese pharmacy market.

For more information about pharmacies and drugs in Japan, check out Dan's series of articles here on AccessJ:
Pharmacies and Prescriptions in Japan
Over the Counter Drug Laws in Japan
Online Drug Sale Laws in Japan

Matsumoto Kiyoshi holds the largest market share of any chain pharmacy in Japan. Their stores are located nationwide. They have an easily-identifiable yellow sign. In my experience, I most often encounter them inside shopping malls, train stations, and along downtown shopping arcades. This may be a regional thing--the places they happened to build in the areas of Japan I've lived in/the shopping areas I frequent. They certainly do also build suburban storefronts with large parking lots. :)

SunDrug is another large chain. They maintain a presence in all 47 prefectures, albeit a token, two or three store presence in several regions. SunDrug seems to be particularly well-represented in the Kanto, Aichi, and Fukuoka areas.

Cocokara Fine is an umbrella company with several branded storefronts, including Seijo, Segami, Zip Drug, Lifort, Suzuran Pharmacy, and (Kusuri no) Kodama. Aside from the requisite Kanto presence, these stores are appear to be fairly well represented in Aichi and the far western parts of Japan, including the Chugoku region and the northern half of Kyushu.

The Sugi Drug Group of stores is strong mainly in the central and kansai regions of Japan, specifically Aichi, Gifu, and Osaka. They use a very plain, blatant red sign that straightforwardly reads, くすり: "medicine."

Tsuruha Drug is exclusive to Eastern Japan and is easy to find throughout Tokyo and areas northward. It is headquartered in Hokkaido, and has expanded to command an impressive domestic market share, despite its almost complete absence from half of the country.

Conversely, Cosmos Pharmacy is completely absent in eastern Japan. Its stores are focused mainly within Kyushu but stretch out to Shikoku and the western portion of Honshu, including Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Okayama, and Kobe.

This covers many of the major players. However, other notable pharmacy chains in Japan include:
Welcia (Kanto, Osaka, Niigata)
Cawachi Pharmacy (Eastern Japan)

NISA: Nippon Individual Saving Accounts

2013-11-15T09:00:00.000+09:00

Warm up your engines, eager non-instutional investors, because a new type of tax free trust account is coming to town. That's right, I am talking about the much hyped NISA or Nippon Individual Saving Account (shogaku toshi hi-kazei seido 少額投資非課税制度) that is starting up next year. If you are investing in the future (and you should be!), then this new system is a good opprotunity to get your foot in the investment door. Let's take a look...

What is NISA?

The NISA system is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic reform plan. Basically, the idea is to encourage the prodigious savers of Japan to put their money into stocks and other invesemtns in order to spur domestic growth and cut down on all those old folks hoarding away cash. The system itself is modeled on the UK's Individual Savings Account program.

NISA is essentially a special tax free account for investments and investment-related financial instruments only. Furthermore, there are limits placed on the amount that is tax exempt:

Each account has a maximum limit of 5,000,000 yen invested at one time and only increments of 1,000,000 yen can be invested per year.
Each yearly investment with in the 1,000,000 yen limit is counted as a single unit.
The current tax-free window is 5 years per yearly 1,000,000 yen unit.
Only one account can be held per person and you can only designate one financial institution.
Only legal mid-to-long term residents of Japan are eligible. You must be an adult (20 years old and above).
Once an account is recognized by the National Tax Agency then you cannot change your designated financial instiution for a full 4 year period.
Any additions and/or profits over the 5,000,000/1,000,000 yen threshold are subject to full taxation.

NISA linked accounts and products are available at just about every financial institution nation-wide, including the former post office bank, JP Bank. NISA accounts are not insured like savings and deposit accounts and, like all investments, can lose value. Opening a NISA is subject to approval by your financial institution of choice and the National Tax Agency (kokuzei-cho 国税庁).

A graphic illustrating the investment amounts and periods avaliable to NISA holders

The official kick off date for the NISA system is the start of 2014. However, financial institutions and tax authorities are currently taking applications for new accounts. Processing time can take any where from a week or two to over a month.

Why NISA?

The Japanese population has historically viewed stocks as something akin to casino gambling, preferring to save for retirement in extraordinarily low interest national bond accounts and deposit certificates. Despite the government's best effort, many older Japanese are still extraordinarily reluctant to put their savings into anything that carries any sort of risk.

NISA is part of PM Abe's carrot and stick approach to spur on Japanese savers. First the tax on intrest and income from investments will be doubled come next year from 10% to 20%. In addition to raising funds to pay down Japan's ginormous debt, this tax increase combined with the new tax free NISA accounts are designed to drive risk adverse Japanese towards the stock market as opposed the "sleeping money."

How to Get a NISA

You first have to open some sort of investment and/or financial instrument account (toshi shintaku koza 投資信託口座). This can be linked to a main bank account (checking/savings) or a stand-alone investment account.

This means that you have to approach a bank directly and hand over a government ID (drivers license, resident card, etc.). Some banks may require that you maintain a regular account in addition to an investment account while others may offer stand-alone products. You also have to listen to and agree to a set of warnings and waivers ("This account may lose valuve..." and the like).

Online brokerages also offer NISA services. Like banks, you have to agree to a set of warnings and waivers. NISA services can only be established after your brokerage account is open, which requires a paper copy of an official ID.

Here is where things get tricky....after opening your investment account, you must now apply for NISA. To do this, you need an original copy of your Basic Resident Register (juminhyo 住民票) available at your local town hall or ward office. Only an original paper copy issued within 3 months will suffice, no photocopies or Basic Resident Registry Cards allowed.These forms are the tax agency in order to check your residence status and determine where you pay local taxes.

