Osakaculture & etiquette

Japanese law requires you to register your address at the local ward office within fourteen days of moving in. That registration produces the jūminhyō residence certificate and triggers your My Number, and without it you cannot enrol in health insurance, open most bank accounts, or complete a phone contract. It is a short in-person appointment with your residence card and passport. Newcomers treat it as an errand and then find four separate things blocked behind it.

The standard package is a deposit (shikikin), key money (reikin — a non-refundable gift to the landlord), an agency fee, a guarantor company fee, fire insurance and the first month's rent. Together these routinely reach four to six months. Key money in particular is money you never see again and is not a deposit despite being paid like one. Osaka is somewhat gentler than Tokyo on this and zero-reikin properties are increasingly common — but budget for the full package and treat anything less as a bonus.

Jūminzei is calculated on your previous calendar year's income and billed from the following June. So your first year feels cheap and your second year is expensive, and if you leave Japan you can still owe a full year's residence tax on income you have already spent. Anyone planning a departure should either appoint a tax agent or settle it before going — this is the single most common financial shock among people finishing a stint in Japan.

If your employer enrols you in shakai hoken, this is handled for you. If not — freelancers, some contract workers, and anyone between jobs — you must enrol in National Health Insurance and the National Pension at your ward office yourself. Both are legal obligations and back-payments can be demanded. The pension has a lump-sum withdrawal available on leaving Japan, which is worth claiming and is frequently forgotten.

Rents run well below Tokyo's for equivalent space and location, and the city is compact enough that a central flat is genuinely attainable. Salaries are somewhat lower but not proportionally, so disposable income is usually better. What you give up is the depth of Tokyo's international job market and the direct international flight network — Kansai is a good airport but it is not Haneda.

Osaka stands on the right and walks on the left, the reverse of Tokyo and most of Japan. 'Aho' is affectionate here and offensive there. Conversation with strangers is more common, shopkeepers are blunter, and the formality gradient is noticeably shallower. None of this is trivia — people arriving from Tokyo reliably misread Osaka's directness as rudeness, and it is the opposite.