Agility in Japan Relocation

 

The second attribute; AGILITY!! 

In Japan relocation, we are continually trying to be agile in the market in these different ways.

 

 

Here are Some Agile Traits

 1.     Respond quickly to threats and opportunities

• Respond quickly to over-capacity and to changes in market demand
• Respond quickly to the threat of large companies
• Respond quickly to innovation

2.     Don’t get too big- with smaller size comes greater flexibility

• Be the best not the biggest
• Operate under the radar of large firms
• Be flexible

3.     Grow your business in accord with your customers changing needs

• Work closely with customers on product design and delivery
• Collaborate closely with customers on special projects
• Develop intimacy with customers through joint ventures and long-term contracts
• Grow your business with innovative products
•  Grow with customized products and services
• Grow via alliances
• Grow by means of integration with your customers infrastructure

4.     Move toward new and promising markets where customers have specialized needs that only you can meet

• Move to new industries
• Move to new concepts
• Move to alternative markets and suppliers
• Move to underserved niches
• Move to creative people

5.     Be an aggressive acquirer, taking advantages of the opportunities to broaden and enhance your product offerings

• Purchase competitors
• Broaden geographic scope
• Purchase for talent and efficiencies

6.     Be sufficiently diversified so that you can compensate for a decline in one segment with strengths in another.

• Diversify into new markets
• Diversify into varied products
• Diversify into new technology
• Diversify into small niches
• Diversify into multiple platforms
• Diversity into related products

 

Great Attributes To Have in Japan Relocation

I have recently been reading a book called "Big Winners and Big Losers", as naturally I wish to be the former and avoid the latter in Japan Relocation! This is a summary of what I have learnt.

I am going to do this across several posts, today being the first.

Great relocation companies have the following attributes;

1.     They have a “Sweet Spot”

2.     They have “Agility”

3.     They have “Discipline”

4.     They have “Focus”

Great companies are also said best to have either one of the 4 following strategies (or may be a combination);

Focused Cost Leadership (ie. low cost orientated); a narrow view and one type of customer

Cost Leadership (ie. low cost orientated); a broad view and many kinds of customers

Focused Differentiation (ie. not cost lead); a narrow view and one type of customer

Differentiation (ie. not cost lead); a broad view and many types of customer

I believe that if you are going to be best relocation company in Japan or any location in the world, you have to put your energy into "Focussed Differentiation".

The four secrets of long term business success are therefore to articulate one of the above approaches, with the 4 attributes as follows;

1.     Position yourself in a sweet spot; be in uncontested space

2.     Move with agility; get out of contested space and into uncontested space

3.     Be "hard-to-imitate" and disciplined; protect your uncontested space

4.     Concentrate and focus; exploit your uncontested space

THE FIRST ATTRIBUTE; SWEET SPOTS

“Sweet spots” can be attained by;

-       Co-designing products with your customers

-       Embedding yourselves in your customer’s infra-structure

-       Being brokers between your customer’s needs and the satisfaction of those needs

Are you just servicing your relocation clients, or are you strategically considering what puts you in a sweet spot as you are servicing your clients? It makes a difference!

Tune in again soon to learn about the 2nd, 3rd and 4th attributes!

Labor Laws in Japan Relocation

Today's post comes to you courtesy of "Kido Conseil"; http://www.kidoconseil.com.

For any labor & employment law issues, I would highly recommend contacting Ms. Emi KIDO on kido@kidoconseil.com. Thank you Emi-san for this great information.

Increase of the Kosei Nenkin (Employees’ Pension) Insurance Rate

The premium rate of the Kosei Nenkin Insurance increased from 16.412% to 16.766% (equally shared between employer and employee: 8.383%) on September 1, 2012.

Minimum hourly wage will be changed as follows from October 1, 2012

Tokyo: 850 JPY

Kanagawa: 849 JPY

Saitama: 771 JPY

Chiba: 756 JPY

Re-employment system after the retirement age

All the employees who request to continue working after their retirement age should be re-employed up to 65 years of age as from April 1, 2013 due to a rise in pension eligibility age. 

The exception can be made for those who are deemed to become incapable of pursuing their duties because of physical or mental injury, etc. The guidelines will state the details.

The transitional measures can be provided in case where the re-employment agreement has been already concluded.