And now here is where things get down right silly...if you have moved after January first (i.e. established a new resident registry in a new town or prefecture), then you must not only obtain your current juminhyo but also obtain a juminhyo no johyo (住民票の除票) from your previous place of residence. This is basically a statement telling when your official move out date was processed and accepted by the local authorities.

A copy of a juminhyo no johyo

To get a juminhyo no johyo you need to physically travel to the town hall/ward office of your last residence or go to the local government website and mail the forms, money, and cash directly to the ward office. Having a document mailed to you almost always costs more money plus you have to pay for postage.

Now why would you have to supply a paper copy of something that could be looked up electronicly? Moreover, why do you have to submit a copy of your current address register and proof from your old address despite the date of moving being listed on a full form juminhyo? Shut up, this is Japan, that's why.

Once you get your paper work in order, your bank will supply you with forms to send your papers to a central processing center. Your juminhyo will then be passed on to the National Tax Agency. Once the g-men give you the thumbs up, your investment account will be certified as NISA. If you fail to submit the necessary paperwork, your account will be treated as a standard investment account and subject to all appropriate taxation.

Do You Need a NISA?

So, is setting up a NISA account worth it? Well, in this author's not so esteemed opinion, yes. If you are in your twenties, you should also start saving and investing responsibly as soon as you have a stable income. That being said, having a 20% bite taken out of your hard earned saving is a pretty big bummer. Therefore, if the government is offering some sort of tax abatement then you best get on board no matter how onerous the set up process is. Even contributing a few 10,000 yen bills a month to a low risk investment fund will go a long way 20 years down the line.

Have any experience setting up your own NISA account? If so, let us know!

Tips when Selling a Car in Japan

2013-11-11T09:41:00.000+09:00

I'm in the market for a new set of wheels--to replace my old ones. As I mentioned in my previous post, I've met a lot of people as I've visited a dozen new and used car dealerships to ask about buying something new, and about selling the one I have now. Much of the information differs from what (admittedly little) I knew about buying and selling cars in the US. In today's post, I'll continue to share more of my findings:

Car Color

As mentioned my article about buying, car color significantly affects value of a car in Japan. If a car you intend to sell is black or white, you can expect to get a bit more from it than equivalent models in other colors. (And as a buyer, this means you can pick up a car in other colors a bit cheaper.)

Mileage

Spend some time in the Japanese used car market, and you'll notice that most vehicles listed have, by American standards, exceptionally low mileage. To Japanese dealers, cars with over 100,000 kilometers are considered to be very high mileage cars. Often these cars will be considered hard or impossible to sell in Japan, and their resale value will plummet accordingly. However, dealers will still readily take these cars "for free" because they can list them on international auctions, where they are still very marketable. Used Japanese cars are popular in Southeast Asia, and cars that are thought to have no value here may still fetch thousands of dollars or more when shipped abroad.

Interior

As in other countries, a leather interior helps in preserving the resale value of a car.

Navigation

Entry-level navigation units in Japan cost several hundred dollars, and their retail prices extend up to $3000 and beyond. Some owners choose to take their navigation systems with them to their next cars. Whether your car has a navigation system, how old and high quality a system it is, and whether you plan to leave it in the car when you sell will affect the car's value by several hundred or a few thousand dollars.

Age of Car
From what I've learned, new cars seem to devalue quite quickly in Japan; moreso than was my experience in the US. In a frank conversation of how well a new $25,000 sedan would hold value over time, a sales representative told me I should realistically expect to sell it for about half of the ticket price after three to five years of average driving. Yikes. This number will surely vary with the model and popularity of the car, but in general I've gained a sense that in Japan, where new is king, car values fall fast. For a time this steep drop will more or less bottom out, and the value of the car won't depreciate quite so rapidly. However, as cars age in Japan, they are taxed more heavily, another death knell for car value. At 13 years after first registration, annual car tax spikes, and many cars over this age lose their value completely--when being sold to a dealer.

Time to Sell
The best time to sell a car is in February or March. Around this time of year, high school students are graduating and getting their licenses, university graduates are moving to new places around the country, and employees are transferring between company branches (although another hot time for transfers is in October). In general, March is a time when a lot of people are making lifestyle adjustments, and this is a concentrated period of car sales (and real estate sales, school supplies sales, etc.) If you can wait to sell your car until March, you may fetch a little more for it than if you sell it some other time of the year. Especially cars that are otherwise only being assessed at a fairly low value

Another reason to sell at this time is to avoid paying another year's worth of automotive tax on your current vehicle, since auto tax is assessed based on possession of a vehicle on April 1 of each year.

Where to Sell
It's of course common practice to trade-in old cars (called 下取り, shitadori, in Japan) when buying new ones (called 乗り換え, norikae), but if the dealer doesn't find the car attractive, he may simply offer to take the old car off the customer's hands "for free".

You may be better off arranging a sale of an old car and purchase of a new car separately. I contacted several used car dealers and franchises about selling my car, and I'm glad I did. My first estimate (from a dealer) was over $1000 short of all subsequent offers. After talking to four or five salesmen, I had a much better grasp on the resale value of my car, and was able to use that knowledge to haggle more effectively later.

