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The Leaving Ledger Countdowns, paperwork and money

Page set

Departure, filed by deadline

The last ninety days, filed by deadline

Leaving Japan is a sequence, not a list. This magazine puts the notices, the accounts, the shipping window and the tax that follows the flight into one dated order, and names the official page behind every step.

Updated

A departure from Japan is decided once and then administered for three months. The flight date is the only fixed point, and everything else has to be placed around it: a notice period that cannot be shortened, a shipping slot that closes when the season fills, a municipal office that needs a date and not an intention. Read in the wrong order, the same list produces a final week of errands that should have been finished in the first thirty days.

The magazine covers that sequence in fifteen to eighteen pages, one page per question. Each page names the office that owns the rule, states what that office publishes, and says plainly when a figure or a date is not published at all. Where a rule can change, the page points at the source rather than copying it, because a copied number ages badly and a link does not.

Nothing here is sold, and no service is run for people leaving. The value of the site is that it puts the errands in an order and hands you the official page for each one.

A wide desk surface at the end of a working day, three squared stacks of printed forms along the near edge, a closed cardboard folder, a single black pen and a glass of water in soft window light.
A desk surface at the end of a working day, forms squared and a folder closed. Generic Japanese domestic setting. Used to open the magazine on the countdown to departure. Illustration generated with AI.

The Countdown Drawer

Readers arrive with a flight date and not with a subject, so the pages are filed by what is still possible at each moment. Five stages, from ninety days out to the airport. Each one lists the pages that belong to that moment, and every page carries its own deadline in the margin.

  1. 90 DAYS

    Notice, the lease and the shipping window

    Anything with a waiting period or a booking queue has to start here or it will not finish.

  2. 60 DAYS

    Tax, the tax representative, the bank and the pension

    The items that can outlast your departure by a year, and the accounts that must stay open to receive money.

  3. 30 DAYS

    City hall, the insurance card and the official notices

    The month where the loose ends are tied rather than created, and every closing date is written down.

  4. 14 DAYS

    The last fortnight: cartons, transfers and the return

    What is left is packing, one transfer of money, and preparing for the week after the flight.

  5. DAY 0

    The residence card at the airport, and the links that stay

    The card is surrendered at the airport and not at the ward office, and a few pages stay useful abroad.

The dated record

What the magazine covers

  • Leaving Japan 6 pages

    Notice, utilities, shipping and the last weeks in the country.

  • Paperwork and Money 8 pages

    Tax, the pension refund, the bank, the phone and the health insurance card.

  • Return and After 5 pages

    The arrival home, the money that follows you and the links that stay.

  • Resources 3 pages

    The official English pages a departing resident actually opens, grouped by errand.

Readers who are still in Japan usually begin with departure into a dated sequence across the last ninety days, the only page here that puts notices, accounts, shipping and tax into one order. For an errand that needs the English page rather than the order, a grouped list sits under Leaving Ledger Practical Resources for Leavers and names the office behind each entry. A short pre-departure questions FAQ answers the five things readers ask first. Where a contract, a deposit or a refund goes wrong during a move, the same section points departing residents to official consumer advice. For the part of the move that happens after the flight, the Reading List for Leaving and Returning collects the accounts worth reading while the boxes are still open.

Three surfaces of the same week

A counter, a container and a writing desk. The pictures on this site are illustrations and are captioned as such.

A shop counter in a Japanese neighborhood at closing time, a card reader, a small tray of coins and a printed receipt strip resting on the mat beside a pair of reading glasses.
A shop counter at closing time. Generic Japanese neighborhood setting. Used beside the pages on accounts and contracts. Illustration generated with AI.
A shipping container standing on a narrow residential street, a hand truck leaning against its side, flattened cardboard boxes folded against a wall and a clipboard resting on the step.
A shipping container on a residential street. Generic Japanese residential setting. Used beside the pages on shipping and customs. Illustration generated with AI.
A municipal office lobby in the late afternoon, a row of low writing counters with attached pens, a numbered ticket machine and stamped forms left loose on the surface.
A municipal office writing counter. Generic Japanese municipal setting. Used beside the pages on city hall and insurance. Illustration generated with AI.