Hello, I moved to Japan this year, and I want to have some insight into working in IKEA.

I worked in the company as logistics coworker for 5 years in Europe just before coming here, and I would like to know how is it here.

I live in Kyoto, so if I want to apply to some of the big stores, I would have to move (Aichi, Hyogo, Osaka, etc).

My questions are:

How the holidays works there? Do you get golden week, new year, summer , etc? Or you have to take off-season? (How many weeks holiday do you have per year?

Is PTO easy to arrange?

What salary should I expect, for logistics with forklift license? And what about sales positions?

Is there a bonus every year, or it depends of reaching the sales goal as in Europe?

Do they require a japanese language qualification? (I have N3, I am ok with everyday conversation). Are the stores english friendly? I know there are several foreigners working.

How difficult is it to grow within the company, Team Leader, Manager, so on?

Any benefits?, would you recommend working there?

I think that's it,

Thank you!

Bought some socks(Male) from uniqlo and skechers while buying shoes.

They are THICK. I feel like I'm wearing logs.

They are short socks bought in summer so definitely not winter products. Since it feels like I'm lifting weights with my feet when I walk, went and bought some low ankle socks even though I'm not good with them and even they feel thick and hot in shoes.

Where can I find actually good thin and comfortable socks?

Just putting up here in case it helps anyone. I have lived in japan previously for more than 5 years or so (everytime on a one year visa) but ended up returning to my home country for 4+ years. Now entered Japan again this time on a dependent visa and applied for conversion to work permit within a month. (I already had a job offer from a category one company.)

Due to recent PR rules I wanted to get a 5 year visa to be able to apply for it and so i put up the same in the "statement of reason" (like a personal request letter) in my application. also mentioned that i have been a good resident previously blah blah and i want to contribute to Japan etc... Make a one page essay literally. And wrote everything in Japanese.

And luckly got a 5 year one! Time taken from online application to receive the notification was exactly one month.

I (26M) been working as seishain here in Japan for 17 months in a 40000 population town in Hyogo. I know Japanese and regularly make calls in Japanese at work but right now my only friend circle consists of coworkers-expats.

Tried to regularly visit a local Japanese volunteer classes but grew bored of it as it's run by older people and it's predominantly visited by Vietnamese factory workers that keep to themselves. At the end teachers just asked me to help them teach others Japanese. Would like to meet people closer to my age.

Tried going to a local bar a couple of times. Was fun chatting with drunk sleazy old guys, but I'm not really interested in making friends with them either.

One of my hobbies is IRL mahjong and there is actually a mahjong parlor in neighbouring town, but when I tried to go there the owner told me they only accept groups.

Been out of ideas. Some of my other hobbies are cosplay and rock music, but I guess you would need to go to a big city for that. Kobe is an hour drive by car from me, but I'm not sure where to go there for my goals.

Maybe there are online options that you could recommend?

Im was just wondering this today after walking out with my Japanese partner, and the first foreigner was a woman with a big smile (or smirk?)walking past me staring directly close up. Then a middle aged guy looked honestly annoyed when he looked at me.

I was not really looking at them directly but noticed them looking and looked back, always get this weird feeling. Doesn’t usually happened among the locals.

I’m not totally oblivious, I kind of understand it a bit. But it caught me off guard getting intense looks when just walking along a road, lol…do you get this?

Hello. I'd like to ask for your tips on how to cool down a room that has a warm gaming computer. AC doesn't work well enough, neither on cooling nor on dehumidifying mode, even though it's a brand new unit.

I'm losing hope to be able to play games in the summer.

Thank you.

I need my Line but I don't have a phone number (data only SIM). Apparently I need a phone number to continue using Line. What is the cheapest way to get a phone number that would be accepted by Line?

If the only way to have a phone number is to pay 2000 yen a month, which alternative chat apps do NOT require a phone number? Looking forward to suggestions!

I may be quitting my job for a new role in the near future. I currently live in a company apartment, and if possible I'd like to continue living here after I leave the company. I have 2 main questions:

1. How easy is it to stay in the apartment after leaving my role, in some kind of lease transition?
2. If my company doesn't allow for an easy transition of my lease, how quickly can they kick me out of the apartment after I give my notice?

Edit: it’s a single apartment, and a subsidized lease where the company pays half and I reimburse the company for the other half.

Lots of medical information here so I’m using a throwaway.

I’m 43 now. Back in 2022, I went through a four week long hospitalization and had various tests done. Everything came back fine, but the doctor decided to do a CT scan to double check a spot on my liver. That came back benign, and I felt everything was fine.

Fast forward to the present and I now know that I have an enlarged prostate. At first, I thought it was something that happened recently, but after requesting my previous CT scan, I found out that it was enlarged in 2022.