Two of the nationwide chains to check with are Rabbit and Gulliver. These companies have storefronts nationwide, so it's likely you'll be able to find one nearby to visit. Many other national and regional chains exist, too. Visit Google Maps, navigate to your local area, and type in "車買取" to see a list of stores near you. Several companies, like Carchs, will offer, at no fee, to visit you at your address to take a look at the car.

What you Need
When you sell the car, you'll need to provide 1) all keys you have for it, 2) the original shakensho document, 3) the jibaiseki hoken (mandatory vehicle insurance) slip, and you'll need to have 4) your registered inkan that you used when you purchased the car, as well as 5) a certificate of authenticity (印鑑証明書, inkan shoumei sho) for that inkan, which is issued by your local city hall.

Finally...
I'd recommend talking to a lot of people and having your car looked at by several places, both local shops and chain stores. Just from talking to different people, you'll learn a lot about your car and what to expect, and you'll also know when someone is pulling your leg.

Japan Factoid: Nintendo playing cards

2013-11-08T09:00:00.000+09:00

Most die hard fans of games giant Nintendo have probably heard by now that the storied company was originally a playing card maker. But I bet you didn't know that to this very day you can still buy yourself a brand new set of 任天堂 cards.

Yup, that's right, the company that makes 99.99% of its profits from games is still making cards for the Japanese market. Sound strange? Well it kind of is from a business perspective. However, many older Japanese still associate the name nintendo with the traditional card game hanafuda (花札) as opposed to Mario and Luigi. Keeping the card business alive is more of a nostalgic tradition than an actual money maker.

Hana fuda is a game that is traditionally played at family gatherings, especially during the New Years holidays. Originally based on Edo-era gambling using Portuguese player cards brought over by missionaries, it involves the pairing of colored cards in order to collect points. The Kyoto-based Nintendo corporation had the distinction of producing one of the most widely used sets of hana fuda cards in Japan, known as the dai-toryo (大統領) or "president" series. These decks are based on the handmade designs of Nintendo's founder, Yamuchi Fusajiro and are a staple item in most households in Japan.

If you are in Japan and you are interested in picking up some Nintendo history, you can navigate on over to Nintendo's そのほかの商品 (sonno hoka no shohin, "other products") page and grab yourself some traditional hana fuda cards. The company also sells other traditional Japanese games such as hyakuninisshu (百人一首), i-go (囲碁), and shogi (将棋).

TP#2: Difficult Japanese Phrases

2013-11-06T07:43:00.000+09:00

Some of the most difficult words to translate are those that are context sensitive, or need wildly different translations depending on context. I'll take a look at four tricky Japanese → English interpretations in context today: ① もったいない (mottainai), ② しょうがない (shou ga nai, also 仕方ない shikata nai), ③ 面倒くさい (mendoukusai), and the pervasive Japanese ④ よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegaishimasu)。

① 三連休が仕事で潰れそう。もったいない...
I'm going to lose my whole three day weekend to work. What a waste.
Alternatively: What a shame.

あなたは私にはもったいない。
You're too good for me.
You deserve better (than me).

② 買えそうな車は皆しょぼいけど、まぁ、しょうがない。（＝仕方ない）
The only cars I can afford are all beaters. Oh well. That's the way it goes.
Alternatively: Nothing I can do about it.
beaters → piles of junk, clunkers, POSes

また寝坊かよ。しょうがないやつだな、お前は。
You overslept again?! You're hopeless.
Alternatively: You're unbelievable. / What am I going to do with you?

怒ってもしょうがないんだよ。あのクラスは静かにしてくれない。
It's no use getting angry. That class never quiets down.
Alternatively: Don't bother getting angry.

③ 毎日しないといけないんだ。面倒くさいなあ...
I have to do it every day? What a pain.
Alternatively: What a bother.

あいつは何でも否定的にとる。面倒くさいやつだなぁ。
He takes everything negatively. He's so obnoxious to be around.
Alternatively: He's such a pain. / I can't stand him.

④ 予約をキャンセルする場合は、前日までに連絡してください。よろしくお願いします。
Cancellations must be made at least one day in advance. Your understanding is appreciated.
Alternatively: Thank you (for your understanding).

一昨日こちらに引越してきた山田太郎と申します。よろしくお願いします。
My name's Taro Yamada. I just moved here the day before yesterday. It's nice to meet you.
Alternatively: I'm looking forward to working with you. / I'm looking forward to being a student here. (etc.)

These contexts and translations are not exhaustive for any of the introduced phrases; however, they may provide an idea of possible ranges in meaning and usage.
Have any other suggestions for these phrases? Please share in the comments below!

Tips when Buying a Car in Japan

2013-11-04T09:42:00.000+09:00

I'm in the market for a new set of wheels, and have been to visit just about every new and used dealer in my immediate area, plus a few more across town (and out of town). A lot of the people I've met have been very cool and have shared their tips with me about buying and selling cars in Japan. Much of the information differs from what (admittedly little) I knew about the process in the US. In today's post, I'll share some of my findings:

Car Color
For 20+ years in Japan, the number one color for cars has been black. Trailing slightly behind it in popularity is white. Cars in black and white may not be your thing personally, but these colors significantly affect the resale value of a used car, which means that in the future, as a seller, you can get a bit more for a black or white car than an identical model in another color. And as a buyer, you can pick up a car in other colors a bit cheaper than its panda-friendly equivalents.

