The Atarashift Blog
Insights for working in Japan
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
The Atarashift Blog
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
Register your address within 14 days of moving in, not of landing. The order that works for residence card, insurance, My Number, bank and phone.
The most urgent of the things to do after arriving in Japan is registering your address at the local ward or city office. You must do it within 14 days of settling on a home, and that clock does not start at the airport. It starts on the day you move into the place you will live.
Almost everything else depends on that one visit, because your bank, phone contract, health insurance and My Number all need a registered address first. Get the order right and your first two weeks take about three office visits. Get it wrong and you will queue at the same counters twice.
This guide walks through each step in the order that works, with the legal deadlines and the documents to bring.
Here is the full sequence at a glance, ordered by what unlocks what rather than by how urgent each step feels.
| Step | Where | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Collect your residence card | Airport, on arrival | Same day |
| 2. Register your address | Ward or city office | 14 days after moving in |
| 3. Join health insurance and pension (if not via work) | Same office, same visit | 14 days |
| 4. Get copies of your juminhyo | Same office, same visit | None |
| 5. Receive your My Number | By post | 2-3 weeks after step 2 |
| 6. Open a bank account | Bank branch or app | None |
| 7. Get a phone contract | Carrier shop or online | None |
| 8. Hand paperwork to your employer | Your HR team | Before first payday |
The rest of this guide takes each step in turn.
You clear immigration with the visa your embassy issued, and at ten airports you also receive your residence card on the spot. Those airports are New Chitose, Sendai, Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Kobe, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Naha.
A residence card (zairyu card) is the ID card every mid- to long-term foreign resident must carry. It shows your status, your period of stay and, soon, your address. Carry it at all times, since police can ask to see it.
If you land anywhere else, the officer stamps your passport and notes that the card will be delivered once you register your address.
Before you leave the counter, confirm that your name, date of birth and status match your passport and visa. An error is far easier to correct at the airport than later.
If your status is Engineer/Specialist in Humanities or similar, this is the end of a long application process. Our guide to the Certificate of Eligibility covers the months before this point.
Go to the ward office (kuyakusho) or city office (shiyakusho) that covers your new home, taking your residence card and passport. The visit does two jobs at once.
Staff print your address on the back of the card, and that printed address is what banks and phone shops will look for.
It starts on the day you establish your residence, not the day you land. The Immigration Services Agency (ISA) words the deadline as "within 14 days from the date you established your residence."
This matters if you spend your first week in a hotel, which is not usually treated as a residence. Your 14 days begin once you move into your apartment or company housing.
There are two separate risks, and they run on different clocks. Which one should worry you more?
Missing the 14-day deadline can bring a penalty of up to ¥200,000 under the Immigration Control Act. In practice, offices usually process a late filing, sometimes with a written explanation. Do not rely on that.
Missing 90 days is far more serious. When we analyzed ISA's list of revocation grounds, one applies directly to new arrivals. If you have not registered an address within 90 days of landing, without good reason, your status of residence can be cancelled.
So a slow apartment search is not a minor inconvenience. If you are still in temporary accommodation a month in, contact the ward office. Ask whether you can register there, since some short-term rentals qualify.
Yes, everyone living in Japan must be covered, so the only question is which insurance scheme you join.
If you are a full-time employee, your employer enrols you in its own scheme, known as shakai hoken. You do nothing about health insurance at the ward office. Our guide to shakai hoken explains the contributions and coverage.
If you are not on an employer scheme, you must join National Health Insurance at the ward office. That applies to freelancers, business owners, students and people between jobs, for example. City offices ask you to do it within 14 days, so do it at the same visit as your address.
Delay costs money, because coverage is backdated to the day you became eligible and you pay premiums for those weeks anyway. Any doctor's bills before you enrol are fully out of pocket.
People aged 20 to 59 who are not on an employer pension must also join the National Pension, usually at the same counter.
A juminhyo is a certificate of residence issued from the municipal resident register. It lists your name, address and household, and banks, phone carriers, schools and employers often ask for a copy.
Ask for two or three copies while you are at the counter, at a few hundred yen each depending on the city. Confirm whether you need your My Number shown on it, since most organisations do not want it.
My Number is your 12-digit individual identification number for taxation, social insurance and disaster relief. You do not apply for it, since it is assigned when you register your address.
The number arrives on a paper notification, sent by simple registered mail. Official guidance says it usually takes two to three weeks. Someone must sign for it, so watch for a missed-delivery slip and collect the letter from the post office.
Your employer needs the number for payroll tax and social insurance, so hand it over as soon as it arrives.
You can then apply for a My Number Card, the photo identification version. The first card is free and takes about a month. It is optional, but it works as photo ID and can replace your health insurance card.
Bank first, in most cases. Both need your registered address, but they also tend to need each other.
The usual way out is a prepaid or eSIM plan from day one, which gives you a number for bank applications. Once the account is open, switch to a monthly contract paid from it.
Banks differ on how long you must have lived here before they will open an account. Our guide to opening a bank account compares the options available to new arrivals.
Your HR department will send its own list, but expect to provide most of these.
Most employers pay monthly and need your bank account before the first payday, which sets a deadline for step 6. Ask HR early when payroll closes.
You do not need a separate permit for short trips abroad. A special re-entry permit lets most residents leave and return within one year without applying in advance.
To use it, tick the box on the embarkation card when you leave. If you forget the box, your status ends the moment you depart. Absences longer than a year require a standard re-entry permit, obtained from immigration before departure.
The same 14-day rule applies every time you move. If you change city or ward, file a moving-out notice at your old office first, then register at the new one within 14 days.
A job change carries its own 14-day notification to immigration. Our guide to what happens to your visa if you lose your job covers it.
Your second June brings one more surprise. Residence tax is billed a year in arrears, so your payslips shrink once it starts. Our guide to income tax for foreigners explains why.
Fourteen days from the day you establish your residence, not from the day you land. You register at the ward or city office for that address, presenting your residence card.
The law allows a fine of up to ¥200,000, though offices usually just process late filings. The real risk comes at 90 days. If you have not registered by then without good reason, your status can be revoked.
Usually not, since a hotel is not normally treated as a residence. Some short-term rentals and serviced apartments can be registered. Ask the ward office if your housing search is running long.
At the airport, if you land at one of ten airports, including Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Fukuoka. Otherwise, it is delivered to your registered address after you complete the ward office registration.
The notice usually arrives by registered mail two to three weeks after you register your address. A My Number Card, the optional photo ID, takes about another month after you apply.
Not for the steps in this guide. Most banks now accept a signature, and ward offices do not need one. Some employers and landlords still ask, so it can be worth having one made.
Address rules come from the Immigration Services Agency pages on address notification after entry and on procedures at ports and city offices. The latter lists the ten airports that issue residence cards. The 90-day revocation ground is item 8 on ISA's page on revocation of status. The ¥200,000 penalty is in Article 71-3 of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
My Number delivery times come from the My Number Card website run for the government. The 14-day window for National Health Insurance follows city guidance, for example Nagoya's. The special re-entry permit is from ISA's page on the special re-entry permit.
Each deadline was fact-checked against these primary pages. This article is general information, not legal advice. Local offices differ in detail, so check your own ward's website. Information retrieved 28 September 2026.
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