Transitional measures:

April 1, 2013 – March 31, 2016	61 years of age
April 1, 2016 – March 31, 2019	62
April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2022	63
April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2025	64
April 1, 2025 and thereafter	65

Exemption of Health and Employees’ Pension Insurance premiums during Maternity Leave

The employer and the employee are exempt from paying the Health and Employees’ Pension Insurance premiums during the Maternity Leave, as well as during the Childcare Leave. This will be effective within 2 years from August 22, 2012.

Change of the minimum period of Japanese pension coverage

The requirements for a minimum period of Japanese pension coverage will be reduced to 10 years  in lieu of 25 years.  This will be effective as from October 2015. 

Attention is required for filing an application of lump-sum withdrawal payments.  Once the lump-sum withdrawal payments are received, the total coverage periods will no longer be valid to apply for other Japanese benefits.  

Those who meet the requirements of Social Security Agreement between the contracted countries and Japan may be entitled to totalize the coverage periods and receive the benefits. 

The countries totalizing the Japanese coverage periods:

Germany, U.S.A., Belgium, France, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Czech, Spain, Ireland, Brazil and Switzerland (as of August 31, 2012)

Countries under negotiation: Hungry, Luxembourg, India, Sweden and China. 

Japan Relocation in Your Sleep!

Our industry is a very busy one, and many of us have those days when we are sleep deprived. However, sleep deprivation has been shown to damage brain cells.

The below is an excerpt from “Terry Small” who is known in this world as the “Brain Guy”. Thanks for your insights Terry!

Here are seven habits that can steal your sleep:

1.     No caffeine after lunch. Caffeine can stay with you for up to 12 hours leaving you wide awake at bedtime.

General rule: if you need an energy jolt try going for a brisk walk outside.

2.     Unplug. Cozying up to your laptop in bed could disrupt your sleep. The content stimulates your brain. And the emitted blue light mimics daylight. It can stop the production of melatonin - the sleep hormone.

General rule: turn off all gadgets an hour before bedtime.

3.     Exercise early in the day. Exercise is great for reducing stress and this helps sleep. But it also increases your body's core temperature, making it harder to fall asleep.

General rule: exercise at least 2 hours before bedtime. Earlier would be even better.

4.     Downsize dinner. Large meals take a long time to digest, delaying the onset of sleepiness.

General rule: try and make lunch your big meal of the day...or at least eat a bit more for lunch and little bit less in the evening.

5.     Skip the "nightcap". Period.

6.     Don't work in bed. Especially on your computer.

General rule: stop working at least an hour before bedtime.

7.     Sleeping pills? Very sparingly. Better not at all. A recent study reported in the BMJ Open journal found regular sleeping pill users were 4.6 times likelier to die prematurely.

General rule: don't.

8.     Make your bed. The National Sleep Foundation found that 44% of people who make their beds tend to sleep more soundly than those who don't.

General rule: don't leave your bed in a heap.

9.     Sleeping in on the weekend. Wide variations in your sleep-wake cycle can cause insomnia.

General rule: if you are dying for a sleep-in, try and keep it to just an hour more than your normal "get up time".

New Immigration System in Japan -Video Explanation

On July 9th 2012 Japan's new Immigration System will go live, and people need to be aware of what that means to them.  Here is an in depth interview I gave on June 20th where I sum up the important points.  Please have a look and contact me if you have any questions. 




For your convenience, I have copied in the text of my previous blog post on this subject, which includes a brief description, links to official Japanese government source materials (mostly in English), and answer some frequently asked questions.

Japan Relocation and Global Trends

Japan Relocation Amongst The Brookfield 2012 Global Relocation Trends Survey

The bullet points below are highlights that have been copied directly from Brookfield's website; their summary bullet points of their survey. The narration is added to give a Japan perspective.

• 54% of international assignees were relocated to or from the headquarters country, the lowest percentage in the history of this report.

This above shows how third country relocations are on the rise. The Indian IT engineer working for a US company is moved from Tokyo to London....... In Japan, we are seeing a rise in non-traditional relocations of many assignees from Asian decent, working for western companies. Non-traditional relocation programs need to be innovated!

• China, Brazil and India were the most challenging locations for international assignees, not Russia as reported in the past four years. China, Brazil, India and Russia were the most challenging for program managers.

This can be said for Japanese companies too. The H&R Group represents "Lead-S" in China and "Formula Group" in India. We increasingly see more opportunities to help Japanese companies into these locations.

