About Hajime

Why this exists

More than four million people from abroad live in Japan, and the letters that matter most to daily life arrive in Japanese: tax, pension and health insurance. Missing one can mean late fees or trouble renewing a visa.

Hajime explains these letters one by one in your language: what the letter is, what to do, and by when. It is made by an independent maker in Tokyo who has also lived abroad and knows how it feels to open a letter you cannot read.

How pages are written and checked

Each page is based on official sources: the Japan Pension Service, ministries, Immigration Services and city offices. The sources are linked at the bottom of every page with the date they were last checked.

Drafts are written with the help of an AI model (Claude). Every fact is then checked again against the official sources in a separate review before the page is published. Translations are reviewed by native speakers; until that review is done, a page in that language is marked and kept out of search engines.

Rules differ between cities, and they change. When something on your letter is different from what you read here, follow your letter and ask the office named on it.

What this is not

This site gives general information. It is not legal, tax or immigration advice, and it does not fill in or submit forms for you.