Your first weeks in Japan: the card, the fourteen days and the six-month rule

The Japanese arrival chain is strict but predictable: every registration is the key to the next, and the order is fixed. The good news: the first link is handed to you for free, before you're even out of the arrivals hall.

You get the card at the airport

Whoever lands on a visa with a Certificate of Eligibility at one of the major airports — Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chūbu first and foremost — is handed the residence card (zairyū-kaado) right at border control. From that moment that card is your proof of identity; always carry it with you, that's a legal obligation.

Within fourteen days: the municipal office

As soon as you have a residential address, you have fourteen days to register at the municipal office (city hall). That gets you into the jūminhyō, the Japanese resident register — the equivalent of the Dutch BRP registration you've just cancelled. Almost everything that follows wants to see this proof first. During the same visit, arrange the health insurance straight away (through the municipality if your employer doesn't do it) and — with children — the child allowance: since 2024 without a means test, ¥ 10,000 to ¥ 15,000 per child per month, but it only starts from the month after your application. Waiting here literally costs money.

Then: My Number, phone and the bank

From the jūminhyō follows your My Number, the Japanese BSN; you apply for the accompanying card free of charge and by now it's also your health insurance card. Practical lesson from every newcomer: arrange a Japanese phone number before the bank account — banks, landlords and web forms all ask for it. At the bank itself the surprise of the six-month rule awaits: for the first six months a newcomer counts as a non-resident under the foreign exchange legislation, and banks then restrict international transfers. Open the account straight away, but plan large transfers from the Netherlands around it — and keep your Dutch account as a bridge.

The driving licence: exchange without a test

The Netherlands is on the Japanese list of countries whose driving licence exchanges without a knowledge or practical test (gaimen kirikae). Needed: an official JAF translation of your driving licence (¥ 6,600, only to be applied for online), proof that you stayed in the Netherlands for at least three months after it was issued (your passport is the evidence here), and an eye test at the prefectural driving licence centre. For the first year you drive on an international driving permit (Geneva Convention, via the ANWB), but exchange well within that year: the international permit expires hard, and without a Japanese licence after that every trip is driving uninsured.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Japan.