Since this won't come as a surprise to your wife, open it in her presence and giveit to hr to review. That will give her the opportunity to continue being in the loop on this matter. Take whatever advice she gives you, even if you disagree, because if then she can't blame you down the line.
I don't even pretend to know all that Kitsune has gone through or is going through. I am amazed at this point that he is still married. It's easy for me to say since I am single and I don't have children in the mix. I'm not going to weight in like a Monday morning quarterback or a backseat driver. I have no idea what to tell him other than what I did. I hate opening official looking documentation, but I did it.
What I do see is that he loves this country which, as it turns out, is like many countries in the world, flawed, imperfect, and revealing beauty and tradition that is worth preserving.
I agree with everything you said, except for the part about being a backseat drive - I can't help myself from warning someone about to drive off the cliff.
In all seriousness, I think you'd be better off giving her the envelope and asking for her input. This is a biggie, not something you can continue to ignore (unless your wife advises otherwise). Good luck!
I got the same. Twice, as you did. I am not going to open them either. Why should I give people money just so they can give it back to me? And there is no guarantee I will get it back. The only guarantee for me to get back my own money is to not give it to them and keep it myself.
You are likely NOT to get it back. First, you must contribute for twenty years. Second, by law, local administrators can deny it non Japanese. Big, famous court case years back that denied it to an elderly Chinese woman who grew up here and worked her entire working life here based on her not being Japanese. Based on her age and when this occurred, she would have been one of the many who lost Japanese citizenship due to the peace agreement after the war.
Not paying into it now means they can revoke our permanent residence visas. When/if they actually do, we become illegal aliens, that is if we are still here.
I am not planning on leaving. There are two fo us--you and me--and I am sure that there are others that think this whole thing is silly. Unite the clans.
They’ll just restart the gaijin cards checks, which I say again for the first time in years not that long ago, and detain us until our health is ruined and then deport us.
The police in my area no longer harass me. Perhaps I have done things in my area that make them think I mean business. I wished you lived here. We would have a blast.
I have been stopped twice, long ago. Once in Shinjuku and once in Shinurayasu. I have seen a large number of Japanese stopped all over Tokyo. But for years I had not seen it. For over a decade I did not and suddenly sometime during the panic I witnessed it again. But just the once. But it is nothing for them to restart it.
I don’t know. I fear I would disappoint you. An icy glare is usually all that I give. My governor has three setting; mellow, icy glare, and BOOM. Once it goes beyond icy glare, I have little control. Sadly, I have done this thrice. Luckily only 3 times. Once on each ship I was assigned to. The recipient of each of these spread the word in such a way that it was never necessary on either commend a second time. The third was with a dodgy owner operator of an eikaiwa in Tokyo. He moved into my space yelling and I shot up out of my chair and nose to nose, in my engine room roar, pushed him back into the wall. Thank God I somehow retain enough control to refrain from going weapons free.
At work, for my students and for my job, beat to general quarters I will do. Outside of that, I find it better to avoid provocation.
I may be or was the same way. I made mistakes blowing up before, once at the station to the police for randomly picking people and asking them for ID. There is, as we are all aware, no logic in this. Through this experience, I have refined my ways of dealing with these situations. I tell them I don't answer questions and just keep walking. It worked the last time I was stopped. I am ready for the consequences if it goes beyond that. But, yes, avoiding provocation is the best policy.
My wife asked if she could open it and I consented. They are “asking” for back payments into the system from 2012. We are at a loss for why this year. I had already been in country this time for 12 years by then. My latest change in visa status was 2 years prior when I was granted a permanent resident visa.
This is however roughly when I received the first letter from them, perhaps a couple of years prior.
Note to those who do not know, most gaijin who are not employed full time find themselves in this trap. We have various monies deducted from our pay each month by our employers. Just as in the States, what exactly these are for is not straight forward. As everything is deducted from our pay in our home countries, we simply cannot fathom that if not employed full time, then we must walk in our pension and health care scheme payments to the city office each month. We think that we are and have been paying into all that is required and are destroyed when we learn otherwise.
I wish we all could pick a place where we wish to congregate together and live as free as possible.
You sound like me. I hate mail, mail that arrives in the form of paper, can't bode well. It often contains junk, or packets, but yes, it usually means bad things rather than good tidings. My advice is to face it as you can. Better to know than not to know? I am very much a person that likes to avoid being interacted with, as very often such interactions can result in negative consequences.
What you have is Schrodingers Mail in your possession, it can create good or innocuous information.
This is part of what brought us to this place. We would rather be left alone. But we realize that such a way of being will only result in being screwed with. So we have to push back and tell the world...no. Stop messing with me, and you can go your own way.
Oh my gosh Kitsune - sending you hugs and heart-centered energy. You are courageous and I'm thrilled to hear you have a friend in NZ even though that's not the best case scenario. Godspeed.
Since this won't come as a surprise to your wife, open it in her presence and giveit to hr to review. That will give her the opportunity to continue being in the loop on this matter. Take whatever advice she gives you, even if you disagree, because if then she can't blame you down the line.
HA! No matter. She’ll blame me for it anyway.
Well, at least then she can't blame you for not keeping her in the loop or for the consequences of following her advice!
I don't even pretend to know all that Kitsune has gone through or is going through. I am amazed at this point that he is still married. It's easy for me to say since I am single and I don't have children in the mix. I'm not going to weight in like a Monday morning quarterback or a backseat driver. I have no idea what to tell him other than what I did. I hate opening official looking documentation, but I did it.
