SIETAR Japan sees a time for intercultural understanding
SIETAR Japan seeks to promote intercultural communication through lectures and workshops, special interest group meetings, an annual conference, retreats and social gatherings.
I want a divorce in Japan, but what about child custody and my mortgage?
A reader writes in with a query about the all-too-familiar subject of divorce, along with a related question about his ...
My company didn't enroll me in the Japanese social insurance program. What to do?
A non-Japanese worker wrote to Lifelines with some questions about the shakai hoken social insurance system.
Readers reach out to lost friends and family in Japan
Another of our occasional "in search of" columns featuring people hoping for a blast from their pasts, along with an update on efforts to help children and parents in international abduction cases.
A primer on navigating your ID landscape
A number of changes to Japanese ID registration systems have been implemented in recent years, some of them for everyone in Japan and others pertinent only to foreign nationals. The ins and outs can be a bit confusing, particularly for those who have been ...
Advice on HIV tests, Japanese pensions, rugby and reuniting with kids
Lifelines works through a selection of topics that have come our way recently.
Type 1 diabetic travelers to Japan, be prepared
Traveling to Japan with Type 1 diabetes can be tough, but only if you allow it to be.
New minpaku law will alter Japan's rental and hospitality landscape
A new law will go into effect in June to regulate minpaku, private residences rented out by their owners as short-term lodgings. To most, the new law will address changes that have occurred in recent years due to the rise of Airbnb, the ...
From Tohoku to Tokyo, Acchi Cocchi NPO offers healing through art
Acchi Cocchi brings music, dance and the visual arts into everyday life in Tohoku and the greater Tokyo area.
Doling out some truths about Japan's 'share houses'
Many Japanese people are wary of investment as a means of growing their savings. There are a variety of reasons for this caution, so most keep their money in a bank, gaining almost no interest in the process, in the hope that they won't ...
What Trump's tax reforms mean for Americans in Japan
Changes under the U.S. Republican administration are likely to affect the bottom line for individuals and companies here alike.
Condo management is in need of repairs
On Dec. 18, the Supreme Court's petit bench ruled against a man from Fukuoka Prefecture who was suing the management association (kanri kumiai) of his condominium for firing him as its president of the board (rijicho) because the regulations of the association contained no ...
Bringing the great outdoors to Japan's underserved children
Almost 39,000 children are under government supervision in Japan, and 85 percent are institutionalized in various homes around the nation, according to Human Rights Watch. Last August, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare made good on its 2016 revisions to the Child Welfare ...
Can I sue in Japan to get back the money I spent on my former fiancee?
Does a reader who spent $20,000 on his fiancee have legal grounds to sue her now she has called the whole thing off? Well, that depends.
Teething troubles in tapping into Japan pensions from abroad
While the easing of eligibility rules is welcome news, reading about it is one thing and actually tapping into the system is another.