• 54% of company revenues were generated outside the headquarters country, a record high for the past two years, compared to a historical average of 46%.

This is the trend for Japanese companies too. The strong yen is driving business out of Japan, and forcing Japanese to become more global.

• For 85% of the respondents, relocation assignment policy decisions were made globally at headquarters; 8% regionally; and 7% by business division.

This is something that is completely the reverse in Japan. Apart from domestic relocation giant "Relocation International" (part of the Relo Holdings Group) there are few global management options available to Japanese companies, and most companies choose to do things locally "in location".

• At companies where cross-cultural training was offered, it was mandatory at 24% of companies. 85% of respondents rated cross-cultural training as having good or great value.

This is something very much missing in Japanese relocations. There is a strong tendency for Japanese companies and people to continue to run operations like "Japanese" even when they are in Vietnam......I really would like to see a little more "When in Rome do as the Romans do" from our Japanese counterparts.

• 10% of responding companies assist international assignees with elderly family members. Of these companies 64% relocate elderly family members to the assignment location and 55% support international assignee visits to the home country.

This is a big issue for Japan. It is rare for companies to support employees who have elderly family on assignment, and indeed for expats coming to Japan on assignment, there is no dependent visa for elderly family to allow you to have them come with you.

• Respondents indicated that 6% of assignments fail. Top causes for failure are the employee leaves to work for another company; spouse/partner dissatisfaction; other family concerns; and the job does not meet expectations.

This is a statistic that I don't know much about for Japanese assignees. Based on the hierarchical society that Japan is, one would imagine that assignment failure would be less than this 6%. Furthermore for expats in Japan, there is very little "hardship" here, so my gut feeling is that failed assignments are much lower for assignees to Japan. 

There is no denying that our industry is changing in some very challenging ways. Our organization is focussed on positive innovation to meet the changes. We won't get it all right, but we need to innovate on many levels.

Japan Relocation and Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals

The Japanese immigration bureau announced the start of a new “points-based” visa system for “highly skilled foreign professionals” on May 7^th 2012.

To qualify for a visa under the “Designated Activities” category of Japan’s 27 visa categories through this new system you need 70 points. The system is available to 3 kinds of foreign professionals;

1.     Foreign professionals conducting “Academic Research” activities

2.     Foreign professionals conducting  “Advanced Specialized / Technical” activities

3.     Foreign professionals conducting “management” activities

Each of the above 3 “activities” have a clearly defined “points calculation table” based on academic background, research or business experience, promised annual salary, Japanese language proficiency, earning a degree at a higher education institution in Japan and a few other “bonus point” opportunities unique to each of the categories.

For academic research and advanced specialized / technical activities, age is also a factor; the younger you are, the more points you can obtain (this is not applicable to business management).

Through this system, I think it is obvious for all to see that the Japanese Government is looking to target young professionals in academia and technical fields, while try to attract experienced businessmen into management positions in Japan.

THE ADVANTAGES

Using this system, if you score 70 points or more, you receive not only visa status, but also some preferential treatment compared to other medium to long-term visa holders in Japan. This includes;

-       Permission to conduct multiple purposes of activities during your stay

(under other visa categories, your activities are limited to the activities of the stipulated visa category)

-       Relaxation of requirements to obtain “Permanent Residence” in Japan. A minimum of 4.5 years to obtain such status (under the current system, a stay of 10 years is generally required, unless you have a Japanese spouse)

-       The ability to have your spouse work full-time (under the current system, with permission, the maximum you can work is 28 hours per week as a dependent spouse)

-       Permission to have your parents live with you in Japan up to 3-years (there is currently no dependent visa that covers “parents” to allow for them to live with you)

-       Permission to have a domestic servant

THE DISADVANTAGES

There is one large disadvantage and some inconveniences to this new system.

-       The biggest disadvantage is that as this system is administered through the “Designated Activities” visa category that exists as one of the 27 visa categories in Japan, if you do have a working visa through this system and you leave your job to take another position with another company in Japan, you will need to re-apply for the visa with your new organization from scratch. This is not true for the other 26 categories, whereby if you change jobs and stay within the activities stipulated for your visa status, you only need to report the change, but do not lose your visa status.

-       The second disadvantage is that there is quite a lot of paperwork involved in the application. For example, if you have 10-years of experience in the industry, you need to prove that experience by providing 10 years’ worth of “employment certificates” from each of your employers during the 10-year period (or at least enough evidence that adds up to 10 years). How many of you are able to receive an employment certificate from a workplace 10 years ago!

