Getting money into and out of Japan has never been easy. Since about two years ago, it’s been much harder. Banks everywhere have taken a policy of vetting every transfer — and the person and account making it — extremely carefully.

Hobbies are important. They help to take your mind off the more stressful aspects of life (like work) and they can also give life a rich sense of purpose and achievement.

The best way to begin freelancing in Japan is to just start doing whatever it is you do — as long as this is allowed under your visa.

It is an unfortunate reality that Japan is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.

When I was a child, we’d often play by drawing our own characters on paper. None of the heroes and villains we drew were really any good, since we were all children, but I had quite a lot of fun like that back in the day.
Have you had any experiences like this?

In Japan, the Kanto region attracts the vast majority of people on account of the plentiful jobs and the convenience of living in one of the world’s most dynamic and modern cities. However, despite Tokyo’s huge size, newcomers may need to think small when choosing where to live.

In this article we are going to look at Japan’s postal system and introduce some key post office vocabulary. There are around 24,000 post offices in Japan, which are operated by the Japan Post company (called 日本郵便 or Nippon Yūbin in Japanese).