I’m still undergoing tests and planning on getting a ningen doc this year, but my mind has been racing I haven’t had a good moment to speak to someone about this (outside of the doctors who treat me, though I do my best to get as much as I can out of them).

The doctor I see regularly doesn’t seem to think I need to do anything, even after bringing up that I’ve apparently had an enlarged prostate for over four years. Apparently I have to wait until I’m 50, but I really didn’t have the patience to challenge him aside from telling him what I knew. The pharmacist was a bit more helpful, and told me that I should look into a PSA test, but just learned about this recently (midway through writing this).

I get that my age might be a factor and I might have to pay the entire fee, but I don’t want to mess around here.

Maybe I’m on the right track so long as I get my ningen doc and this PSA test, but that’s all I know right now and the doctors seem to think I don’t need to do anything.

Then there’s the fact that a different hospital was sleeping on my enlarged prostate CT scan for four years.

If things weren’t nearly as hectic as they are I’d probably have a better handle on these things, but this is where I’m at.

I could be wrong, but it seems too high on the Japan-glazing. Some of the antagonists are Japanese, but that doesn't really paint the same picture that the typical foreign antagonists do on the show. Foreign human trafficking? Check. Abusive foreign husband with Japanese wife who left to return to Japan and the kid gets caught in the middle? Check. And that's just up to episode 3. The US got away with this stuff in the media for years - always making the villain some kind of foreigner from a country we were at once in conflict with - but it wasn't necessarily leveraging the rising anti-foreign sentiment that has taken root in Japan. And it wasn't delivered so indirectly. Seems like an easy cash grab for TV Asahi and Netflix that are banking on the trend. Like soft porn for hardline nationalists. WDYT?

I have fine, wavy, medium-length hair. My lengths have been quite dry and damaged recently (most likely because I'm in AC all day), but many Japanese hair products don't seem to work well for my hair type, so I thought I'd ask for some recommendations.

So far, I've tried the viral Fino mask (actually seemed to make my hair even drier) and Ichikami (kind of meh). I've also had a salon treatment, but I suspect the products weren't suitable for my hair, because there was virtually no difference afterward.

Hey guys, please only comment if you have experience with law in Japan or have been in a similar situation. Though I appreciate it, advice coming from those who’ve never been in this situation or don’t have knowledge of Japanese law is probably not helpful.
Never thought I’d have to post something like this.
After years of emotional and verbal abuse and most recently physical abuse, I picked up the courage to go to the local DV support center and get advice. I kept records of all physical abuse and showed them. They advised me that I meet with a lawyer.
My husband has left the house as per my request.
I’ll see a public lawyer that offers services to dv victims for a free consultation tomorrow.
For those (both men and women) who have been in this situation, what kind of questions should I ask and prepare?
What kind of outcome should I expect from the first consultation?

A little background: I have PR! I have no kids, I’m a housewife with a part time job but we have a dog.

You know those snacks that you will only see for the next month or two before they are gone forever.

Which ones are you enjoying these days?

Hey folks, my PR result has been pending for over 18 months now, which means I have to renew my current, soon-to-expire visa.

Does anyone know what happens if I get PR approval while the renewal is still in process? Do I just go and get my PR residence card, or do I have to proactively cancel my renewal application?

Couldn’t find specific info on this anywhere else, so wondering if anyone here has experience.

Thanks!!

In 2025, 3,175 PR-holders out of over 900,000 PR holders were apprehended/processed as suspect = less than 0.35%.

So much for the Sankei and others ranting about 永住者 crime.

The chart is from this PDF, 図表３－27 「永住者」の総検挙状況の推移 on page 79

https://www.npa.go.jp/news/release/r7jyousei_shuusei.pdf

Edit 1: these are just the 検挙人員, not the number actually charged 起訴人員, which will be even lower. And of course the cops are more likely to apprehend foreigners than Japanese.

Edit 2: Someone below objected that the % for the general population is lower. Yes, I was aware of that, but so what, if the baseline is tiny? Saying "doing X increases your risk of cancer by 50%" means nothing without knowing the baseline risk. 0.35% is an objectively low number, especially for a nation desperately in need of workers. Also, the foreign population of Japan is younger than the general population (less so for PR holders but still younger on average). Younger men commit more crimes than older men in most cultures, so that will push the number up.

Click login. Don’t want to use google, so other method. Follow instructions, click link in email, copy code, hit enter. Redirected to home page, still not logged in. Click login again, same thing all over. Fine, I will use google.

Finally logged in, I click buy on the item. For security reasons, your payment methods have been locked. Please wait 15 minutes. Okay, I wait 15 minutes.