-       Another disadvantage is that you are not guaranteed to be successful with this kind of “Designated Activities” visa, so you a required to make an application for this visa with one of the other “regular 26 visa categories. ie. You need to make an application for two visas at the same time, and if you are successful you will receive this special visa.

I must say that I am impressed with the Immigration Bureau and their willingness to implement new systems such as this. Since 2010 we have seen the “Fast Track System” for large companies in Japan, which enables large companies to push through visa applications much quicker than before, May 7^th 2012 saw this “Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals” system implemented, and then on July 7^th 2012 we will see the implement of the new resident card, which amongst other things will see the maximum period of visas extended from 3 to 5 years.

If you play by the rules in Japan, things are becoming significantly more convenient on the whole.

In closing, in my conversations with the immigration bureau recently two things have become apparent. One is that the DPJ is having a hard time passing any laws, and therefore any radical change in the Immigration System is not going to happen or be recommended. It is for this reason that the new “Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals” point-system has been placed under the “Designated Activities Visa” category. Creating a new visa category would have required laws to be passed, and that is something the DPJ can’t do with any speed right now.

The second item leads on from the first, but it is very evident that the Immigration Bureau recognizes that change in Immigration policy is needed. They are trapped within the political environment, but are doing what they can to move immigration policy forward. Amongst their next plans are goals to reduce visa processing time to a maximum of 10 working days for any visa category, and for immigration policy that will allow for the relaxation of the entry of health care workers from Asia and the rest of the world.

More Than Japan Housing, More Than Japan Cars and Furniture, More than Japan Serviced Apartments, More Than Japan Destination Services, More Than Japan License Conversion, More Than Japan Information!
The H&R Group is MORE THAN RELOCATION!

www.morethanrelo.com

Evaluating Staff in Relocation

Earlier this year, myself and all the managers of the H&R Group- “More Than Relocation”, undertook a seminar on how to better evaluate our staff. Here are some pointers that we were given on the things that you tend to forget……..

1.     THE HELO EFFECT

This is where the employee shines in one particular area, or a number of particular areas, but the “Helo Effect” of these well performed areas leads you to mistakenly believe that the person performs outstandingly in all areas. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

2.     THE CENTER EFFECT

This is whereby many of your evaluations collect in the middle of your evaluation scale. eg, on a scale of 1-5, you score many of your employees a score of 3. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

3.     THE HIGH-LOW EFFECT

This is whereby you tend to be overly kind or overly strict to the employees you are evaluating. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

4.     THE SIMILAR EFFECT

This is whereby you take like sections of the evaluation and assume that they are all the same. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

5.     THE COMPARISON EFFECT

This is whereby you compare the evaluation of the employee to yourself. eg. You are poor at using excel, so you evaluate the person highly when they are more skilled at using excel. Or you are extra-ordinarily good at something, so you evaluate the person lowly, because they are not. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

6.     THE WRONG PERIOD EFFECT

This is where you mistakenly evaluate someone on the wrong evaluation period. eg. You evaluate them lowly on a particular area because they made a big mistake last year, when in actual fact you are supposed to be evaluating their performance this year. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

7.     THE RECENT MEMORY EFFECT

This is whereby you mistakenly evaluate somebody on what they have achieved recently that you remember, and not necessarily what they have achieved over the entire evaluation period. If the evaluation period is significantly long (eg. more than 3 months), it is advisable to write things down, so you don’t forget what has been achieved or not. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

8.     THE BACK DATING EFFECT

Once the evaluation has been completed, this is where you go back and revise the evaluation, so as a “fixed score” is received. This defeats the objectivity of the evaluation you conducted. You must review all performance areas independently and objectively, and seek the reality of the situation at all times.

Are you guilty of committing one of the evaluation crimes above on your relocation staff?

I know that I certainly have been in the past. It is a good idea to read the above before you conduct a relocation staff evaluation!

In closing, the best thing you can do to assist in making an objective evaluation that is free of bias, is to clearly articulate the goals at goal setting time. Much of the dis-belief and mis-trust that is created mutually between evaluators and the staff being evaluated is caused by a mis-interpretation of what the original goals were. ie. The manager thought the goal (output) was one thing, but the staff member thought the goal (output) was something different. This happens due to poor and unclear goal setting. If you set goals that are as “clear as daylight”, it is not possible for this mis-interpretation to occur. eg. I will “achieve sales of JPY XXX with my team”, or “I will train Mary so that she can do X, Y and Z without supervision and any mistakes”. Goals must be “concrete” and they must describe the desired output at the end of the evaluation period!

