For many years I was in charge of the time and attendance system, and other IT systems, in my workplace of 1500 employees.

I developed a small intranet app to make it easy for everyone to see who was clocked in, out, out on business, vacation, etc. That info was available in the main system but it was a pain to access from there, so everyone relied on my system instead.

What they didn't know is that I placed some code in the system, to always show me clocked out after 4pm. I'd go home at 4 every day, complete a 60 minute commute, then actually clock out from there. This gave me 5 extra hours each week.

If someone had checked I'd have been fired, but I figured people are lazy and tend to trust what they see on screens like that.

I ran that scam for about 8 years. Week in, week out. A rough estimate is 2000 man/hours stolen.

TL;DR: my inkan was rotated about 10 degrees off center on a form, so they made me fill it out again.

Full story: I've been living in Japan for decades now, and plan on being here until I die, so almost none of the little quirks and annoyances of the country surprise me anymore, and even fewer tend to ruffle my feathers these days. I know all about the bureaucracy, the obsession with form over function, the need to dot every I and cross every T. Today, however, I ran into something that truly made me question my own sanity at first, and then the sanity of every person working at my bank branch second.

As background: I'm lucky in that I have a respectable income; unlucky, I suppose, in that I pay a commensurate amount of local tax. The individual bills are always too high to pay at the convenience store, so my only option is to pay at the bank, using their furikomi form. (It's a regional bank; their online services are thin -- and their app is the worst excuse for a banking app I've ever seen.) So, each year, I cycle over to the nearest branch, fill out the form, wait in line, and hand all the documents over for processing.

Getting to the point: this bank always, always finds something wrong with the forms I've filled out, and always makes me fill everything out a second time. This has been happening every year for as long as I can recall. Although I can't remember what it was three years ago, the year before last I apparently hadn't written the A's in my name properly -- rewrite the form. Last year, they said I needed to add the little hook at the top of my 7s -- rewrite the form. It had happened so regularly that it became somewhat of a game -- what will they come up with this year?

Today, though, I was not in the mood. I have a ton on my plate, and I just wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. So, I sat down and wrote the everloving fuck out of that form. I spent ten seconds on every single letter. You couldn't print a cleaner, more legible sentence on the most expensive printer in the world. My checkmarks were flawless; my numerals superb; every single item was filled in properly, unquestionably, unassailably, unimpeachably. My inkan pressed firmly into a crisp crimson circle with my romaji lettering in all their gaijin glory. It was a sight to behold. I double- and triple-checked everything -- perfection.

I gathered the form with the tax slip, my account book, my ATM card (just in case), and my driver's license for identification, took a ticket from the machine, and sat down to wait. My number was soon called, and I handed everything over to the teller almost proudly -- there was absolutely no way anything was wrong. Sure enough, she looked everything over, gave me the kore de kekkou desu and invited me to omachi-kudasai for a little while as she processed the forms. I'd done it. I'd finally beaten them.

A few moments later, I hear my name called out, so I marched up to the counter, ready to take my receipt and head off to lunch. It was not to be, though. I could see a shadow in the teller's eye; something was wrong. The wa had been disturbed. Time slowed to a standstill as the dread began to fill the pit of my stomach. What could possible have been done wrong? I had produced an irreproachable masterpiece, a work that would have moved the housewife at the booth next to me to tears had she seen it. It could not be! With dread, I asked the teller, "is something wrong?"

She showed me the offending form, and pointed to my seal.

"It's tilted a little one way, so we need you to fill out the form again and press your inkan straight."

I stared. The seal was indeed slightly rotated -- but "slightly," even, is too strong a word. It was rotated perhaps 10 degrees clockwise from center -- no more. I appealed to the teller with a confused smile: surely she was joking. But no; she held her serious banker's expression. For her, this was no source of humor; it was a deadly serious transgression that, as a matter of course, required the entire transaction to grind to a halt. "I'm sorry, but it's a rule, so please fill out the form again."

My mind went numb. The next moments passed in a blur, as I woodenly filled out the form a second time, and then slowly, painstakingly, and with as much steely intent as possible, aligned my inkan dead-center in the box, parallel to all four corners, checking and double-checking the alignment -- and pressed. The teller took it from me, gave it a serious look and then: arigatou gozaimashita.

The transaction was over, but the damage was done. My brain has been shattered. The day is a wash. I cycled home in a daze, stopping only at 7-11 to pick up two tall Strong Zeros. They are my only hope of salvation after what transpired earlier -- the only way to salvage the remnants of my sanity. I had to drink half of one of them before I could even begin writing this.

The pain will have dulled by tomorrow. Thankfully, I won't have to worry about this kind of encounter for a long time, and I can go about my usual routine of avoiding that godawful, forsaken excuse for a financial institution for a long, long time...

...until next year.

