New Residency Management System

[Hugh Jørgen]

Remember, they take your photo at immigration now. I doubt they'd use passport photos as they could be pretty old.

I look a fright.

I kid, I kid. But, at least you are in the same time zone when you go back to Oz, or at worst an hour difference either way. Going to Western Europe and North America is a nightmare when night become day...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

WHY DO YOU THINK WE PUT WARNINGS ON ALL JT LINKS ?


Those guys makes youtube comment posters look like rocket surgeons...

Totally off topic warning
This thread made me sit up and take notice. The following comment was posted on an Oz news site this morning...


...."why can you sponsor a kid in Africa for $1 a day and they get everything but here we get bugger all for that?"

[Russell]

Elizabeth looks pretty cool after such a long flight.

[Russell]

Glitch leaves new IDs lacking key signature

A computer glitch forced many foreign residents to receive their new "zairyu" residence cards without the electronic signature of the justice minister Monday, the first day the Immigration Bureau began issuing the IDs to replace alien registration cards.

The cards without the minister's electronic signature are valid and will pose no inconvenience for their holders, the ministry said Tuesday, although the signature is meant to prevent counterfeiting.

"Counterfeiting the cards is extremely difficult even without the signature," bureau spokeswoman Eriko Tanizawa said.

The glitch in the system to imprint the electronic signature was not fixed Tuesday, so immigration offices nationwide continued issuing the cards without it, she said.

The Immigration Bureau was trying to calculate how many foreign residents received the cards without the signature. Some opted to wait and receive their card with the signature by mail, Tanizawa said.

The ministry has yet to decide whether to ask the people who got a card without the signature to get a replacement later, or how and when to replace them should replacement be deemed necessary, she said.

The glitch started after the bureau began issuing the new registration cards Monday, causing many foreigners who had flocked to immigration offices nationwide to wait until cards without the signature started to be issued after around 1 p.m., according to Tanizawa.

The new immigration control system that began Monday is meant to consolidate the administrative processing of foreign residents under the Immigration Bureau instead of having municipal governments handle some of the administrative work.

Eight regional bureaus, six district immigration offices and 63 branch offices are issuing the residence cards. Applicants visit the venues, fill out an application and receive the card the same day.

Foreigners arriving in Japan through Narita International Airport, Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, Central Japan International Airport and Kansai International Airport are being asked to obtain a residence card at the airport, unless they enter on a tourist visa.

Those who enter via other locations will be asked to go to their nearest local immigration office in 14 days after their address in Japan is determined.

Link

[vanpa]

Foreigners arriving in Japan through Narita International Airport, Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, Central Japan International Airport and Kansai International Airport are being asked to obtain a residence card at the airport, unless they enter on a tourist visa.

Presumably this only applies to people coming in on a new visa. I reentered via Narita last week with my existing visa, no mention was made of any cards, old or new.

Meanwhile, went to the kuyakusho this morning with the Mrs. to register a change of address (yay), turns out we of mixed marriage persuasion can now do our business in the same place as the kokumin, though the foreigner section is still open for those of pure gaikokujin persuasion. I am now on the same juminhyou as the Mrs., which I suppose is kind of nice, however the kuyakusho people are still not up to speed on the process and had to keep going back and forth cross-checking stuff. I also had to remind them to update the address on my ARC, which they did, but it turned out when I took it to the bank they'd left off the "item number" identifying whether it's a home or work address.

[cstaylor]

A computer glitch forced many foreign residents to receive their new "zairyu" residence cards without the electronic signature of the justice minister Monday, the first day the Immigration Bureau began issuing the IDs to replace alien registration cards.

Idiots. And by idiots I mean the tech guys who didn't have the most important part of the system in place when they went live: the PKI.

Hopefully when Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan, they'll hire the same bozo dev team.

[chokonen888]

Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan

Sadly, I think that is a reality...seems like the only thing they can do to keep We Japanese in their own universe.

[Gaspard de Coligny]

Idiots. And by idiots I mean the tech guys who didn't have the most important part of the system in place when they went live: the PKI.

Hopefully when Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan, they'll hire the same bozo dev team.

We need a new rule for the code of conduct on this server...

The : "DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS" rule...

Forbidding to post anything that could give the shmucks in the JGov ideas to make things even worse in this shithole...

[cstaylor]

Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan

Sadly, I think that is a reality...seems like the only thing they can do to keep We Japanese in their own universe.

I've already got a nickname for it: "The Galapagos Shield".

"Raise the Galapagos shield, Mr. Tanaka! Incoming gaiatsu!"

[JLR]

I'm off to Thailand for Obon - will update you on our return via Narita.
.

Hope there is no flooding here when ya arrive!

[chokonen888]

Idiots. And by idiots I mean the tech guys who didn't have the most important part of the system in place when they went live: the PKI.