More Than Japan Housing, More Than Japan Cars and Furniture, More than Japan Serviced Apartments, More Than Japan Destination Services, More Than Japan License Conversion, More Than Japan Information!
The H&R Group is MORE THAN RELOCATION!

www.morethanrelo.com

Trends in Relocation- Japan- Mid 2012

Over the past few months, I have attended a number of relocation conferences and other seminars, and on the basis of them, here are the trends that I currently see in the relocation space in Japan.

1.     Increased Short-Term Assignments and Rotational Work

After the 3/11 earthquake, we are seeing much more activity in Japan on a “project basis”. While there might be long-term agendas, assignments are only taking a short-term view to deal with the volatility of safety (nuclear issues, etc) and the economic insecurity of the world. Often, assignments will then either be extended, or someone else will rotate in to take over.

2.     More Assignees are Coming from “Emerging” or “Developing” Markets

You can definitely see this trend in all the main centers of Japan. There are more assignees coming from developing Asian countries, and there are more and more Japanese companies wishing to employ such people. This creates a new dynamic for relocation service provision, as this kind of mobility is very different to the “relocating US expat”, for example.

3.     Increased Emphasis Placed on “Value” in Service Provision

While there is continued downward pressure on the price of all services in the mobility market, cost is definitely not everything, and increasingly “value” is being demanded in hand with cost.

“Today the game is based on your ability to help solve significant business problems for clients. If you want to play, you competitive advantage should help your clients make money, save money, or add value to their organization”.

4.     More One-Way Permanent Transfers

We have definitely seen this trend in relocation in Japan in the last 12 months. After the 3/11 earthquake, we have seen a lot of expats return to their home countries, and in exchange, have seen many people returning to take up “local hire” positions in Japan, who have in the past had some strong link with Japan. Often that link is a Japanese spouse, but it is also often past experience in Japan, or experience in working at a Japanese company overseas. This is not just happening in “local hire” cases, but we also see many “traditional assignments” to Japan in this last year whereby the “assignee” has had some strong past relationship with Japan; although this could be due to a medium to long term view to be transferred onto a local employment contract.

5.     Increase in “Split Assignments”

This is happening more and more in other Asian countries, but also happens a little here in Japan too. The family is based in Tokyo; the spouse and children reside in Tokyo, while the expat himself is assigned to other cities in Japan (and we are seeing more relocations into remote areas), or maybe working in other cities in Asia. I feel that Japan should sit up and consider this phenomenon more. With the security available in “life in Japan”, there is a good case for having Japan (Tokyo) as the base, but then having your expats travel into other locations as needed. A little bit of wisdom would see international schools and the relocation industry getting together to make this more viable.

Japan Relocation- New Immigration System

As many are aware, July 9th 2012 will see the introduction of a new Immigration System in Japan.

There are two main changes;

1. The Alien Registration System is changing to a "Resident Card" system (the responsibility of the Immigration Bureau of the Justice Ministry)

2. Foreigners will now be registered on the "Residence Record" or "juminhyo" (the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)

In typical bureaucratic fashion, because 2 ministries are involved in the change, foreigners in Japan are not getting all the information at once. They are getting it in part from the Justice Ministry and in part from the Ministry of Internal Affairs

The following are some links to information on the new system. Best you read these directly.

Change to Residence Card
www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/ (Japanese)
www.immi-moj.go.jp/newimmiact_1/en/index.html (English)

Change to Residence Record (juminhyo)
www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/jichi_gyousei/c-gyousei/pdf/jpn_poster.pdf (Japanese)
www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/jichi_gyousei/c-gyousei/pdf/eng_poster.pdf (English)

Here are some frequently asked questions for your reference;

I am in Japan now and I have an alien registration card. By when do I have to change my card?
You have 3 years from July 9th to change your card. If you wish to change immediately, you can do so at the Immigration Bureau. Otherwise, there is no need to rush. Your alien registration card will "act" as the new residence card until you change over. Most people will need to have their visa renewed within those 3 years, and at that time your new residence card would be issued (you can't renew your visa and hold onto your alien registration card)

I am coming to Japan after the change. Where will I get my card and what is the process?
If you are coming to Japan on a visa with a status of residence that is longer than 3 months, you will receive your residence card at the airport in Tokyo (Narita and Haneda), Nagoya (Centrair) or Osaka (Kansai Airport). The card will apparently take 2-3 minutes to prepare in addition to the other finger printing, photographs and other administration you undergo on arrival. The card that is issued will NOT have your address printed on it. Within 14 days you need to go to your local government office and register your address. At this time the address will be written on the back of the card, and then you will be asked to complete the "Residence Record (juminhyo)" details also. This puts you on the local register of people, and has links to your health insurances, pension, etc.

