Moving House, Changing Jobs

Unlike Singapore, Japan consists of 47 prefectures and in each of these prefectures, many cities. In Singapore, it’s a lot less hassle to switch jobs since you don’t have to move while in Japan, if you’re getting work in another prefecture that’s further than the distance between Gifu and Aichi, chance is you’d be getting a new apartment.

Often, you might be asked when you’d like to start work at your new job (unless you’re gonna be an ALT). In this case, I would suggest that you choose a date that gives you at least a weekday off. This means, if your last day at the current job ends on a Friday, do not start work on the following Monday. Tuesday would be a better bet. Why?

When you move, you have to inform your city’s ward office of your intention to leave the city prior to your departure and when you arrive at the new city, you also have to inform the new city’s ward office of your arrival. The problem is, the opening hours of these ward offices are probably the same, if not shorter, than your working hours and they only open on weekdays. Of course, you could probably ask to leave work a little earlier or arrive a little later to get it settled but, it’s always better and easier to do it at your own time, right?

UPDATE: Thanks to a friend, Beat, I’ve learnt that some ward offices have taken into account the difficulty of working personnels in visiting them on weekdays, they open on certain weekends as well. So, find out more about the city you’re moving to on their website before you ask to leave work early to get things settled. And although the websites state that you have to inform them of your departure 14 days from the date you are leaving, it seems that it is alright to skip this step since the new ward office staff would update the information for you when you register with them.

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