Permanent Residence question

I will be leaving Japan back to my home country before Christmas and coming back to Japan mid-January. I will use the re-entry permit but I’m not sure if my residency status is affected if I sign the moving out procedure at the local city hall.

1. I will be moving out of my current address before leaving and moving to a new address in January. Does this affect/ or reset my residency status going for PR if I sign the moving out procedure at city hall?
2. Will I still be liable for my residence tax if I’m not registered at a local city hall on 1st January. I would rather pay the residence tax since I’m going for PR.

My question is basically; should I do the moving out procedure at my local city hall before leaving Japan, or not do it so I maintain residency status during my period of leave? (even though I won’t be living at that address)

Many thanks in advance

2 comments
  1. Here we go again…..

    Filing your moving out of Japan paperwork will affect your consecutive residency for PR.

    (You can look up the definition of “consecutive”).

    Also leaving for Japan great than 90 days in one trip, or a total of ~150 days per year from all trips out of Japan *could* affect your “consecutive residency” too.

    Also, to file your moving out of Japan paper work you need to have the intention to be gone from Japan for >1 year…. Not just for Christmas/New year as a means to avoid resident tax. If Japan allowed that, then everyone, their dog, cat, goldfish, and kitchen sink would be leaving Japan for their festive holidays and returning in order to save 10% of their taxable income on Resident tax.

    Also, technically (although others disagree with me on this) if you file your moving out of Japan paper work you essential lose your right to use the 1 year special re-entry permit (free one at the airport) because that is supposed to be for foreigners RESIDING in Japan, who leave Japan for <1 year on holidays, trips, business trips etc. If you file your moving out of Japan paper work then you’re not exactly residing in Japan, right?

    So you’d need to obtain a re-entry permit from immigration. Which means applying for it and getting it granted. But it’s unlikely immigration will accept “because I want to avoid resident tax” as an acceptable reason.

    Also, if you file your moving out, but remaining in Japan paperwork then you’re still considered a resident (so resident tax, and pension/health insurances etc still applies) but you have 14 days to register a new address in Japan. If you fail to do it within 14 days you risk serious penalties as per the ‘Basic resident register act’

    So to answer your question:

    – you can’t file your moving out of Japan paper work. You’re not leaving for >1 year.

    – if you file moving within Japan paper work before you leave you have 14 days to register a new address.

    – My advice is file the paper work after you return from your holiday.

  2. It’s a bad idea to leave Japan if you currently have a PR application in process, so I’m told. I hired an immigration lawyer to handle my PR application back when I applied for it because I didn’t want to take a chance on trying to go it alone. He told me not to leave Japan while the application was in process, so I waited until I got PR before I took another trip back to the US.

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