About BEGINJAPAN
A living guide for people who just moved to Japan, made in Tokyo.
Who we are
BEGINJAPAN is run by a couple living in Tokyo. One of us works in advertising and writing; the other works in new business and sales at a tech company. We started this guide because friends who moved to Japan kept asking the same questions in their first month. CHECK: final wording and names to show
How we check information
- Every guide starts with a short answer, then the steps.
- Prices, deadlines and rules link to the official page or the source we used, with the date we checked.
- Residence status and visa topics are kept general. For your own case, ask the Immigration Services Agency, an Employment Service Center for Foreigners or a licensed immigration lawyer.
- Translations are checked by native speakers. Pages still being checked say so at the top.
How we make money
Some links are affiliate links: if you sign up through them, we may earn a fee at no extra cost to you. Partners in our area guides pay for a listing. Both are marked PR. Payment never decides what we write in the guides.
Photos
Photos on this site are from Unsplash and used under the Unsplash License. Thank you to the photographers. Photos show places in Japan in general and are not of the people or businesses mentioned in our guides.
- A small shop front on a Tokyo side street, with bicycles parked outside
- A quiet Japanese street with wooden houses and parked bicycles
- Cherry blossoms over the Meguro River in Nakameguro
- A Nakameguro street under cherry blossoms
- A lantern-lit side street in Tokyo at night
- Tsutenkaku Tower above the shop signs of Shinsekai, Osaka
- Tsutenkaku Tower at the end of a narrow Osaka street
- Tsutenkaku Tower lit up at night
- A residential street in Osaka with Tsutenkaku Tower in the distance
- A busy shopping street in Osaka
- A white apartment building behind utility wires
- Apartment balconies seen from below
- A tall apartment building with rows of balconies
- A red and white apartment block against a blue sky
- Apartment windows lit at night
- Sunlight in an empty room with a chair by the window
- A Tokyo subway platform with a train arriving
- People waiting for a train on a platform
- A long train platform in Japan
- A Shinkansen bullet train arriving at the platform
- Japanese yen coins on a banknote
- A hand holding a Japanese banknote on a wooden counter
- A hand holding a 10 yen coin
- A convenience store lit up at night
- A convenience store on a wet street at night
- A cyclist passing a lit convenience store at night
- A Japanese sign written in kanji and hiragana
- A ramen shop with a red awning
- A pagoda above an old street in a Japanese town
- A quiet residential street in Japan
- Vending machines in front of a small Japanese shop
- A takoyaki stall in Osaka
Contact
See the contact page.