An unexploded, sputtering shell on the deck.

An envelope form the Japan Pension Service

Shortly after I posted this, below, I received an envelope from the Japan Pension Service.

I did not open it. Have it still around here somewhere. I did not open it because it cannot contain good news. It may not have bad news, though it probably does, but it certainly does not have good news. Received another today.

This is thick, thicker than the last. Not sure if I should open it or not. The pension system here used to not be mandatory, according to my wife who has out banked bankers, out lawyered lawyers and out regulated regulators. She know these things and most government functionaries at all levels do not. When I got the first letter several years ago, they stated that I must immediately begin making payments into the pension system and make back payments. My wife said they were breaking the law by making this demand and she told me to ignore it. One must pay 20 years into it anyway before you can receive anything back, and at my age at the time, that meant I would have to pay into to fund others pensions but would be ineligible to draw one myself. Then they linked payment into the plan to keeping our permanent residence visa earlier this year. The two most recent communications from the pension service then followed.

The storms in my family situation have grown worse and more frequent, though the clouds are clearing of late, but for how long? Whether it is my family here or the J gov pushing me away or the US gov trying to pull me away, it seems inevitable that my family is destined to split. The work environment at my main employer is now a general engagement with salvos fired as targets come to bear. A subscriber has secured lodgings and employment for e in New Zealand. Might have to take them up on the offer.