RetireJapan

Thanks! That's a good point. I was thinking I didn't actually need another credit card, but I guess it would be more flexible.

On balance I've always had the impression that MasterCard is a bit of an outlier in Japan, so I plan to go with VISA as the 'safe' option.

I've been shifting a lot of my banking to Rakuten Bank and I'm now considering which debit card to get. They offer several flavours of MasterCard and VISA, and I'm wondering if there's any particular merit in choosing one over the other. The basic versions of both seem to offer the same advantages i...

I'm mostly using mine for online payments, but I've used it at Mr. Max with no problems. Regular self-checkout and not touch-to-pay, which I haven't tried.

Thanks Kuma! I would think that a dedicated workspace doesn't need to be big, or even perfectly well-defined – just reasonably accurate and defensible. So if you use 5% of your space for work, I'd think that should be fine. I've always used the white form for tax filing (shiroiro shinkoku, 白色申告) bec...

I've always worked from home as a freelancer, partly (significantly?) because laptops weren't much of an option when I started out (1989–90), and it seems that my early experiences created what I'm used to in a working environment. I've been 100% freelance in Japan for about 20 years now, working ou...

Not recent, but just to increase the available data: I applied in February 2006 and it came through in September of the same year. They stamped my passport with the application date and number, but didn't keep anything.