What I do see is that he loves this country which, as it turns out, is like many countries in the world, flawed, imperfect, and revealing beauty and tradition that is worth preserving.
I agree with everything you said, except for the part about being a backseat drive - I can't help myself from warning someone about to drive off the cliff.
That is not back seat driving unless done three blocks away from the cliff and there are one or more turn offs before getting there.
Oh, but she often does.
In all seriousness, I think you'd be better off giving her the envelope and asking for her input. This is a biggie, not something you can continue to ignore (unless your wife advises otherwise). Good luck!
She did. I owe $24,000 to get caught up. That is roughly what my before tax pay was for last year.
Ouch, sorry to hear that :-(
Give it to her to review - made a typo and said hr, but I definitely meant your wife!
They have run out of patience, huh?
No, they have run out of money and are changing laws to allow them to get more.
Can't they just print more?
Well, actually that, just like the U.S.
I got the same. Twice, as you did. I am not going to open them either. Why should I give people money just so they can give it back to me? And there is no guarantee I will get it back. The only guarantee for me to get back my own money is to not give it to them and keep it myself.
You are likely NOT to get it back. First, you must contribute for twenty years. Second, by law, local administrators can deny it non Japanese. Big, famous court case years back that denied it to an elderly Chinese woman who grew up here and worked her entire working life here based on her not being Japanese. Based on her age and when this occurred, she would have been one of the many who lost Japanese citizenship due to the peace agreement after the war.
Not paying into it now means they can revoke our permanent residence visas. When/if they actually do, we become illegal aliens, that is if we are still here.
I am not planning on leaving. There are two fo us--you and me--and I am sure that there are others that think this whole thing is silly. Unite the clans.
They’ll just restart the gaijin cards checks, which I say again for the first time in years not that long ago, and detain us until our health is ruined and then deport us.
The police in my area no longer harass me. Perhaps I have done things in my area that make them think I mean business. I wished you lived here. We would have a blast.
I have been stopped twice, long ago. Once in Shinjuku and once in Shinurayasu. I have seen a large number of Japanese stopped all over Tokyo. But for years I had not seen it. For over a decade I did not and suddenly sometime during the panic I witnessed it again. But just the once. But it is nothing for them to restart it.
I don’t know. I fear I would disappoint you. An icy glare is usually all that I give. My governor has three setting; mellow, icy glare, and BOOM. Once it goes beyond icy glare, I have little control. Sadly, I have done this thrice. Luckily only 3 times. Once on each ship I was assigned to. The recipient of each of these spread the word in such a way that it was never necessary on either commend a second time. The third was with a dodgy owner operator of an eikaiwa in Tokyo. He moved into my space yelling and I shot up out of my chair and nose to nose, in my engine room roar, pushed him back into the wall. Thank God I somehow retain enough control to refrain from going weapons free.
At work, for my students and for my job, beat to general quarters I will do. Outside of that, I find it better to avoid provocation.
I may be or was the same way. I made mistakes blowing up before, once at the station to the police for randomly picking people and asking them for ID. There is, as we are all aware, no logic in this. Through this experience, I have refined my ways of dealing with these situations. I tell them I don't answer questions and just keep walking. It worked the last time I was stopped. I am ready for the consequences if it goes beyond that. But, yes, avoiding provocation is the best policy.
Any contact with government agencies sets my heart racing. There seems to be no escape from them.
That is by design. There is no escape from them.
My wife asked if she could open it and I consented. They are “asking” for back payments into the system from 2012. We are at a loss for why this year. I had already been in country this time for 12 years by then. My latest change in visa status was 2 years prior when I was granted a permanent resident visa.
This is however roughly when I received the first letter from them, perhaps a couple of years prior.
Note to those who do not know, most gaijin who are not employed full time find themselves in this trap. We have various monies deducted from our pay each month by our employers. Just as in the States, what exactly these are for is not straight forward. As everything is deducted from our pay in our home countries, we simply cannot fathom that if not employed full time, then we must walk in our pension and health care scheme payments to the city office each month. We think that we are and have been paying into all that is required and are destroyed when we learn otherwise.
I wish we all could pick a place where we wish to congregate together and live as free as possible.
You sound like me. I hate mail, mail that arrives in the form of paper, can't bode well. It often contains junk, or packets, but yes, it usually means bad things rather than good tidings. My advice is to face it as you can. Better to know than not to know? I am very much a person that likes to avoid being interacted with, as very often such interactions can result in negative consequences.
What you have is Schrodingers Mail in your possession, it can create good or innocuous information.
This is part of what brought us to this place. We would rather be left alone. But we realize that such a way of being will only result in being screwed with. So we have to push back and tell the world...no. Stop messing with me, and you can go your own way.
If you don't want to open the mail, you have already made up your mind.
Be honest, at least with yourself. My best advice!
Oh my gosh Kitsune - sending you hugs and heart-centered energy. You are courageous and I'm thrilled to hear you have a friend in NZ even though that's not the best case scenario. Godspeed.
My heart goes out to you.
What a horrible situation.
Open the letter.
Not knowing either way is surely worse.
Great that you have a kind benefactor providing a safety net in NZ, though if we weren't living in clown world, it wouldn't be needed.
All the best.