‘My Number’ as Japanese national but having lived abroad only

Hi,

I don’t know if people here will be able to answer but I’m in kind of a weird situation, so I’ll ask just in case! Any help will be appreciated.

I am from another country where I have lived all my life. But I have the officially impossible ‘dual citizenship’ (one of my parents is Japanese, and the Japanese embassy always renews my passport without problem, even politely suggesting that I shut up when I start asking if there’s really no issue.)

I have no other Japanese official paper than my passport (no residency certificate, no health insurance, etc). Can I get a ‘my number’ without that? The form seems straightforward: passport number, name, address.

Since I have family in Japan (close to where we’ll be): can I just put their address in the form? Or am I supposed to submit a proof of residency as well? (Maybe they can add a letter to be guarantors or something.)

I have travelled to Japan on that passport several times. I have even lived in Japan before: my (foreign) wife came on a working holiday visa, she rented an apartment and I lived there as well. (On the work side, I work freelance in remote for companies in my country, pay taxes in my country, etc. About health insurance, apparently I was also supposed to get registered, but I didn’t know, and I always subscribe for private health insurance from my country.)

We are coming back to Japan for 1 year at least (but not for life), this time my wife has a spouse visa, great. We will both have Japanese phone numbers (thanks mobal) and my wife will open a bank account for foreigners at the Shinsei bank (just saw that it’s gotten harder than a few years ago… I’ll be looking at other options). Great. We have a place to stay for the first month, in Tokyo.

But now, for the long term, real estate agencies are all asking for ‘My Number’. Which is why I’m creating this post.

Also, will there be any lasting consequences if I get one, such as income tax requests from the Japanese government? I’d like to avoid them to coming for taxes in my country of origin when I move back there!

by Gurtang