The whole sprint, on one screen
Half the pain of arriving is that each errand needs the previous one already done. You cannot enrol in health insurance without an address on file. You cannot open most bank accounts without a residence card and often a phone. You cannot get most phone plans without the card. The order is not a suggestion. It is the dependency chain.
- 01Residence card. Handed to you at a major airport on landing, or mailed after you register.
- 02Ward office, within 14 days. Register your address, enrol in health insurance and pension, trigger My Number.
- 03My Number notice. Arrives by mail a few weeks after you register.
- 04Phone or SIM. A real number unlocks the bank and almost everything else.
- 05Bank account. Bring the residence card, your registered address, a phone number, and a hanko if asked.
- 06Hanko. A personal seal, still wanted for some contracts even in 2026.
The card you must carry by law
If your status of residence is over three months, you get a residence card (在留カード). Land at New Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Hiroshima, or Fukuoka and an officer prints it and hands it to you right after immigration. Land anywhere else, or arrive by sea, and the card is mailed to your home after you file your address at the ward office. So the first errand depends on where your plane touches down.
From age 16 you are legally required to carry the card at all times. Police can ask to see it. Treat it like your passport, because for life inside Japan it is more useful than one. Every step below asks for it.
- 01Check the front for your name, status, period of stay, and whether you are permitted to work.
- 02If it was mailed, your address gets printed on the back when you register, not before.
- 03Lose it and you must report to immigration within 14 days for a reissue.
Your single most important visit
Filing your moving-in notification (転入届) at your city or ward office is the hinge the whole month turns on. You have 14 days from the day you move into your address. Miss it and you are exposed to a fine of up to ¥200,000 (about $1,300) under the immigration law and up to ¥50,000 (about $330) under the resident registration law. The filing itself is free.
Registering puts you on the residence record (住民票), which is the proof of address that the bank, the phone shop, and half of officialdom will ask you to produce. Bring your residence card and passport. If you moved from another Japanese city, bring the moving-out certificate (転出証明書) from your old office. Go in the morning. Counters get slow and some close mid-afternoon.
What to bring Residence card, passport, moving-out certificate if you have one, and cash for any small fees.
The 12 digits that follow you everywhere
Once you register your address, a 12-digit My Number (マイナンバー) is assigned to you. You do nothing extra for the number itself. A paper notice with it printed on it is mailed to your registered address, usually within three to four weeks. Your employer needs it for payroll and tax, so it is not optional admin.
The number and the plastic My Number Card are two different things. The number arrives automatically. The card is a separate application you make using the form that comes in the notice, online, or back at the ward office. Get the card. Japan stopped issuing new paper health-insurance cards on December 2, 2024, and the last legacy cards expired by December 1, 2025. The My Number Card now doubles as your health-insurance ID. If you have neither yet, your insurer issues a paper Eligibility Confirmation Certificate so you can still be seen at a clinic.
- 01The number is assigned at registration. Wait for the mailed notice, do not chase it.
- 02Apply for the physical card. It is now your health-insurance card too.
- 03No card yet? Ask your insurer for the Eligibility Confirmation Certificate as a stopgap.
Enrol the same day, same building
If your employer does not put you on company insurance, you join National Health Insurance (国民健康保険) yourself, at the ward office, within 14 days of arriving. Same visit as your address. The office hands you the enrolment form, you show your residence card and My Number, and you are covered. National Health Insurance pays 70 percent of most medical costs, so you pay 30 percent at the counter. Premiums are income-based and set by your municipality, so a first-year newcomer with little prior Japan income usually pays a low monthly amount.
Everyone aged 20 to 59 living in Japan, foreign residents included, also joins the National Pension (国民年金). The flat contribution is ¥17,510 (about $120) a month for the year to March 2026, rising to ¥17,920 (about $120) a month from April 2026. If your income is genuinely low when you arrive, ask about an exemption or a student deferral at the same counter rather than just not paying. Unpaid pension is the kind of gap that resurfaces later when you apply for a longer visa or permanent residence.
Who this hits Anyone not covered by an employer's shakai hoken. Freelancers, students, and new arrivals between jobs all land on the national schemes.
A real number unlocks the rest
A Japanese mobile number is the quiet key to the whole month. The bank, deliveries, app sign-ups, and every service that texts you a code all need one — which is why you sort it before the bank, not after. Nearly every plan activates against your residence card, so the card and the ward office come first, then this. Cheap online brands ride the big carriers for a fraction of shop prices, on month-to-month terms. And before any of that — before your card, before the ward office — an eSIM puts working data in your phone the second you land.
RecommendedSakura Mobile
Built only for foreigners in Japan — clear English the whole way, including the tech support you actually end up needing. Order before you land and collect at the airport, your hotel, or your door, or start instantly on an eSIM. Runs on the docomo 5G network, so you're reachable the moment you arrive — right when you need a number to open the bank and everything after.
