So long story short, I have a friend incoming to Japan on a WHV, and because they want to be able to keep a Japanese bank account without it being frozen upon their departure, they want to use my address on their residence card instead. Is the city going to care about this at all? They are also thinking of registering their address first and then when they leave, they would go to the city office to change their address to mine without notifying the city that they are leaving Japan. Would this cause any problems on their or on my side? Thanks in advance.
15 comments
There are other threads on this. Fraud is never a good idea.
It’s against the law.
This won’t work, banks now ask for proof of residence status.
Changed my address several times in Japan. None of the times, they (ward office) asked for any proof that was my new address
Then your buddy thinks sending a kg of coke to your address is a good idea and you spend 9 months in jail trying to prove your innocence. (Happened to a friend of mine).
No, no, no, no NO!
Do NOT ever lie to Immigration. I was an immigration officer for the USA. If they find out YOU allowed this, your current visa, or any sort of future change of status are at serious risk of denial for your ‘offense.’
They would be committing a crime—YOU would be facilitating it. Bad, bad idea, indeed.
Ignore the idiots commenting, “They’ll never find out.” Point is that if they EVER DO “find out” for any reason (your stupid friend tells them you said it was okay, let us say), you can seriously fuck yourself and your future here. It’s not worth the risk for even a small chance of them finding out.
Your friend can handle moving their money or setting up new bank accounts when (or if) they ever come back. There are other good reasons why you never want to receive anyone else’s mail, too, besides Immigration issues. If they ARE your friend, they won’t insist. If they insist, you know they were never your friend.
If they’re really a stinker, they’ll use your address even after you tell them no. Be very wary of any mail in their name arriving in your mailbox. Take it to immigration, talk to an officer (not a flunky) and tell them the story, and give them the mail as proof. Then they’ll be fucked, but you shouldn’t be.
Don’t.
*You* will be held **”responsible for them”** since it’s your address and whatever happens to them, the authorities or whoever will go look for them at your address. And whatever needed to be sent to them from the city office will be at your mailbox and you will need to send it/inform them.
**That’s just the tip of the ice, the others already mentioned the legalities (which I honestly dunno)**
This wouldn’t work. Banks freeze accounts upon residence status expiry. Unless your friend maintains his residence status here (which he wouldn’t need your address), then banks will eventually know.
Everyone keeps saying “oh no~ don’t to it!” but it’s not a big deal. I’ve talked to immigration about this exact issue. My address was registered with my wife at our home but I had another place close to my job. The house is in her name and the apartment in mine, I told immigration and asked them which address I should use and they said “the one with my wife”. There are people in Japan with multiple addresses and you can only have one on your card.
Now, using an address that doesn’t belong to you or an acquaintance is a huge red flag.
He has to provide his actual address in Japan or it’s illegal. If you go along with it you will put your own status in jeopardy.
Yes. It will.
Here was my previous experience on address change:
I came to Japan for work, I signed the work contract but before I was able to rent a home I got urgent matter to return home country for a few weeks, so I asked my colleague and use his address just for registration of bank/mobile.
But here is the thing, Japan Post doesn’t know I am living there, so bank/mobile letters got returned (Japan Post believes wrong mail sent, and my friend told me no one ever attempted to deliver any mail with my name). Bank account got frozen, mobile company asking for update otherwise would terminate account. Eventually I returned Japan a few weeks later and moved to my rented home, update address and received mail from them to solve the problem.
So can someone register your home without letting you know? Yes, not only this is illegal, but the failure of mail delivery would just let their bank knowing the address is invalid someday later. (I remember when I change anything with bank/mobile they send me paper mail)
Above all, why do they need to keep a bank account in Japan? If they want to keep yen (can’t possibly think why) just use Wise. If they plan to move back…. Just open a new one when that happens. Who knows maybe in 20-30 years Japan’s banking will have even caught up to the rest of the world’s.
Why tempt fate? You’re the real resident here and hope to stay that way I would hope