Hello everyone, I hope this is the right subreddit and that this question is allowed. I am a exchange student from Norway living in Japan, and recently I fell in love with someone here. He is Japanese born and raised. Since we started dating, I have founf myself feeling incapable of giving him what he gives me. In Norway, the man usally pays for the first date and after everything is 50/50. The way women and men act in relationships in general is very 50/50, taking care of each other to the same degree. However, with my currect partner he doesnt allow me to pay for anything, he insists on letting him pick me up and drive me whereever I need to go, does my laundry and cooks for me and so much more. Of course, I have told him that this is beyond necessary and that I like to cook and theres many other things I can do in our relationship. He tells me that this is his culture. My question is basically, what is expected og me in this relationship? If this is how a man acts in a normal Japanese relationship, how am I as the woman supposed to act or do? I feel like I am not doing enough, he tells me all he needs is my company but I feel like there must be something I am missing. Thank you for reading and maybe helping me understand how to move forward!

Yeah, so…..I’m freaking out. Not sure how I ended up at this sort of company.

I applied for a spousal visa back in February and just got the postcard. It says I need to go by next week.

Recently started working at a new job a few weeks ago, and was open during the application process and when I first started that my spousal visa was still processing. Told my boss yesterday that I’d have to go to immigration next week and asked which day would be best.

To my surprise, she (a foreigner, wtf) told me I can’t go because it’s during working hours. I told her that it’s immigration and I have to, and reminded her that she was aware my visa was processing. She said she’d check it out with her boss but was not happy at all. I work M-F and obviously can’t go to immigration over the weekend.

There are several other things about this job that are making me quite unhappy after only a few weeks, so now I’m completely at a loss. What the actual fuck? A foreigner not letting another foreigner fulfill her legal obligation to go to immigration?

Has this happened to anyone else? What the hell do I do?

Edit: Yes, I will call in sick if she doesn’t give me the OK. But she’s not an idiot and will know why I am calling in, which will 100% result in retaliation. Not sure where to go from there.

I just got the letter from my work detailing the residence tax I have to pay throught the year and it went from 8,500 yen to 21,000 yen, is this normal?? I am making less money now than I did in October 2024 when I started working!!!

Edit: Thank you for everyone who commented. I didn't know how it's calculated. It seems that this is the norm 😞.

Why China consistently fails to qualify for the World Cup ?

A total of 48 countries have qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 except China.

South Korean has made 12 FIFA World Cup appearances

North Korea has made 2 FIFA World Cup appearances

Japan has made 8 FIFA World Cup appearances

China has made 1 FIFA World Cup appearance

China’s only appearance was in 2002, when the tournament was jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan.

China eliminated in the group stage, finishing with three defeats and zero goals scored.

F/26. Ok so I lowkey believe I have some level of hyperhidrosis. Even in the British winters, I would sweat an excessive amount for what would count. It meant having to go to the bathroom literally every hour just to wipe under arms, under bra etc. It was borderline manageable to an extent. Summers weren’t great but again were kind of manageable as British fashion feels a lot less conservative.

I now live in Japan and work in a very active job. My building does have aircon but I have to wear polo material which is ridiculously thick and causes me to sweat right through. It’s super embarrassing. I wear one of those black airism (?) shirts from uniqlo underneath and Daiso sweat pads on the polo, but I still sweat right through. It’s moreso the appearance of sweat patches which is bothering me so much rn.

Any advice?

The bookstores all carry Japanese titles.

my mil(f48ish) and I (f28) usually get along but we can butt heads when her husband brings his weird views in the mix. She has a 11m old son and i have a daughter a few months younger than her son i guess you can say i'm a bit overprotective as a ftm(FIRST TIME MOM FOR THE PPL CONFUSED LOL) to a preemie but i like to follow the rules for example car seat safety. My mil & her husband have a big suburban car they also have 5 kids under 8yrs old 🫩so when they told us they started foward facing her son at 10 months old bc it's more convenient to get all the kids in/out that way i was shocked. i immediately told her husband that isn't safe he went on a rant about how he isn't a sheep that listens to the governments rules and they know what is safe for their kids(HE IS ALSO AN EXTREMELY RECKLESS DRIVER). He is heavily christian and super anti-vax/flat earther. he rubs me the wrong way bc he rants about things saying he researched it when his research comes from facebook & all their kids are "homeschooled" by my mil bc public school teaches them to be trans/gay according to them. my mil just goes with whatever he says so i told her "just know if you get in an accident and your baby dies it will be your fault" now I'm the bad guy according to some family.

I'm not quitting my job rn. I just wanna ask how I would do it when the time comes.

When we started our training, one of the 部長 told us that we shouldn't look for jobs before telling them that we want to quit the job. Does that sound sketchy?

Because I've read some stories that say that so you can't actually quit when you want to and that they will give you false promises of a promotion or something else .

Looking for advice. Thanks

Hi everyone.

I'm Japanese and curious.

When visiting Japan, what was the hardest thing for you to reserve or book?

Restaurants?
Ryokan?
Tickets?
Experiences?

I'd love to hear your experiences.

Thanks!

Hello,

I am going to Japan the 24th-7th, with that being said I will be spending America 250th in Japan. Would it be disrespectful or culturally insensitive to wear like USA coveralls with a USA sombrero. This is 100% a legit question.