Hi. As the title says. I’ve been a resident in Japan for the past 4 years. I’m planning to leave by end of June next year but will be spending the last 2 months in a hotel. Not a serviced apartment. Staying at my current lease is not an option.
I read in many other posts that the ward office won’t accept a hotel address for address change notification within 14 days of the move. Is that always the case? Has anyone gone through the same? My situation is the reverse of many, as I already have a bank account etc etc…this would just be a bureaucratic procedure. What could theoretically happen if one doesn’t comply with that requirement?
Thanks
2 comments
Bureaucratically speaking, these two months sounds a lot like travel time within Japan without a fixed address. Basically you’re back to tourist status. I would not bother researching further personally.
As a “mid to long term resident” defined by article 19-3 of the ‘immigration control and refugee recognition act’ essentially a foreigner physically in Japan, with a resident card is a “mid to long term resident”. The only occasions they wouldn’t be a MTLT resident is if they have a multiple re-entry permit (up to 5 year ¥6,000 one) and are in Japan with the intention to short stay < 3 months.
you’re required to have a registered address. And if you move whilst being a MTLT resident you need to register a new address with 14 days as per the ‘Basic resident register act’. Some municipalities might not even let you file the moving within Japan paperwork if you don’t have a new address sorted.
The only legal way around it is to stop being a MTLT resident as per Article 19-14 of the ‘immigration control and refugee recognition act’
And to my understanding, the only way to legally do that is either:
1) file your moving out of Japan paper work, and leave Japan and void your resident card at departure, and return as a tourist/short stay visa.
(Right now you could do (1) on a special re-entry permit and keep your resident card. However, as per Article 26-2 of the immigration act the special re-entry is only for foreigners RESIDING in Japan with a valid resident card (basically “MTLT residents”. So this exploit only works right now because of lack of communication between immigration and municipalities. Because immigration put foreigners address responsibilities on municipalities for “convenience and accuracy” as mentioned in Q100 here: https://www.isa.go.jp/en/publications/materials/newimmiact_4_q-and-a_page3.html
“*While the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency is required to continuously manage/maintain any and all information related to mid to long-term residents through the Residency Management System, it is understood that notifications regarding addresses should be made to one’s municipality, for the sake of both convenience and accuracy. However, that remains the exception to the rule. All other notifications must be made through a Regional Immigration Services Bureau.*”
However, municipalities can only add our address on our resident card. They can’t note on our resident cards that moving out of Japan paper work has been filed and they can’t erase an address on the resident card either.
But, Once our resident cards become our MyNumber cards (government is aiming for by Autumn 2024) that abuse of special re-entry permits exploit hopefully will no longer be possible because municipalities will be able to clearly mark on the MyNumber card (which by Autumn 2024 hopefully acts as resident card) that moving out of Japan paper work is filed. Meaning immigration can then clearly see from the municipality that the foreign individual has noted that they intend to leave Japan and stop being a MTLT resident by filing moving out of Japan paper work (I.e no longer Reside in Japan) thus bridging the gap in communication between immigration and municipalities, and therefore making the foreigner not be eligible for special re-entry permit. And instead require a single/multiple to keep their SOR…. Anyway, I digress….)
2) do the same as (1) but get a ¥6,000 multiple re-entry permit from immigration and then return on your resident card but only for a < 3 month stay.
But what you can do at least is consider speaking to your municipality,and immigration directly to see what options are available to you to do this without having to leave Japan and return as a tourist.