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The Leaving Ledger Countdowns, paperwork and money

Edition of

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.

Written by the editors of The Leaving LedgerFirst published contact@sayonarajapan.com

Since

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 narrow lane between old wooden houses, a wall of pinned notices and leaflets on the left, a row of trestle tables on the right where four seated staff work at laptops and paper forms, and a dozen people standing and waiting.
A notice covered wall and a row of trestle tables used as a counter, with about a dozen people standing and waiting. Generic Japanese neighborhood 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 table where a form is explained, a household reading the guides, a desk with the telephone. The pictures on this site are illustrations and are captioned as such.

Two people sitting across a light wood table in a bright office, one of them in a grey jacket holding an open printed leaflet, a laptop, a calculator and a white mug between them, a noticeboard on the wall behind.
Two people reading a printed leaflet across a table. Generic Japanese office setting. Used to illustrate the counter where a form is explained. Illustration generated with AI.
Three people around a wooden table in a room with paper screen doors and a full bookcase, each holding an open printed booklet, more stapled sheets stacked in front of them and daylight falling from the left.
Three people comparing printed booklets around a table. Generic Japanese home interior. Used to illustrate a household reading the guides together. Illustration generated with AI.
A man in a pale shirt at a desk beside a window, a phone at his ear and an open printed brochure in his hand, a monitor, a keyboard, a desk telephone and two stacks of leaflets beside him, a colleague on the phone behind.
A desk with a telephone, a monitor and two stacks of leaflets. Generic Japanese office setting. Used to illustrate the calls that settle the last details. Illustration generated with AI.