Changing the Address on your Driver's License

Here's just a short post to address a question that comes up fairly often.

When you change your address within Japan, you are required to update the address on your driver's license as well as your Alien Registration Card. City Hall doesn't handle this request. Rather, all driver's license procedures (besides the actual issuance of a license) are handled by your local police station.



Before you go out, though, make sure you've already updated the address on your Alien Registration Card at your city office. The Alien Registration Card will be your proof of identification when the police copy down your new address to your driver's license.

You'll need to find out which station's jurisdiction you're in, then visit that station during it's open hours. The word for police station in Japanese is 警察署（けいさつしょ）, and you can put that term to use by searching for your city or town name + 警察署 in regular Google search or on Google Maps.

Police stations are usually open on a schedule similar to the immigration bureau and other public offices: That is, they start opening around 10:00 and briefly close for lunch between about 12:00 and 13:00. My local station stays open as late as 17:30, but they stop accepting applications for procedures around 17:00. It would be wise to arrive as early as possible or to call ahead to check your station's open hours.

Driver's license inquiries will be handled at a specific desk. Usually it will be clearly marked with a sign that says something like 運転免許各種手続き（うんてんめんきょ　かくしゅ　てつづき）. If you aren't sure, find a friendly-looking receptionist and pull out your driver's license. Someone should direct you to the right location. Show them your license and your Alien Registration Card, and explain that the addresses are different. (Or, alternatively, show them your license and your Alien Registration Card, and frantically and dramatically point at the cards' differing information. They'll get the message.)

By the way, if you are lucky (?) enough to live in a city with a regional licensing bureau, the bureau will handle all license-related procedures for local residents. Because of that, the police stations in these cities do not handle license-related procedures.

Japanese Resume (Rirekisho) Forms

In Japan, there is a standard format for resumes/CVs. It's called a 履歴書 (rirekisho), and employers outside of the ALT and Eikaiwa arenas often require that applicants prepare a resume in this format.

Traditionally, applicants are supposed to fill every resume out by hand, so the employer can see that you specifically poured time into the application for his or her company. A handwritten resume also serves as a way for employers to peek at the quality of your handwriting. (And trust me, your application will be judged on this fact; if you proceed to the interview phase of hiring, almost every Japanese employer will make a comment about how they felt about the handwriting on your resume.)

Blank resume forms can be purchased at any convenience store, and often at department stores and grocery stores, too. They shouldn't cost more than 10 or 20 yen per sheet.

Or, you can print your own resume forms. We've hosted forms in a couple formats here at AccessJ:

Microsoft Word Document - JIS - A4 Size, 2 Pages
Microsoft Word Template - JIS - A4 Size, 2 Pages
Open Document - A4 Size, 2 Pages
Adobe PDF - A4 Size, 2 Pages
Adobe PDF - A3 Size, 1 Page
Adobe PDF - A3 Size, 1 Page (Alternate, more 自己PR writing space)
*Resumes marked JIS are confirmed to follow Japanese Industrial Standards for document format.

When you buy a form at a convenience store, it will usually be an A3-size sheet of paper so the whole resume can be contained on one side of one sheet. However, since most people don't stock A3 printer paper at home, we've included files here in which the form is split in half across two A4-size sheets. 

If you plan to send out a lot of resumes, you can type up the information on your computer before you print it out. I also opted to add my photo to the resume file so it would print out as part of the resume. (If you don't do this, you'll need to paste a passport-size photo on each resume you send out.)

Most of the resume can stay constant for every job application: Your name, contact information, educational history, and certification aren't going to change. (In Japan, it's common to list all certifications on a resume, even if some of them have nothing to do with the job you're applying for.) But, you need to tailor the 志望動機 (shibou douki - "motivation for applying") and 自己PR (jiko PR - "self introduction & promotion") sections for every job you apply for. These are the things that Japanese employers are reading very carefully to find out whether you really know what kind of work you're applying for and whether you're really interested in the field.

(By the way, sometimes the 自己PR field is called 特技・趣味 (tokugi, shumi) or 得意な科目 (tokui na kamoku). Regardless, your content should be the same, because purpose of the field is fundamentally the same: to tell why you, with your abilities and interests, are ideal for the position.)

Again, traditionally these resumes are supposed to be hand-written: If you get accepted to a job interview, or if you're hired for the job, the employer may ask you to, retrospectively, rewrite your resume by hand and send it in. When they ask this, they aren't necessarily asking you to change the content. Having a handwritten resume on file is just part of "fitting in" with Japanese corporate culture.

Driving Test Tips: Manual Cars

If you are taking the driving test (in Japan) in a manual car, here are some special things to watch out for:

• Keep your left foot away from the clutch except when it is explicitly called for. I hovered my foot above the clutch and was called out for this during two attempts.
• Furthermore, do not put the clutch in while braking. This was a bad habit of mine: When coming up on a stop, I'd put in the clutch and then brake. The proctors want you to use the power of the clutch to slow the car down, all the way up to the moment before you stop.
• When shifting, make the movement quick and fluid. As soon as the car is in gear, get your left foot away from the clutch again.
• In Japan, drivers do not have to stop at intersections unless signage explicitly calls for it. This means at most intersections, you'll turn without stopping, and therefore your foot should be far away from the clutch.
• During the crank and the s-curve maneuver, it is acceptable and expected to use a half-clutch motion as you guide the car slowly through the turns. Keep your left foot pressed lightly on the pedal during these, keeping the clutch in its sweet spot.
• These tips all mean that you'll be flirting with a stalled engine during parts of the test. Get used to this as you practice--it's exactly the way the proctors want you to drive. The clutch should only be in during shifts, just soon enough to keep the engine from stalling, or during the crank/s-curve sections of the test.
• Stalling the car is not in and of itself a failing mistake. But, it will cost you a few points. Stalling two or three times will probably cause you to fail.
• Finally, keep the car in the highest gear possible for your current maneuver. That means for most of the course you'll be in second, and on the outer ring you should be in third or, if you can, fourth.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Teaching in Japan... fun, boring, easy, hard, rubbish, awesome?

All of the above and hundreds more similarly narrow adjectives. I've got the time to write this blog at work, but others barely have a minute to plan the next lesson. My girlfriend and I found our jobs very easily, but our friends right now are staying with us because after six months of looking only one of them could find employment.

One thing is for sure, teaching here is really hard to predict. People lament the boredom of their "read and repeat" jobs while others solo-teach 8 50-minute lessons back-to-back.

If you're thinking of coming to Japan, BEWARE. Things may not be quite what you expect. This blog is, as I type, being created with the aim of giving you readers an insight into the various scenarios you may find yourself in, and how exactly things may progress for you.

However, be warned that you will still live in a world where the Japanese telepathically just know everything that is going on - where to be, what time, what to bring - and you will probably find yourself completely alone in the school or workplace wondering just where everyone has gotten to... or at an important event symbolising death with your clothes in front of unsympathetic co-workers...