Time to Buy
For new cars, buying earlier in the year is better. When a new car is first registered, a date is attached to the shakensho indicating that registration. That date will forevermore be associated with that vehicle. When you sell it, that date will determine the car's 年式 (nenshiki, roughly "model year"), and therefore its residual value. In the used car market, a car registered in December, 2012 carries the same nenshiki as a car registered in January, 2012. Even though the latter car is nearly a year older, at a glance of used cars in a catalog, they appear to be the same age. In contrast, a car registered in January, 2013 is that much easier for a used dealer to tout, and the number on the car feels that much newer to prospective buyers, driving up the car's value.

In regards to tax, whenever a car is purchased outside of April, taxes are assessed based on a formula that counts the number of remaining months in the fiscal year. So, in theory you're being taxed evenly no matter when you buy a car. However, in practice, it seems that you pay slightly less tax over time when you buy in April or soon after. Much more importantly is tax owed on an old car, if you're upgrading. If you don't get the old car signed over to a dealer or someone else by April 1, you'll be taxed on that vehicle for the year. (Though I hear there is a process to request a refund for a car sold during the financial year, I don't know how complicated it is.)

Hi, I'd like to trade my car in.

Trade-Ins
It's of course common practice to trade-in old cars (called 下取り, shitadori, in Japan) when buying new ones (called 乗り換え, norikae), but if the dealer doesn't find an old car attractive, he may simply offer to take the old car off the customer's hands "for free". This especially applies to older cars (13+ years) and high mileage cars (100,000+ kms).

On the other side of this coin, the 下取り value of a car is one place where a dealer can fudge numbers to give buyers a better deal. Especially on new models, dealerships may not offer any kind of discount (値引き, nebiki) for six or more months into the car's cycle. But they may be willing to buy your old car for more than the original estimate as a way to sneakily mark down the price of the new car, which brings us to haggling.

Haggling
One of the best resources I found for haggling was price comparison site Kakaku. Often included with comments and ratings of different car models are user buying experiences, where users share what the final cost of their car was and how much of a discount the dealership offered them. Similar information is also bandied about inside message board threads on the same site. As expected, cars which have just been released will usually have discounts of, at best, $500 or so. But six months or a year after release, the discounts will ramp up, and Kakaku users are happy to share their opinions about the best time to buy. Printing out and having these figures handy will go a long way in haggling for a better price.

When a dealer refuses to budge on price, consider other options; ask if they can't buy back your old vehicle for a little more; ask if they can throw in snow tires or floor mats or other dealer options; ask if they'll fill the tank with gas on delivery (cars in Japan, even brand new ones, are often sold with almost empty gas tanks; it's considered a responsibility of the owner to pay for even the first tank of gas; depending on your car, this may mean another $100 out of pocket as soon as you get the vehicle).

Dealerships make somewhere on the order of $4000 for the sale of a new car; they have room in which to make some concessions, so push hard for them. If you're looking at a particular model, consider visiting other franchises to ask about the same model of car: For example, Toyota cars are sold in Japan at Toyota Carolla, Netz Toyota, and Toyopet stores. These are all different chains of stores, and they will compete against each other in price to secure a sale. I went to a Toyota Carolla shop, didn't like the figure I was quoted, and drove just five minutes down the street to a Netz Toyota shop. I told them where I'd just been and asked if they could offer me a better deal on the same car. Their quote was $2000 lower. Off the bat.

In regards to used cars, the margins are a bit smaller, from what I've been told. Some used car dealers I visited insisted that discounts were impossible for anything in their used lot, and that they weren't making much money on the cars to begin with. At a used dealer, when I felt like a price was fishy, I just got up and left. If the dealer really wanted to sell the car, they telephoned me afterward to offer a lower price.

Finally...
I'd recommend talking to a lot of people and looking at cars at several places. Just from talking to different people, you'll learn a lot about the market and what to expect, and you'll also know when someone is pulling your leg.

And be sure to check out next week's article about Selling a Car in Japan!

Translation Practice #1

2013-10-30T07:18:00.000+09:00

This is a foray into the world of Japanese university entrance exam translations (大学入試英作文), with some notes on the things I learn along the way.

Without further ado, let's get started! Today's source is a list of 2009 private university problems from the ticc PukiWiki.

四季の移り変わりがはっきりしている我が国で、とりわけ色とりどりの花が咲く春と紅葉に彩られる秋になると、自然がとても美しいと感じる。（津田塾大、2009）

I find the whole "Japan has four seasons" appeal really distasteful. Maybe some of Japan's tropical neighbors are on a two-season pattern, but with plenty of other countries around the world experiencing four distinct ones, applauding your own country for doing the same comes across a little ignorant. But some other parts of this passage just made it too hard to pass up. Speaking of which, I learned a little while ago that the same line of thinking is also perpetually brought up in low-level language conversation with foreigners in Korea.

I wonder if Japanese people ever get this line while vacationing in Seoul: "Did you know that ~~Japan~~Korea has four seasons?"

...and find themselves thinking, "Wait a second. I've heard this somewhere before."

I've noticed, however, that I hear this four-seasons appeal less and less as I get better at the language. Maybe it's because when I talk to new people we can actually, you know, find better stuff to discuss.

Anyway, back to the translation. Here are some considerations I made:

1. I started by breaking the passage down. What is the core message of the writer? In my opinion: 我が国で自然がとても美しいと感じる。 "I feel that nature is beautiful when in [Japan]."
2. The first segment is therefore merely a relative clause, an aside, that probably only deserves sandwiching between a couple of commas: "Our country, where the changing of the seasons is clearly delineated, ..."
3. とりわけ: especially, in particular
4. 色とりどり: multicolored, varicolored, variegated, colorful
5. 彩る（いろどる）: paint, make up; the passage using this verb was my favorite part of the translation
6. In the remainder of the passage (truncated here), the writer goes on to use the phrase ではないだろうか, which to me makes this a personal opinion piece; first-person seems appropriate.

