Some people move to a new country and find what they had been missing in their old lives. Experiencing new cultures, people, and lands is always an exciting experience. For some, it is the next step of their lives and they will continue to stay in the new country, but for others, it may not be as good of an experience or they may need to go home to take care of personal matters. Whatever the reason may be, some people will leave Japan and return to their original countries. There are a few things that need to be done before leaving, and if you don’t complete some of them it will mean you can’t return to the country until it is fixed.
Sort Your Things
The first thing you need to do is figure out what things you plan to take with you, and what needs to be thrown away. You must find out what is important to you as shipping is expensive the more you try to send internationally. Try to keep it to a minimum, such as clothing and small mementos that can fit in your luggage or a medium-sized box. The larger things should be thrown away, given away, or sold off. Things like appliances, bedding, house items, and larger than normal items. You can try to make some money back by selling your stuff to recycle shops or to other people coming to Japan. The latter will see you getting more money as the shops will try to buy everything as cheaply as possible while people coming into the country would be willing to pay a reasonable price for used things. There are online forums that can help you get rid of your stuff quickly for free. Anything that you want to get rid of as soon as possible can be put up for pick up on social media sites. It saves you the time that you would spend trying to pawn it off. If you decide to throw it away, you will have to pay a fee for appliances and other large items. This one is the most time consuming and will hurt your wallet in the end, so it isn’t the most recommended.
Pay Your Debts
Any debts that you have accrued over your stay need to be paid and closed before you leave Japan. This means any bills, rent, credit cards, city tax, national tax, and anything else that you have on record. If you don’t pay, they can charge you on your last check from your previous job and if you still owe more than the paycheck, they can ban you from returning until you work out a payment. This doesn’t bother some people as they never intend to return to the country again, but for others, it can be stressful. You should also pay them to help the people that helped you set up all your living arrangements, even if it was your company and you don’t really like your company. If you leave with debts it will also leave a bad impression on the Japanese people. They tend to apply their experience with one or two people from a country and apply it to everyone from there.
Fill out Your Paperwork
When getting ready to leave you will need to fill out all the necessary paperwork. You will need to notify the local government of your intent to leave and the federal government. You will need to notify your landlord and all the companies that handle your utilities as well. They will need to be informed at least one month ahead of your departure. The same thing is needed for you to collect your pension if you have been paying into it. There have been changes to the rules of how you can collect it, and even now there is still legislation that is being discussed how to handle foreigners collecting their pensions. For you to collect your final paycheck you will need to ensure that you fill out everything with your company or you will have trouble getting your money, or even miss out on the entire paycheck.
The Farewell Parties
It is customary in Japan to throw a farewell party or have some kind of gathering to see you off. Some of your coworkers will try to get the office together for a drinking party as well. Be ready to have two or three get-togethers with people you worked with. Everyone will try to tell you about all of the fun times they had with you and how they wished they could spend more time with you. Get ready to drink a lot of alcohol and have everyone try to tell you how good of a coworker you were.
It is never easy to pick up your life and move everything out. There is always some new paperwork or new guidelines to follow when going between countries. You need to make sure you have filled out all of the necessary paperwork or you will not be able to leave in good standing.
Try to do as much research as you can to get all of it right. If you make sure to do it all correctly you will have a smooth exit.