Hopefully when Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan, they'll hire the same bozo dev team.

We need a new rule for the code of conduct on this server...

The : "DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS" rule...

Forbidding to post anything that could give the shmucks in the JGov ideas to make things even worse in this shithole...

S'ok Coligny, the Eigo firewall prevents them from getting anything we post here

[Hugh Jørgen]

Idiots. And by idiots I mean the tech guys who didn't have the most important part of the system in place when they went live: the PKI.

Hopefully when Japan implements her Great Firewall of China Japan, they'll hire the same bozo dev team.

We need a new rule for the code of conduct on this server...

The : "DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS" rule...

Forbidding to post anything that could give the shmucks in the JGov ideas to make things even worse in this shithole...

S'ok Coligny, the Eigo firewall prevents them from getting anything we post here

Same interview from yesterday in the beautiful car thread, different quote...

One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world.

Good design is invisible: an interview with iA's Oliver Reichenstein

[Gaspard de Coligny]

Same interview from yesterday in the beautiful car thread, different quote...

One reason why Japanese web and app design feels weak is that technology requires good active and passive knowledge of English. English is the lingua franca of contemporary web and app development, both of our tools and our discourse. Even if you master English-based Objective-C or JavaScript, if you are not able to communicate with the international community of developers and designers, you miss out on what is desirable, even what is possible. Japanese developers and designers that don’t speak English are trapped within the relatively low level of tech and design that currently reigns in the Japanese corporate world.

Good design is invisible: an interview with iA's Oliver Reichenstein

That's why i'm taditionnally scared to death by any japanese software or device driver... those guys should not be allowed anywhere near a keyboard...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

That's why i'm taditionnally scared to death by any japanese software or device driver... those guys should not be allowed anywhere near a keyboard...

They're not the only ones...

[cstaylor]

those guys should not be allowed anywhere near a keyboard...

[Russell]

That's why i'm taditionnally scared to death by any japanese software or device driver... those guys should not be allowed anywhere near a keyboard...

Funny, I have similar experiences with tailor-made corporate software here.

In my place of work all administrative systems software have a negative productivity. To make matters worse, every administration section has its own (badly designed) software, and tries to force their shit upon us who have to do the real work.

[Hugh Jørgen]

Will be traveling soon, and had a question about the new system that didn't seem to be answered in any of the info provided thus far. Did some checking, and got the same vague reassurances this blogger did. Lucky for me, he kept checking:

The Devil Is in the Details, And Immigration Doesn’t Say Much about the Devil

So I am leaving for a business trip to the U.S. soon, and Japan has just adjusted its immigration laws and procedures. One welcome change: re-entry permits are no longer required.

However, there are other details as well. Rules are different between regular visa holders and those with permanent residency. And there’s a new “Residence” card to replace the “Alien Registration Card.”

I have not had time to get the new card, and after all, I am not required to change until 2015. My last re-entry permit expired, but they say you don’t have to have one any more. Feeling my “Gaijin-ey Sense” tingling, I wanted to make sure: if I travel outside of Japan without a new Residence card and without an old-fashioned re-entry permit, am I still OK?

I called Immigration in Shinagawa to make sure, and they said “yes.” I called the Narita office, and they repeated the same thing. Still paranoid, I called the main immigration office again and spoke with a supervisor. Same answer.

Just to be on the safe side, I spoke with an advisory center for foreigners, who told me the same thing, but added one tiny little detail: on the embarkation-disembarkation card they have you fold inside your passport, a new check box has been added: it reads, “みなし再入国許可” and “Departure with Special Re-entry Permission.”

If you don’t check that box, you lose your visa status, including your permanent residence status.

I called Narita once more after learning that, and they gave me the same vague reassurances they had before. I asked if there was anything else, they said “no.” I then asked about the check box. The guy said, “Oh yes, You have to do that too.”

Well, thanks for giving me the heads-up on that...

[cstaylor]

Well, the bureaucrats need some way to get their deportation numbers up...

[Russell]

I suppose they won't let you loose your visa over failing to check the box, though you never know. TIJ.

Makes me wonder what the use is of this box. Probably everyone, including people leaving Japan for good, will check this box, just to be sure.

[omae mona's ghost]

They're being VERY nice about explaining this at Narita. I still have about 11 months left on my multiple-reentry permit. The officer pointed out that I could stay out of the country for 12 months instead of 11 if I use the checkbox, if I recall. So she had me check it. You know, just in case my 1 week trip somehow got extended to 11 months and 1 week. Once you've checked it, they put a stamp on the back of the disembarkation card (which is stapled into your passport until you return). I can't remember exactly what the stamp said, since the card was removed when I returned to Japan.

I don't think they're going to let people screw this up. But you never know...