- Voice + data · 5GB ¥2,980, 30GB ¥3,980, up to 100GB ¥10,980 a month (about $20 to $75)
- Data-only from ¥2,480 a month if you don't need a Japanese number
- Runs on docomo's 5G / 4G network, not a no-name MVNO
- English support for ordering, setup, and real problems — not just sales
- Airport, hotel, or home delivery, or instant eSIM · one-time ¥5,500 setup
AiraloThe instant one. An eSIM you activate before you even land — data working the second you step off the plane, no residence card, no Japanese number, no commitment. Your day-one bridge until a real SIM is set up.→
MobalPassport only, no residence card or Japanese address needed. Order before you land or pay cash on arrival, with English support and a real Japanese number from day one. Once you're settling in, this becomes the number you put on the bank, apps and forms.→
LINEMOSoftBank's online-only budget brand — the SoftBank network at cheap-SIM prices, no shop visit. 3GB ¥990, 30GB ¥2,970 a month, and LINE messages and calls never touch your data. Online sign-up with your residence card. The cheapest clean route once your card is in hand.→ Bring Your residence card. Almost every plan activates against it, which is the whole reason the card and the ward office come before the phone.
Once your Japanese is comfortable, the cheap domestic options — IIJmio, povo, ahamo, Rakuten Mobile — open up and can run cheaper or unlimited. Worth a look later, not on day one.
Type the way you think, send it in Japanese
The number is the unlock, but what lands on it is the problem: LINE messages from your landlord, your ward-office contact, your new coworkers — all in Japanese. Copying text out to a translation app and pasting it back gets old on day two. A translation keyboard skips that entirely, because it lives inside whatever app you are already typing in.
RecommendedKeeKom
Think in your language, communicate in theirs. A translation keyboard for iPhone that works inside LINE, WhatsApp and Messages — type the way you think, send it in natural Japanese. It translates meaning, not word-for-word, and suggests emoji that actually read the room. In testing now, ahead of the App Store launch.
- Works inside any app — LINE, WhatsApp, Messages
- Meaning, not word-for-word translation
- 14 languages — Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and more
- Testers keep lifetime access free at launch
Testers wanted KeeKom is in testing before it reaches the App Store. Join now, help flag bugs and bad translations, and you keep lifetime access free when it officially launches — no subscription, ever.
The wall most people hit
This is where the sequence bites hardest. Most traditional banks want six months of residency, or an existing job, before they open an account — but you need an account to receive salary and pay rent from day one. The way through is to open a foreigner-friendly bank now, then add a high-street account later once you qualify.
RecommendedSBI Shinsei Bank
The most foreigner-friendly of the big banks, and a genuinely better everyday account than Japan Post once you can open one. You apply in English, the internet banking is properly in English, the fees are low, and its GoRemit service sends money home far cheaper than a high-street wire. Formerly Shinsei Bank, now part of the SBI group.
- Apply entirely in English · dedicated English help desk
- Open from day one with a job offer or school enrolment, otherwise after six months
- English internet banking · low fees · tiered free ATM use
- GoRemit international transfers, cheaper than a bank wire home
- From July 2026, foreign residents apply by mail, not at a branch
Bring Residence card, your registered address, a Japanese phone number, and a hanko if the bank asks. This is exactly why phone comes before the bank.
Sony Bank also skips the six-month rule, but stopped taking English applications in 2025 — you would now need enough Japanese for its standard interface.
Spend and send, without the fees
A Japanese bank is hard to get on day one, and even once you have one it is slow and pricey for anything that crosses a border. Two app-only accounts close that gap: open them from your phone in minutes — on your passport, before you even land — and skip almost every foreign-exchange and transfer fee. They don't replace a local bank for salary, rent auto-debit or utilities. They make everything international cheap, instant and painless, at home and on every trip.
Everyday · travelA multi-currency account and debit card built for spending abroad. Hold and switch between yen, dollars, euros and dozens more at the real exchange rate, tap to pay anywhere, and pull cash from ATMs worldwide with the markups that normally eat your money mostly gone. This is the card you actually spend on.
- Best for: daily card spending in Japan and trips back home
- Hold many currencies, swap at the real mid-market rate
- ATM withdrawals abroad without the usual foreign-card fees
- Freeze the card, split bills and see every charge live in-app
Rent · big transfersThe cheapest, most transparent way to move larger sums between countries. Send a deposit, a month of rent or your savings at the real mid-market rate with one small fee shown upfront — no hidden exchange spread, no surprise wire charges. This is the account you move real money through.
- Best for: paying rent or a deposit from an overseas account
- Moving your savings between countries when you relocate
- Getting paid by overseas clients straight into yen
- Any large one-off transfer where the FX spread would sting
Why both Revolut is the card you spend on day to day; Wise is the pipe for the big cross-border moves like rent and deposits. Set them up on your passport before you land, then pair them with the Japanese account above once it clears.
The seal that refuses to die
Japan's 2021 digital-reform push killed off the hanko in a lot of places, and most foreigner-friendly banks now take a signature. But the seal is not gone. Some employers still want one on an employment contract, some landlords and agencies still ask, and a few bank actions still expect it. Buy a cheap ready-made one early and you remove a whole category of friction. Carving a custom seal for a non-Japanese name takes a day or two at a hanko shop.
Who this hits Freelancers signing contracts, anyone whose employer or landlord is old-school, and anyone opening an account at a bank that still insists on a seal.
Printable 30-day checklist — coming