And here's what I came up with:

四季の移り変わりがはっきりしている我が国で、とりわけ色とりどりの花が咲く春と紅葉に彩られる秋になると、自然がとても美しいと感じる。

In our country, where the changing of the seasons is so distinct, I find nature to be immensely beautiful, especially when arrives spring with its colorful flowers or autumn made up in red leaves. (Tsuda, 2009)

It's in Your Blood: Japan's obession with blood types

2013-10-25T09:00:00.000+09:00

For a long while, I thought that the standard blood groupings ( A, B, AB, and O) only had to do with microscopic antigens on my cells. Boy was I wrong. As it turns out, your blood type determines everything about you core personality...or at least that is what many people in Japan seem to believe.

Personally, I think the whole idea of blood types as a basis for determining your personality is as silly as it comes, but it seems that most of Japan disagrees with me. If you live in Japan long enough, it is only a matter of time before someone asks for your ketsueki-gata (血液型), or blood type in order to determine your preordained personality type.

The linking of blood type to personality--known officially ketsueki-gata seikaku bunrui (血液型性格分類)--as is by no means a recent phenomenon. However, the rise of the Internet, TV, and mass communication has perpetuated the myth that your red blood cells magically alter your physiological state. Also, variety TV shows and girl magazines that actively promote uranai (占い), or fortune telling, have been a major force in the propagation of the blood type obsession.

The connection between blood and personality is by no means unique to Japan. Pre-Industrial Revolution European medicine was crazy about the idea of "humors" as represented in bodily fluids, and let's not forget about the practice of "blood letting," formerly used to cure... just about everything. However, what is unique about Japan is how far this superstition has continued into the present day and age.

The man to thank for that is a gentleman named Yoshikawa Takeji (see left). A high school teacher and amateur physiologist by trade, Yoshikawa published a series of works in the 1920s and 1930s expounding on the link between blood and personality. While he was not necessarily the first person to articulate these theories in Japan, he certainly was the most popular.

Despite having been refuted by the Japan Medical Association as early as 1933, the blood-personality link continued to gain traction throughout the 20th century. Apparently, the theory is also popular in other Asian countries like Korea and Taiwan, but I can only vouch for my own experiences here in Japan.

What do Blood Types Mean
Since you probably will be asked about it at least once, it doesn't hurt to know what each type represents, even if like me you think the whole idea is poppycock.

Officially there are two personality facets for each person, the omote (面) and the ura (裏). The former is your outwards traits like outgoingness, ability to interact with others, and so on. The latter is your inner feeling and thoughts that you keep hidden. Ura traits are almost always of the negative variety. Let's take a look....

Omote traits by blood type

Type A - These blood types are thoughtful, nice to others, studious, and not afraid to be gutsy. They also have an appreciation for beauty.
Type B- People possessing these blood types are known to be optimistic and easy going, but always work at their own pace. They get over lost loves and tragedy quickly. They open up quickly to others and have a flexible, multifaceted personality.
Type AB- The owners of this rare blood type are high-minded idealists with little interest in cheap and shallow things. They value privacy and keep public and private affairs separate. They are sensitive and take a simple approach to love.
Type 0- These blood types are found in down-to-earth people with straightforward, realistic ways of thinking. They are good with money and strong when faced with adversity. They get along well with others and can fall deeply in love.

Ura traits by blood type

Type A- These individuals are good at putting on a good face even though they are secretly complaining to themselves. They also tend to be judgmental of others to a fault while at the same time fearful of rejection. They are more prone to hysterics and don't work well in hierarchical organizations.
Type B- These folks have a tendency to be just too darn nice and often find themselves being used by others. They are also prone to laziness and careless mistakes. They are known for being unrefined and prone to addictive habits like gambling.
Type AB- These types tend to be fickle and give up more easily than their peers. They tend to be more selfish and are indecisive, often dragging out decision making processes. AB types are known to be skilled liars and unabashed cynics.
Type 0- Those possessing this blood type are known to be overly simplistic with a desire to be the center of any event or space. They tend to be conservative and do not handle tense situations well. Like Type A individuals, they don't work well in hierarchical organizations.

Do these traits sound suspiciously like overly vague generalities? Well, that is probably because they (in this author's opinion) are. However, the above traits are just one interpretation among many. There are literally whole books written about blood types and personality traits as well as how different types interact socially and intimately.

However, despite my cynicism, some fellow skeptics have pointed out that talking about your blood type can be a good ice breaker or conversation starter. Even if you don't believe in it, chatting about your blood type can be a good social tool.

Your Visa Status After Divorce in Japan

2013-10-21T09:38:00.000+09:00

"What happens to your visa status after you get a divorce?" I've heard a variety of opinions on this subject from forums like Gaijinpot. Some people claim that divorce, for those staying and/or working in Japan on a spousal visa, means renunciation of your status of residence (在留資格). Others assert that you are still eligible to stay in the country until the printed date (在留期間) on which that last-issued spousal status of residence expires.

To complicate the issue, until recently there was no clear legal impetus for a divorced foreign national to report the divorce to immigration. Some people seemed to just fly under the radar for as long as possible.

Recent updates to the immigration laws have made this issue much clearer:

In short, if you get a divorce, you'll need to apply for a change in status of residence as soon as possible if you intend to remain in Japan.

