RResidents in Japan

Problems with getting a “permission to engage in activity other than that permitted” (資格外活動許可)

EDIT:
Thank you everyone who tried to help me.
For future reference, the issue was installing both the crappy program and the browser extension as admin.
So, after uninstalling everything, I re-installed as admin, and now the card is detected on that page.

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I want to kill whoever is in charge of the piece of shit system to get the thing online.

I’d rather avoid going to immigration just for that (not close, and I’d need to waste a whole morning in that hellhole that is Osaka’s immigration center).

I bought an IC card reader just for that. Because ONLY an IC card reader + a PC can be used for this process (as the website says). Can’t use a smartphone to do it, like you otherwise can for other services that read your MyNumber card.

Well..it simply doesn’t seem to work. I installed the WinME era looking software that shows ?????s instead of Japanese characters because I guess it’s too difficult in 2024 to make a program that works on operating systems not originally in Japanese (I switched language to Japanese in Windows and I still get the ?????s).
I installed the stupid extension for Chrome/Edge (Firefox not taken into account, it seems), and It doesn’t work on either.

The Card reader works. It works on their MyNumber card portal, it works in the ?????? program (I can read the card’s contents, even tho most of it is illegible characters).

[https://www.ras-immi.moj.go.jp/WC01/WCAAS010/ras?dispOutputEvent=](https://www.ras-immi.moj.go.jp/WC01/WCAAS010/ras?dispOutputEvent=)
This is supposed to be the page where I can Register/Login, but whenever I click on either “Foreign national (applicant)/other”, I get an error:

Please connect an IC card reader writer to your computer and set and scan your Individual Number Card.
The Online Residence Application System’s screen is disabled until the Individual Number Card is scanned.
If you cannot proceed to the application procedure after the Individual Number Card is scanned, press Cancel to start over again.

And that’s where the fun ends.

I would really appreciate if someone has experience with this and has some insight on what may be the issue (my ONLY guess is that the card reader is just a no-name one I got from Amazon, and not in their specific list of readers that work, but at the same time, it IS working everywhere else but this stupid page).

Finally, last thing I want to vent about: I can speak Japanese, my reading is not great but I can indeed read.
BUT, why the F in 2024 (and this is a system that started THIS JANUARY) they have stuff that is 100% for foreigners (a national WON’T need a “permit to engage in activity other than that permitted”) and 100% in Japanese. SOME parts of the process are auto-translated, but the more you dig, the more it’s all Japanese.

by Genryuu111

14 comments

  1. you need something called locale emulator for japanese programs to work on non-japanese pcs. its stupid but thats how it is.

  2. let me start saying tha Osaka immigration is not that bad. In the middle of the week you could get it done in a couple of hours. I renewed there at least 3 zairyu card for me and my wife, and at shinagawa immigration for my first working permit and shinagawa back then was worse than Osaka in this period. The other point is that the immigration procedure is set up by Japanese bureaucracy for the needs of Japanese government. It is not in place FOR foreigners, it is a state bureaucratic procedure, for the sake of the state itself. Language for legal documents and procedures is Japanese and every translation is best effort and not binding nor official. that said the ??? (garbled ascii) is probably the old legacy codepage problem: It is an issue I saw since the 90s of the past century, when UTF8 was not even used or usable for japanese software on western versions of the OS. (there were a cjk visualization software that took the garbled ascii and converted to 2bytes characters or install the specific native Japanese version of the os) Depending on the program, there is a setting buried inside the international options for legacy application that force a specific codepage.  the card reader software is an application for Japanese needs and probably it was developed (and tested) very old style as its target is a japanese pc with japanese OS. At least it is fixable nowadays, 30 yrs ago it would be a pain.I understand the frustration, but it is not a new problem it is a legacy problem older then me and it cannot be solved so easly  at the OS level keeping backwards compatibility in windows.

  4. Not sure if this is related to your issue but one quirk I encountered was that I needed to have the MyNumber card inserted into the reader BEFORE clicking on the button that prompts you to scan your card/enter your PIN. If you click the button, insert your card, and then enter your PIN, it won’t work.

  5. That would be another thing that’s unclear from the site if that’s the case.
    But if I remember correctly when I checked, they’d issue a separate piece of paper in this case.
    Thank you for the kind words, I’ll try again tomorrow.

  6. Reading you installed all the necessary extension, I dont know which IC card reader you have but you need to insert the MyNumber card facing the photo down. If you insert with the photo facing up looks like is reading but is not. That was the only stupid detail took me time to notice while ago…

  8. I mean I hate going to immigration as well but you’ve got to consider that it’s probably faster than fixing the governments crappy software for them for free.

  9. While I agree with most of your rant, for this bit:

    >BUT, why the F in 2024 they have stuff that is 100% for foreigners and 100% in Japanese. SOME parts of the process are auto-translated, but the more you dig, the more it’s all Japanese.

    You do realize foreigners who speak English ARE the minority of those using the Japanese services, right? Most are Chinese/SEAsia, who come and learn Japanese while not knowing English at all. So picking Japanese, the language of *checks notes* the host country as the main language and shared one makes a lot of sense.

    Heck, even many of my Spanish-native friends are better at Japanese than they are at English.

  10. I did it on Mac and had the same problem. Turned out I needed to run the extension for browser as an admin 

  11. If you aren’t techy savy, is better to go to the office,. otherwise is a pretty straightforward process

  12. >SOME parts of the process are auto-translated, but the more you dig, the more it’s all Japanese.

    Imma put it out there that I think everyone should learn Japanese at least to N3 if they are here for more than a year.

  13. I understand your frustration, administrative matters are challenging to navigate in any country if you cant understand the language. Its hard even if you do, so dont be too hard on yourself.

    Your cheap card reader should work fine.

    The process is fairly simple and the instructions are really easy to follow so retrace your steps slowly.

    [https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/online/10_00112.html](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/online/10_00112.html)

    Ask someone who speaks japanese if there is something you dont understand. I think there are even plenty of manuals online for people that struggle with it.

    Its a good opportunity to brush up and step up your language skills.

    頑張れ

  14. Ah, I was in the exact same situation… 😅
    Spent like 8 hours over 2 days trying to get it to work, and when I finally set everything up imagine my surprise to learn that you cannot apply online JUST for the permit, but it must be applied for at the same time as the SOR extension 😫

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