Everybody needs health insurance, especially when they live and work abroad. However, insurance systems in foreign countries are often difficult to understand without native language proficiency and difficult to explain to foreign employees whose reference points are often the completely different schemes they are used to in their home countries. (more…)

Jinichi Koyama
CEO
Koyama Driving School

By Taro Fujimoto

In Japan, you usually obtain a driver’s license by taking lessons at a private driving school which exempts you from a practical driving test at a police facility. After finishing the course, you take an official government written test at a police station. However, what if foreigners need to get a driver’s license? While some police stations offer an English version of the test, candidates still have to study Japanese laws and traffic regulations. (more…)

By Taro Fujimoto/Japan Today

Kazuhiro Ohshima, Director of Center for International Exchange, Nihon Kogakuin College (Katayanagi Institute)

In Japan, 3,218 private vocational schools offer professional education in individual areas of industry. Currently, 23.1% of high school graduates study at vocational schools and 99.6% of them find employment after graduation. (more…)

In October of 2007, the employment measure law was amended, requiring all corporations that hire foreign workers to report their employment situation to the local Hello Work office, including name, sex, birthday, visa status, duration of stay and employment-related information. If corporations fail to provide information or present a false report to authorities, they will be fined up to 300,000 yen and/or be liable to administrative sanctions.

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