When you hire a reliable Japanese moving company for relocating from Japan you also need a guide for leaving Japan.  Leaving Japan permanently it’s an emotional process with reverse culture shock and job hunting. Many different and hard tasks await.

There is a ton of relocation tips and checklists for your relocation to take care of before you pack your suitcase. We bring you the know-how for leaving Japan, so, here it is the big to-do list. It may sound obvious, but the sooner you start planning to move from Japan, the better. Consult top moving professionals for this matter: ksemoving.com

Someone needs months or weeks to get everything organized. Leaving Japan for good is not cheap but if you follow our instructions for leaving Japan you will avoid moving stress.

How to relocate from Japan

Start shipping boxes two to three months before your departure date.

1. Pack and ship your boxes

First step in moving from Japan is to start packing and shipping stuff you want to take out of Japan. Pack the clothes you won’t need immediately, as well as books, curtains etc. Put them in the boxes and send them to your home address via surface mail. Depending on where they’re going, your goods should arrive in one to three months. If you time it right, your stuff will be there shortly after you.

2. Prior to leaving Japan, recycle or dispose of your stuff

The second step in relocating from Japan is getting rid of unnecessary stuff.

To get rid of the furniture, appliances and other household items that you will no longer need, we recommend holding a sayonara sale and advertising it on social networks.
Work out a schedule for throwing out any furniture or other items that you can’t sell, in line with your ward’s rubbish collection rules and dates.

3. If you have pets, prepare their paperwork

If you have pets and are taking them with you, you’ll need to get their paperwork and flights booked before you take care of your own. This means looking up the animal import requirements for your destination country and arranging an import certificate and so on.

Appoint a tax representative Japan, and pay your residence tax

4. Leaving Japan without paying taxes

Taxes have a nasty habit of following you around the world, all your life. So, before leaving Japan, you need to designate someone as your tax representative. This person will be doing two things for you: filling in and submitting a tax return for you after your pension refund comes through. Also, this person is paying your final residence taxes if you leave at an awkward time of year for your local tax office.

Anyone can do it for you—the only requirement is that they are a resident of Japan and not some rogue tourist.

If you lived in Japan 1) for one year or longer, 2) leave before June, and 3) your company did not withhold part of your salary for the residence tax, you will need a tax representative to deal with this as well. Since income taxes aren’t filed until March, the first residence tax payment coupons aren’t mailed out until June.

The residence tax is based on your income from the previous year and is paid to the municipality you resided in on Jan. 1 of the current year, even if you have moved elsewhere recently.

5. Check your visa for relocating from Japan

If your visa is due to expire before you jet out of Japan, you’ll need to pop into your nearest immigration office to apply for a Temporary Visitor visa. If you get to the airport and the immigration officials find that your visa expired even a few days prior, you can have seriously problems. You can be permanently barred from re-entering Japan.

6. Tell your city hall that you’re leaving Japan

When you moved into your city, you had to go to the city hall/ward office and notify them of it. When you leave, you need to do the same thing.

It takes five minutes and is necessary for tax, pension refund and future visa purposes.

7. Cancel your lease and get your deposit back before relocating from Japan

Give your landlord as much notice as is required by your lease and arrange a date for a moving-out inspection. They’ll send someone round to assess the damage and determine how much of your deposit you’ll get back.

8. Close your gas, electricity, internet and water accounts

Call the utilities and tell them that you are moving from Japan, and arrange for your accounts to be closed the day you move out of your apartment.

You can leave some money with a friend and have them pay these last bills at a convenience store. You can usually get the exact amount in advance, to make matters easier.

Cancel your cellphone contract

You can do this the day before or even the day of your departure from Japan.

9. Give the post office a forwarding address

You can’t get your mail forwarded to a foreign address, but you can get it redirected to a friend in Japan if you like. Simply go to your local post office or the JP Post website and fill out a tenkyo todoke form.

10. Close your bank accounts

Leave this as late as possible, to make sure that you receive your final salary. There are a bunch of papers you’ll need to sign, and if you have a credit card the bank will likely want to cut it up.

11. Hand over your health insurance card

Without your card, you don’t have affordable access to the medical system in Japan. Return your health insurance card to your employer and switch to travel insurance if you are going to be doing some domestic travel before leaving Japan.

12. Say goodbye and board that plane

Assuming that you’ve remembered to book your ticket, get yourself on board the plane and leave Japan.

Hand over your alien registration/resident card at immigration as you leave the country.