Skirmishes with bureaucracy

Friday was another (long) day in our ongoing skirmishes with various forms of Japanese bureaucracy. We are in the protracted processes of both getting a house loan and applying for permanent residency for yours truly. This, as is probably true of most countries, involves a lot of paperwork. Unlike most countries, it is entirely in Japanese, and is heavy going, even for my wife.

So Friday, we both took the day off - I had no classes anyway and Sanae has yet to start back after the winter vacation - sprung Cian from the creche, and headed for the bank. There we were told that getting a loan in both our names would raise all sorts of convoluted tax issues and would probably need us to sell Cian into slavery to pay them off. I said that was fine by me, but Sanae, typically, refused, so I in turn said, "fine. You take out the loan". Which she did. So Sanae is now both a property owner and in hoc to the bank for the next 10 years. As I will, legally, be only in the house on her sufferance, it means 10 years of nightly shoulder massages and a constant refrain of "Yes dear, whatever you say dear".

After that we headed for the City office as to acquire permanent residency here you need everything from marriage certificates to proof of tax payments. All of it on official, city annotated paper. This took an hour. Then we had to drive a further hour and a half to the immigration office in Tomokomai (a sort of grim Limerick, though with less stabbings and more tall smokestacks), where we assisted by an official who clearly didn't know his job. This no longer surprises me any more. In Japan's civil service, it is standard practice to rotate people from post to post after every three years or so. Ostensibly it is to give staff a degree of training in all aspects of public administration, but in my experience, it merely spreads ineptness, an over-reliance on strict procedure and an indecent love of paperwork. So, you will have officials who have spent three years working in the immigration department, transferred to, say, work in the water mains division, or put in charge of parks and playgrounds. And naturally enough, they are, initially, clueless. And then, three years later, when they have finally mastered the various aspects of the job, whoosh, they are transferred again, to some place like the agriculture and rural affairs department.

Anyway, I submitted my application, but it will be a while before I know the decision. I will keep you posted.