The procedure at immigration follows a few steps:

First, within 14 days of your divorce, you are obligated to report the divorce to the Immigration Bureau. You can report in person at your nearest regional or branch office, or you can use the bureau's e-Notification System to report the divorce online.

Your status of residence will not be immediately revoked upon notification. A grace period is allowed for divorced individuals to get their affairs in order and arrange an application for a change in status of residence. If you intend to pursue a status of residence change, some possibilities include:

1) Working Visa

If you are working in Japan, you can change to a working visa. This will require demonstrating to the bureau that you have a specialized skillset and will also require the cooperation of your employer. For example, if you have been teaching at a high school as a full-time teacher for a number of years, you can make a strong case for being granted a 教育 status of residence.

2) General Resident Status for Childcare

If you are the primary caregiver of a child following your divorce, you can apply for a 定住者 visa. This is loosely translated as a "resident" visa, and makes no restriction on your type or place of employment, but it is not permanent. The 定住者 visa generally needs to be renewed at one year intervals, and if your primary reason for being in Japan is to raise a child, you will need to continue to demonstrate that you are caring for and raising that child at renewal periods.

3) General Resident Status

If you were married for an extended period (at least three years), and you can demonstrate a continued, stable livelihood in Japan following the divorce, it is still possible to acquire a 定住者 status of residence. Having a child and citing proximity to that child will bear consideration in this case but is not strictly necessary for approval.

If you fail to apply for a change in status of residence, and 6 months elapses from the date of your divorce, the Immigration Bureau may choose to revoke your status of residence at its discretion. Presumably in this case you will be notified of the change (such as a letter sent to your last registered address or a phone call to your last registered number) and asked to leave the country by a certain date.*

*[If any readers have personal experience or further knowledge to share on how such a notification is made, please share in the comments section below.]

The Immigration Bureau's Online "e-Notification" Service

2013-10-14T09:43:00.000+09:00

Under Japan's recently revised immigration laws, foreign residents of the country are explicitly instructed to inform the Ministry of Justice Immigration Bureau of any changes to information they've registered with the bureau. For example, when you change jobs or get a divorce, you're now required to notify the immigration bureau and can face penalties for failing to do so.

To ease the burden of these notifications, the Immigration Bureau has established an online notification service that allows foreign residents to log in and submit many (but not all, as we'll see) of the legally required notifications without making a time-consuming and, for some, costly visit to the nearest regional or branch office.

The MOJ's very helpful FAQ file explains what this e-notification service is and who it's for, but unfortunately there isn't an English translation of the document yet available. Let's take a look at some of the key points:

First off, you can access the system from the official Immigration Bureau e-Notification System Login Page.

There are two login options: The first is for "mid- to long-term residents" of Japan. With the notable exceptions of foreign diplomats and "special permanent residents", that includes all foreign residents of the country who are not on tourist visas. If you're in Japan on a landing permission (a.k.a. "visa") meant for work (teaching, running a business, practicing medicine, transferred by your company to an office in Japan, etc.), study, research, or if you are on a spousal visa, this is for you.

The other login option is for employers of such foreign nationals. Though their participation is not required by law, they are strongly encouraged to report relevant changes of their foreign employees.

Broadly, the Immigration Bureau's e-Notification system is for reporting the following information:

Changes in your status of employment (quitting a job, losing a job, transferring to a new job, having an employer go under, getting a new job)
Changes in the name or address of your place of employment (such as an employer moving to a new office, changing its company name, or becoming part of another company through a merger)
Completion or termination of an employment contract (for contracted workers)*
Formation of a new employment contract (for contracted workers)*
Divorce or death of a spouse (for those on spousal landing permits)

[*It's not clear from the listed information how this applies to employees who renew an existing work contract. If any readers have information on this point, please share in the comments section.]

When reporting a change of employer, the Immigration Bureau will determine if your new work responsibilities and employer are compatible with your current status of residence. If they are not, you will be required to apply for a change in status of residence (在留資格変更).

The online system is not mandatory, and all of the above notifications can still be made in person at an immigration office.

On the other hand, other changes of status that require notification, such as a change of surname or a change of reported nationality, must be made in person at an immigration office. Changes of home address must also be reported, but notification for a change of home address should be made directly at the municipal office (市役所, 区役所, etc.) that has jurisdiction over your new place of residence. The MOJ Immigration Bureau's e-notification system is not an option in these cases.

The reports themselves are mandatory by law for all applicable residents who have had their last landing permission, change of status of residence, or extension of status of residence issued anytime after July 9, 2012. (So, the law is phasing in now and will eventually apply to all "mid- to long-term foreign residents".) Failing to make a necessary notification within 14 days of an applicable change in situation can be penalized by a 200,000 yen (~$2000 USD) fine, and knowingly reporting false information in a notification made to the Immigration Bureau can be penalized by a 200,000 yen fine or 1 year imprisonment.

[Special thanks to anonymous contributor "MM" for pointing this out to us!]

What is a "Special Permanent Resident", Anyway?

2013-10-07T09:08:00.000+09:00

"Special Permanent Resident." It's a term that plagues Japanese immigration legalese, and I've only ever had a vague inkling of what it means. It identifies a group of people that, for some reason or other, has been granted special permission to be in Japan indefinitely without needing to notify the immigration bureau of working situation or marital status, but whose members are still not recognized as actual citizens in Japan.