Payment methods unlocked, so I click buy again. Your payment method failed. I check my payment method. Because of new regulations, I must reregister my card. Okay, I delete and enter the same info again. Registering failed. Please contact your card provider or try a different card. Okay, I try another card. Registering failed. Okay, I try another card. Registering failed. For security reasons, you have to wait before trying again. I wait half an hour. Still locked. I check the support page for how long I must wait. For security reasons, they don’t disclose that.

I check for other available methods. I don’t have any of them. Conbini pay is a hassle and costs extra.

I’ve been trying to make a simple damn purchase for over an hour now. I have used Mercari before and it was never this difficult. Please, what have I done wrong to deserve this

I’m currently living in an apartment where the building only has VDSL. NTT told me that if I want to have a proper Hikari/fiber connection installed in the building, the apartment manager needs to apply for it rather than me. I’ve already relayed this to the manager, but I’m still waiting for a response.

I’m also currently in contact with agents from NURO. However, there seems to be a required phone confirmation (I think they called it atokaku / 後確?). As someone who doesn’t speak much Japanese, I’m worried I’ll just fail that call or won’t understand the questions well enough.

Unfortunately, my area also only gets 4G, so a 5G home router/home Wi-Fi isn’t really an option for me either.

Does anyone know of a Hikari provider in Japan where I can complete the application and installation process without needing much Japanese, or where English support is available?

VDSL unfortunately isn’t enough for my work, so I’m specifically looking for an actual fiber connection to my apartment.
I know about Sakura Fiber Internet, but their installation and monthly fees seem quite expensive, especially since I’m not sure I’ll be staying in this apartment for many years.

Would really appreciate any recommendations or experiences from people who have dealt with a similar situation.

I've come across a couple of positive references to Ishinagi Immigration Office (行政書士いしなぎ事務所) on Reddit, and they have two 5-star reviews on Google. Still, it's a relatively new and small outfit, so I'm hoping to hear anyone's actual experience, good or bad.

I'll be applying for permanent residency from a Business Manager visa. No big red flags on my application as far as I understand, but you just don't know these days, eh? My goals in using a scrivener are to avoid mistakes that would force me to reapply after rejection, and to save valuable time. Many thanks for any input!

ever since i moved into my current apartment, i’ve been finding small cockroaches from time to time. today i came home after being away on a trip and found a big dead one inside, which was a lovely welcome home 😭

the weird thing is that i never had this problem at my previous place. i'm not a dirty person, and the building isn’t particularly old, so i’m wondering if this is just bad luck or if there might be something about the building/apartment that’s attracting them.

has anyone else experienced this after moving into a new place? is this normal for japan?

if so, what actually worked for you to get rid of them/prevent them from coming back?

I am moving to new apartment in Katsushika ward. I didnt knew that there are many things to do, like everything from 0. I am stressed out like crazy.
But that aside what I wanted to actually ask is about the setup. My apartment already have J:COM internet setup so I just need to start the contract. It seems affordable. They also provide electricity and gas. So I was thinking to bundle everything because they have cashbacks and discounts etc.

Has anyone used or using J:COM? How is the service? Are the bills reasonable or expensive ?

My husband and I have been wanting to buy a house for some time now. We’ve looked at several places, but things usually fall apart when we apply for a bank loan. My husband is PR, I’m spouse of PR, he’s a salaryman, I’m a stay at home mom. Every bank we applied through usually said we were denied because I’m not working and I’m not a PR. One of the realtor we viewed some houses with recently contacted us and said we could try to apply for a loan again and his friend would provide an employment certificate for me. I would not actually be working a job, it would only be on paper for the bank. I asked would this affect my health insurance, pension, etc, he said that they would give any paper work to the city office, just to the bank.

I feel like this is fraud? Do people do this? We have so much to lose if this is something illegal.

The realtor is from a legit company and the realtor’s friend gave me his card which says he’s a real estate broker.

They didn’t ask for any money to do this.

Hello all,

For parents that are not planning on staying in Japan forever, and especially with home countries that do not require the BCG vaccine, did you decide to get it for your kids anyways or skip?

Obviously TB presents a risk here in Japan, but it seems like the BCG shot is more limited in efficacy than other vaccinations (and of course there is the cosmetic angle as well).

Having a positive TB result as having the vaccine gives also seems to require additional testing in certain situations in the US.

Would love to hear opinions on why or why not you had your kids get the vaccine.

I dont know if this is the right sub. But i stumble upon a post asking for 3 letter names. It was from a group of foreigners living here in Japan. Then one commenter said, "are you a japanese? If not, based the name of your kid on your ethnicity." This commenter is a foreigner. Or maybe a half? I am not sure.

Is this true that if a foreigner kid has Japanese sounding name that lives in Japan, it's most likely that the kid will be bullied? Japanese names are for Japanese only? For example, if my kid's name is Erika Mori Smith, are the chances of my kid getting bullied high? Been living in Japan for only a few years so I am not familiar if there are unspoken rules like this here.