Which I find bizarre given how backwards Japan is in the adoption of other technologies. Eg their continued reliance on paper records and fax machines.
In Japan I often needed a paper from the city, but it was an easy-to-obtain printout I could get immediately from city hall or even from 7-11. I tend to require the same papers in Europe too, with the extra hassle of needing some from Japan (2-3 months) and some from Europe (2-3 days).
Example 1: get ID card at the airport when you emigrate to japan. In Europe it takes 2-3 months.
Example 2: getting a local driving license takes 1 day provided your country has a treaty with japan. In Europe it can take several months because you need to request criminal records from your previous countries
I have yet to encounter a situation that requires a fax machine in either place.
Yeah now have fun going through the process of renewing a My Number card. Go to city hall (during the hours when it's open), fill in a form, wait 2-3 months to get a notification that your replacement card has been made, then you have to book an appointment during office hours at city hall to pick it up (likely taking another few months).
Yes the initial residence card is issued quickly, but at that point you've had to wait 2-3 months to get the CoE for the visa, so they probably made it during that time.
> Example 2: getting a local driving license takes 1 day provided your country has a treaty with japan.
And involves a whole day of standing around in various queues, again during business hours only. Hardly a picture of efficiency.
But I'm standing by these examples. For my move to Europe, it was 4 months to get the equivalent to the COE, then another 4 months (average is supposed to be 2-3 months) to get the equivalent of a residence card. And the company that sponsors you has to either prove you're highly skilled or prove they tried to hire a European for a set period of time first. And if you're not from a visa-waiver country, you aren't even allowed to travel in Europe while you wait for the ID card.
For my driving license, I probably won't have to wait in line, but the total time to process it is at least four months.
For starting a sole proprietorship, similar story. A bit annoying paperwork to start one in Japan, but it only took a few hours for everything. Here, it's 3 months and counting, and it's possible that it comes with a condition that I need to rent space for doing consulting (not do it from home) before getting the OK.
Japan is bureaucratic but usually fast, at least for individuals.
Well, that's different rules, not more or less bureaucratic. (And if you're the first foreigner hired by a given company in Japan, good luck for how many months you'll have to wait while they verify the company).
> And if you're not from a visa-waiver country, you aren't even allowed to travel in Europe while you wait for the ID card.
Pretty sure that's country-specific. And I've heard plenty of complaints from people in Japan not being able to travel, not just on arrival but every year, because it's de facto impossible when awaiting a visa renewal (you have to go to collect your new card within a short time once you get the notification to do so, and you don't know when that will arrive).
> For my driving license, I probably won't have to wait in line, but the total time to process it is at least four months.
I'd have taken waiting four months over having to use one of my 10(!) days off/year, although obviously that's specific to your personal circumstances.
> For starting a sole proprietorship, similar story. A bit annoying paperwork to start one in Japan, but it only took a few hours for everything. Here, it's 3 months and counting, and it's possible that it comes with a condition that I need to rent space for doing consulting (not do it from home) before getting the OK.
True, the support for starting a business is pretty good (though only if you're a citizen or already on a non-work visa - on a work visa it's extremely difficult to do legally, office space isn't the half of it. The much-vaunted Fukuoka startup visa is completely useless in practice since you have to qualify for a regular visa within 6 months).
I'm sure there are countries in Europe that are bureaucratic, probably some that are more bureaucratic than Japan (I know e.g. Italy in particular has a poor reputation). But I'd certainly say Japan is a lot more bureaucratic than Ireland, and a lot worse than it should be.
What is awful is just the ridiculous number of errors I find when going through the process. My card in theory has the wrong expiration date, (checked in, they said the expiration date on the card is always correct so IDK) but it is 10 years off, when comparedto the ones owned by the rest of my family who got the card in the same year.
They also keep absolutely screwing up the data security in relation to the mynumber cards. Just last month there was another data breach. Sources are in Japanese but I can dig them up if you want. But I think it's run the entire gauntlet of every conceivable issue.
Data stolen online? Check
Wrong insurance information, either inputted wrong or linked to the wrong person? Check
Swapped birth certificates? Check
Printing service provides sensitive documents for the wrong person? Check
I'm just lucky enough to not be the one who got his data stolen... for now.
Anecdotally I only know stories from people that I know personally that live there and through the internet. Eg PauloInTokyo does good "day in the life" videos. Off the top of my head I believe the Pachinko episode illustrates a variety of old school manual processes that have stuck around (pen and paper shift logs etc).
I've also heard opening even a simple bank account is quite the pain.
All my cards have an IC, however they were Australian cards. Perhaps it's an additional step for foreign credit/debit cards?
I wonder, where do people find those FAX machine? Have I lived in a tech/startup bubble in Tokyo and missed it? I didn't even see it at the local Ward office in the suburb.
Some stuff are still old-school (hanko etc) but it to me seem like the fax meme have outlived the reality.
Last time I heard fax machine was a German exchange student in Tokyo, AFTER she returned to Germany and had to get some paperwork at the ward office, in Germany
I have only sent two faxes in my life, and both were after I moved to Japan. The first was right after I arrived, I ordered something from Amazon and I realized I had written my address wrong, when I tried to fix it my account to blocked, and to unblock it I had to send a hand-written fax with my name and address. The second time was when I got a letter from the Sapporo police telling me that I had lost my driving license there. Again, to recover it I had to send a hand-written fax explaining the situation, so they could prove my identity. How that is considered a secure procedure is beyond me, but such is Japan.
But, it is still quite common. I did receive a Fax at the office last week on Thursday.
Oh, and some of our stuff uses Dialup, usually in relation to that older infrastructure. Got thrown for a loop this wednesday when ye good old Dialup (acoustic handshake) audio started screeching across the office. Did not realize we still used it at all!