I'd heard stories of how, especially in the late 80's and early 90's, the MOJ wrote out some special immigration laws to encourage ethnically Japanese Brazilians and other South Americans to come to Japan as laborers. And I knew that there were a lot of ethnic Koreans in Japan whose families had lived here for generations but had been and sometimes still are marginalized to certain communities and severely discriminated against. They had been encouraged to come into the country and stay here for the long haul, but not as citizens.

All these people were the ones the government was talking about when it used the term "Special Permanent Resident," right?

As it turns out, my suppositions were an uninformed mishmash of fact and fantasy. The history behind the "Special Permanent Residency" is actually very specific, and quite interesting:

Following World War II, the US impressed upon Japan a peace treaty, known as the "Treaty of San Francisco." It contained a lot of stipulations from the US and from other nations, mostly with the intent of reforming Japan into a modern, free democracy. One of those stipulations was meant to provide for the thousands of Koreans and Taiwanese nationals who had moved to Japan or who had been forcibly relocated to the country during the war and the years leading up to it--back when the Empire of Japan was the self-proclaimed organizer of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and claimed Korea and Taiwan as its colonies.

In the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan's claims to Korea, Taiwan, and other "mandates" were renounced, and as a result the peoples of these territories were no longer to be considered as belonging to the Empire of Japan. However, this put all the non-Japanese nationals already living in Japan in a pickle: Over their years of residence they had established lives in Japan, but they had no claim to Japanese citizenship and no claim to stay in the country. In reparation, the Treaty of San Francisco offered these individuals "Special Permanent Residence" in Japan so they'd be able to, if they chose, remain in Japan instead of having their lives and jobs again uprooted.

Here bears mention the several years it took for the Treaty of San Francisco to be discussed, drafted, and finally ratified by all its participating nations. When the treaty came into effect, nearly seven years had passed since the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Seven years is a long time, and of course the region and its people hadn't frozen in place awaiting diplomatic decisions. World War II was over, but civil unrest was building in the newly divided Korean peninsula, with war anew there just as the official end came to Japan's.

Despite national tensions stemming from Japan's wartime actions, to many Koreans in a war-torn peninsula, Japan was still attractive as an economic prospect, an educational haven, and a stable environment. Thousands fled destruction and war and settled in Japan. Thousands more were still coming in as the Treaty of San Francisco came into effect in 1952, and because of the political turmoil of the handover, it was hard to distinguish immigrants who had already established themselves in WWII-era Japan from those who were just arriving. "Special Permanent Residence" is thought to have been awarded to thousands of families for whom it wasn't originally intended, and this generated a lot of negative attention for an allowance that probably many contemporary Japanese found distasteful to begin with.

This didn't bode well for special residents' social acceptance. Though the law guaranteed them a place in the country, they were still broadly discriminated against and found resistance in securing educational opportunities, jobs, and marriage outside their own circles. Many ethnic Koreans chose to adopt Japanese names and surnames to hide their true identity. Some chose to naturalize, but many more were (and are) proud of their heritage and uninterested in becoming "Japanese".

Heated debate surrounds issues such as allowing these residents to participate in municipal elections. More than a few modern nationalists hold that it's high time for the "Special Permanent Residency" to be done away with altogether.

As the law stands, "Special Permanent Residence" is available to all descendants of this original group. Any child born to at least one parent of a "Special Permanent Resident" is eligible to apply for the status himself. Thus, the status of residence is still fairly common and its position in regard to modern immigration law revisions is so clearly and prominently outlined.

RTK: The Best Kanji Study Tool I've Used

2013-09-30T09:24:00.000+09:00

Heisig-Schmeisig: How I (Wish I'd) Remembered the Kanji

I cannot emphasize enough how important a solid kanji vocabulary is for your progression in the Japanese language. Knowing the jyouyou kanji, or at least a hearty subset of them, will unlock so much of the Japanese world to you. If I could go back in time and change one thing about my early Japanese study efforts, I would without a doubt change the way I handled kanji.

As a teenager, after memorizing the hiragana and katakana by filling pages of notebooks with the characters written over and over again, I proceeded into kanji in much the same fashion. Each kanji was a single entity to me, and to learn it I'd write it on a homemade flashcard, cut out from 4-by-6-inch recipe card, and on the back wrote the Heisig "meaning" (as found in Jim Breen's EDICT) as well as every possible kun-yomi and on-yomi reading listed in my electronic dictionary.

Armed with a stack of such cards (always ready in the front pocket of my jeans for an impromptu review session), I would shuffle and repeat the new kanji over and over, day in and day out, until the corners were bent and frayed. More than once was a stack lost to eternity on laundry day.

My kanji knowledge did progress, and by the end of a year I knew the strokes and meanings of about 500 characters. But that progress was thanks only to the blind dedication I held to my inefficient, confusing method of study.

Later, I actually read the Heisig books and learned more about his method: Learn the kanji and the meaning first, then worry about the readings later. I realized the sense in keeping your study focused and simple: one card for one piece of information. The clunky, info-packed cards I'd made could still be useful, if I only worried about reciting one piece of info per card, per session. (And in fact, this was something I had occasionally been doing, though not by intention: I'd get so tired of trying to list off ten pieces of information for each card that I'd "get lazy" and start to just give the meaning before flipping the card over.)

However, and here's the kicker: even years later, when I'd learned to study meanings and readings one at a time, and I "knew" over 1500 characters, I found that I still sucked at reading Japanese. I could name the on-yomi and kun-yomi readings listed on any of my flashcards, but that knowledge didn't segue well into real life. I had a great deal of difficulty reading any long passages of text in Japanese.