What happens if I don't come to Japan through Narita, Haneda, Nagoya or Kansai Airports?
You will NOT be issued with a card at the airport, but will still need to report to your local authority within 14 days. At this time you will lodge your address, and then also complete your "Residence Record (juminhyo)" details. The local authority will then send your details to the Immigration Bureau who will issue your card and send it to the address you have lodged. This process might take 2-3 weeks.

Do I need to submit photos for my card?
If you are coming to Japan for the first time on a mid-long term visa (ie. not a 90-day one), you will have sent in photos on your visa applications. These photos will be scanned and used on your residence card. Therefore, there is no need to supply a photo at the airport, as it will already be in the Immigration Bureau system. If you are renewing your visa, your renewal application will require you to provide a photograph (this will change, as photographs aren't required currently). This photo will be scanned and used on your card.

Can I change my alien registration card to my residence card at one of the 4 main airports?
No, you can't. This may change in the future, but as of now, the only people who will receive their residence card at the airport are people that are newly coming to Japan on a new mid-long term visa.

Can I make changes to my alien registration card without getting a new residence card?
From July 9th, the only change that your local goverment office can make on your alien registration card or your residence card is your "address". If anything else changes, you need to report to the Immigration Bureau to make the change, and automatically your alien registration card will be changed to the new residence card.

Do I have to report in person about changes in my employer?
No, you don't need to report in person for this, as your employer will no longer be listed on your residence card. However, if you don't report in person, you do need to submit a form to the immigration bureau by post, to notify the change.

The new Residence Card does not show my passport number. Do I need to report changes in this?
To the immigration bureau, no, your passport number will not be needed. However, it is likely that your passport number will be taken by the local authorities when you are making your "Residence Record". In fact, under this new system, except for the first time when you arrive in Japan, status of residence will no longer be issued by way of a stamp in your passport. Under the new system, your Residence Card will be everything, and your visa status will not appear in your passport (apart from the very first time you arrive). So, everytime you renew your "visa (status of residence)" you will be issued with a new Residence Card.
* It is going to be quite important, therefore, that you always have your residence card with you when you are travelling back to Japan. At the airline check in, they will no longer be able to verify your visa status in your passport!

The new Residence Card contains an IC Chip. What information will be on the IC Chip?
Under Japanese Law, they are only allowed to record on the IC Chip the information that is written on the card. There will be not other private information listed on the card.

What is the point of the IC Chip on the card?
The IC Chip will enable authorities and 3rd parties to verify that the information written on the card is actually correct. ie. This is to protect residence cards from being forged.

Who will be able to read the information on the IC Chip?
Anyone who has a "reader" will be able to view the information. Obviously, readers will be provided by the Immigration Bureau to all their offices, to all airports and to the police. The "readers" will also be sold to anyone who wishes to have one. One can imagine that banks and perhaps mobile phone providers will initially be the type of places who will buy the "readers". I guess you can say the "readers" will be similar machines to those that we are used to at train stations now, where station staff can see the records of where your train pass has been (eg pasmo or suica in Tokyo).

What is the biggest time saver of this new system?
The biggest time saver for new arrivals to Japan is that you won't need to get a re-entry permit. As long as you are going to be coming back to Japan within 12 months, you will be exempt from needing a re-entry permit. This means you won't need to travel to the Immigration Bureau for re-ntry permit procedures like you do now. All you need to do is report to your local ward office.

Should you have any further questions about the new system, please don't hesitate to send me an email; steve_burson@morethanrelo.com.

More Than Japan Housing, More Than Japan Cars and Furniture, More than Japan Serviced Apartments, More Than Japan Destination Services, More Than Japan License Conversion, More Than Japan Information!
The H&R Group is MORE THAN RELOCATION!

www.morethanrelo.com