The popular auction site Mercari is asking me lots of probing questions. Is it, perchance, a clandestine branch of the Japanese government?

Japan, it turns out, has lots of paperwork. Citizens are somehow able to jet right past the formalities, be they printed forms in...

Japan imposes a six-month waiting period on foreign resident bank accounts. Nihon Plus You’s new white paper explains the reasons why...

If you have spent any length of time in Japan, you have encountered name stamps, those handheld seals used to mark documents. Embossing a...

Anyone who cares about Japan and its people knows that it is going through some demographic turbulence right now. A large baby-boom popul...

I participate in a variety of online groups where foreigners living in Japan mingle to discuss their experiences. Recently, in one such g...

Once upon a time, there was a young American boy who grew up to become a handsome prince. Oh wait, this isn’t a fairy tale. That young...

In Shakespeare’s most famous romantic tragedy, Juliet tells her lover Romeo, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other na...

This Monday, March 13, was a bright day in Japan, not just from the increasingly springlike weather, but also because of a newfound facia...

A core requirement of many grown-up activities in Japan is having a savings account. But there are some adults—law-abiding, financially s...

When I first arrived in Japan, getting a driver’s license was a piece of cake. I moved from a place that had a full reciprocal agreement ...

When foreigners first move to Japan, they typically enter the “honeymoon” phase. During those first months or years, “God’s in his heaven...

I was told this day would come, the moment when the honeymoon with Japan would end and the scales that kept me from seeing the reality of...

As March arrives in Japan, many people across the country are wishing away the brisk air and looking forward to flowering cherry-blossom ...

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I had to visit city hall back in the United States. Not so in Japan. In the few year...

Today I am going to introduce you to the major political parties in Japan. Don’t get too excited; as is the case with other countries, th...

You can’t avoid death or taxes, and if you are an American citizen or recognized alien, you can’t avoid reporting your Japanese bank acco...

One of the things I looked forward to most about moving to Japan was the chance to get my very own hanko (ハンコ) name stamp, complete with ...