The reason the kanji readings don't help much by themselves is because they're only part of the equation.

When kanji show up in words, yes, they do often follow patterns of pronunciation. And yes, if you know all the kun-yomi and on-yomi for a given kanji, you can probably take a stab at how the word in front of you might be pronounced.

But far more importantly is the fact that kanji tend to show up in the same particular subset of words, over and over again. When Japanese natives see 理, they don't think "reason" like Heisig does. They think 理屈, 理由, and 無理. From the similarities across those words, they might have a vague sense of what 理 as a single character might imply, but it's not part of the active language process.

"But, there are way more vocabulary words in the language than kanji!" you balk. So did I. It should be way more efficient to learn the couple thousand kanji out there than the tens of thousands of words out there, right?

Well, no.

Because even if you spend countless hours learning those kanji one by one, in the end, in order to speak, write, and read Japanese fluently, you're going to need to know the vocabulary words themselves, not just the kanji of which they are composed.

Your goal is to be able to communicate in Japanese like a Japanese person, right? Then learn the kanji the way Japanese people learn them: Alongside the actual vocabulary words used in modern speech. When little kids practice writing characters over and over, hundreds of times in their colorful kanji notebooks [img of one here], they're starting out with one single character, but over in the margin, where the character is introduced, is a set of three or four common vocabulary words who make use of that kanji. And after writing the single character dozens of times to drill the stroke order into their brains, the very next page of said notebook is likely to have the child writing sets of two characters in succession as actual words: The kanji are just a component. The ultimate goal is the word.

If you're interested in the esoterics of linguists, as of the roots of latin and greek in English,
the breakdown and significance of individual characters is of course a wonderfully interesting subject. I just wish I'd been able to point out to myself sooner, to wave away the mists of enigma puffed forth by old, starched-collar textbooks that communicative ability is, though not exclusive from, not dependent upon an exhaustive knowledge of that language's inner workings. (Which, by the way, might have something to do with many a brand new ALT's realization he or she has no idea how to answer grammar questions set forth by students.)

As English speakers, we know "octo" as a Greek root for eight, "quad" as a Latin root for four, and can therefore find we're comfortable words we might rarely hear or use, like quadrangular, quadraphonic, octennial... maybe even octogenarian.

While you would certainly obtain a sense of our language most native English speakers don't possess, I find it very hard to believe that trying to memorize all the Latin, Greek, Germanic, or Anglo roots found in English first, then the actual vocabulary you expect yourself to be able to use as a competent, "C2" speaker is an efficient method of study.

All in all, I find that the word-approach to the language is far more holistic in my ability to discern new words; when I encounter a new word, composed of new kanji, I can effectively guess the reading of the new word because I know not just the readings of the kanji but have a sense of the probability of a kanji's reading based on how it's combined with the other characters in the other words I know.

This is where RTK comes in... (and, later for me, self-made flashcards anew, this time with a focus on words rather than the single kanji)

You see readings repeat over time, you pick them up, and you find yourself able to guess the reading of new words based on the other ones you've learned.

Juki Card and e-Tax

2013-09-27T09:00:00.000+09:00

As you may have noticed, LP has been hard at work on articles about the Juki Card (AKA the Basic Resident Registry Card) system that has just been opened up to foreigners.

As we have mentioned before, in addition to containing your registered alias (tsushomei 通称名), the Juki Card can be used as an electronic identifications for official government transactions over the internet. Perhaps the most important of these transactions is the system for electronic tax filing, better known as e-Tax.

What is E-Tax?
E-tax is the catch all name for the National Tax Agency's (kokuzei-cho 国税庁) electronic statement filing system. This systems is specifically for national tax (kokuzei 国税) such as income tax (shutoku-zei 取得税) and corporate tax (hojin-zei 法人税).

A seperate system for prefecture and local taxes (collectively known as jumin-zei 住民税 or "inhabitant tax") known as E-L Tax is run by the Council for Local Tax Filing Digitalization (地方税電子化協議会). Both E-tax and E-L Tax use the Juki Card as the primary means of digital ID.

What are the Benefits of E-tax?
The most tangible benefit of filing taxes electronically is the potential 3000 yen tax break available for digital filers.

Other than that, filing taxes online is more flexible than filling out heaps of income reports (kakutei shinkoku 確定申告) by hands. Since the authorities in Japan tend to be sticklers for mistakes, an error on a hand written form can mean a total rewrite. Also, if you are self employed and/or earn income from alternate sources like investments, e-filing can drastically simplify filing and record keeping.

One of the big disadvantages of this system that the relevant authorities do not seem to be keen on supporting Mac and Linux-based operating systems. This can be a big problem for potential filers as specialized software and applications must be installed. However, third party developers are able to incorporate most of the e-Tax system into their products so you aren't tied to the default web portal and software.

Also, the system is entirely in Japanese, meaning you have to have pretty good handle on the difficult jargon of tax terminology before you consider using it.

How to Use E-tax
Before you consider using e-tax you need the following things:

A valid Juki Card with your current address (with or without picture)
An approved IC card reading device to connect to your PC
The appropriate software and drivers

That means after applying for your Juki card at your local city hall or ward office, if you want to use it online you will still need to pick up a card reader like this:


NTT Communications branded IC chip card reader

An IC chip card reader can be found at just about any major electronic retailer and online (check out Kakaku.com's selection here). Most IC readers are compatible with Juki Cards but make sure to check the packaging just to be certain. Also, make sure to confirm that the appropriate software and drivers are supplied for your operating system of choice.