Hi all, new here but hopefully somebody could help me with a very specific problem I have…
I made a My Number card in Kumamoto Prefecture when I first lived in Japan (2015-2016) and promptly threw it away presuming I would never return/need it. Then, I did a year abroad in Tokyo (2018-2019) where they sent me to the “already lived in Japan before” section and the people there were so perplexed that I had misplaced my My Number that they gave up and sent me on my way without one. In other words, I have not seen it for over 6 years.
I’m moving to Japan again later this week, permanently this time, and I was just wondering whether I can pretend that I never even had a My Number? Would that be illegal (or a bad idea)?
Not sure if it matters but I dropped my middle name from my passport so this time I will be going as e.g. “Smith John” rather than “Smith John Thomas”. It’s a small detail but I know Japanese city halls love honing in on little things like that.
Apologies for the long post, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
2 comments
Throwing away your My Number is like throwing away a social security card in the US. Why exactly did you think throwing this away was the right thing to do?
Your MyNumber does not get deleted. That said I can see how these city offices can struggle to find records considering how incompetent Japanese bureaucracy is (or most definitely was in the past, only a few years ago…it’s slowly getting more streamlined, but still a fucking mess).
Did you lump sum withdraw your pension? Pension number is linked to MyNumber so if you did not withdraw your pension then you will want to link your old pension number to your new MyNumber once you get it (assuming they can’t find your old MyNumber).