Alien Registration and Re-Entry–Japan

For anyone who has lived for a long period of time in Japan, the whole Alien Registration Card and Re-Entry Permit process are both entertaining little bits of administrative annoyance that you have to deal with in life.

If you live in Japan for over 3 months you are required to go to your local city hall/ward office to register as an alien. You are then issues with your ARC, which you are required by law to keep with you at all times. Any change to your contact details, employment etc must be reported so that the card can be updated. None of this is online and wait times are 3 weeks for the initial card.

Then, say your like me and you have your 3 year visa, you technically aren’t allowed to leave the country and renter unless you apply for a re-entry visa to do so. Kinda strange no? who comes in to a country on a 3 year visa without the expectation of ever leaving? Even for a holiday? Not so many people I would have thought!

Well the other day we hiked out to the Tokyo immigration department office (on a man-made island in the middle of no where… the reasoning for such positioning is beyond your scribes imagination) only to find out that the law is changing and that we didn’t need to make an application based on the information that we had submitted.

So for people who are in the same boat – there are new laws coming into place – the Alien Registration Card is being abolished – to be replaced by a new card (of almost identical name) which will be issues at the airport when people enter the country.

So no more going to the local ward office to get the card. Though worse than that is that the new card will require you to go to the immigration office to update details it would seem. This really sucks given its in the middle of no where!

Also, for the new card, re-entry permits appear to no longer be required where you will renter within 1 year of your departure. No bad eh! For the purchase of transition an ARC will be considered to be one of the new cards until its expiration.

More information is as per the link below.

http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/en/index.html

New laws start 1 July 2012.

naked tourism?! good old americans! :)

Image via Wikipedia

A NAKED American tourist raised eyebrows when he went for a walk through a German city and told police he thought this was acceptable behaviour in Germany.

“We have been having unusually hot weather here lately but, all the same, we can’t have this,” a spokesman for police in the southern city of Nuremberg said today.

“The man said he thought walking around naked was tolerated in Germany.”

Many Germans enjoy nude sunbathing which is allowed in public parks. The 41-year-old was carrying his clothes in a bag when police stopped him yesterday evening after complaints from pedestrians.

The tourist was not under the influence of drugs, said police. They made him get dressed and pay a €200 ($329) deposit pending his investigation for indecent behaviour.