1. The tax issue – it isn’t one. You pay taxes for police protection, the fire department, garbage collection etc. If your house catches fire, the local firemen are not going to say “Oh, wait, that’s Jake’s house and he’s not a resident, so we can’t go put his house out”, now are they? The trashman doesn’t say “Sorry Jake, but you’re not a resident and so I can’t pick up your trash”, now does he? If the city has a city-funded (tax-funded) event, they don’t turn you away saying “Thanks for helping pay for this with your taxes, but this is for residents only, and you aren’t one”, do they? The argument that since you pay 住民税 and are eligible for (almost*) all the rights and benefits that entails, but don’t have a certain piece of paper with ”住民” written at the top in big letters and therefore are somehow being treated unfairly is silly. If you were paying your taxes and any or all of the examples I gave above were happening, in other words paying taxes while being denied access to services funded by those taxes, you would have grounds for complaining.

2. “Yes, yes, I know; “honorary”. How many people do you think make that distinction in their mind?” You must have a pretty low opinion of the intelligence of the average Japanese. Do you think anyone actually thinks that by giving Ku-chan a ”特別住民票” that he is now on the same level as they are? Sheesh. “How many people make that distinction in their mind?” How about “all of them”. Or perhaps “all normal people, who don’t insist on acting like psychotic girlfriends and endlessly agonizing over the hidden meaning of meaningless events or things that were said while trying to twist everything into some form of putdown”.

*exceptions would be for things that only apply to Japanese nationals, such as being able to register to vote in your city

Yes, the 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 and the 住民票 are handled at different windows at the city hall. And yes, the information on those two pieces of paper is slightly different. However for all practical intents and purposes they are used for the same exact thing – either one works to certify that the person named on it is a resident of City X. Therefore holding that they are, in point of fact, effectively the same thing is not “bizarre”, it is pointing out what should be painfully obvious but yet somehow people such as your self miss.

You are grasping at straws in an attempt to find offense. You say the system is wrong because you can’t get a piece of paper listing you as “head of your own household”. Let me ask you, could you get such a piece of paper in the country you originally hail from? I know for a fact there is no such piece of paper for Americans or Canadians, and I don’t believe any other English-speaking country has such a document. I never heard of anything like a 住民票　in the US, there was no such document. Proof of residence? A postcard with your name and address on it. And yet we all did just fine living there, now didn’t we?

And now, with actual official proof of residence that you probably never had for your whole life before coming to Japan at your fingertips, and with that proof being instantly legally recognizable by the system that demands it, you insist on splitting hairs over what the piece of paper is called and saying it doesn’t say you are a resident when it so very clearly does – for what? Just so you can be another Dennis the Peasant whinging about the oppression inherent in the system? Please. Spare us.

Then again, I may get riled up again the next time I have to face some absurdity to do with the 住民票 or 戸籍 system (actually, just a couple of weeks ago, my stimulus check was mailed to me separately from my wife/daughters — ah yes, I forgot, as a foreigner, I’m not actually a member of my own family. Silly me. )

(Yes, yes, I know; “honorary”. How many people do you think make that distinction in their mind? No, for all intents and purposes, this is simply a case of “hey, let’s give the otter a 住民票!”)

First of all, the former says nothing about residency at all. It literally means “proof of foreign registry” or something along those lines (don’t have the time to do or look up the proper translation). How you can sit there and say two things that have different wording, are handled by different sections of local governments, require different information entirely, and are governed by different laws entirely are the same is quite simply bizarre.

Without a 住民票, I’m not listed as the head of my own household. Yes, I can be listed as the de-facto head of the household if my city so chooses to allow it, but as it stands, my wife has a 住民票 on which my daughter is registered, but I’m not. Now, if I’m enough of a resident to be taxed as a 住民, then there is no reason I should not be granted a 住民票. It appears the government agrees with me, as there is supposedly a plan on the books to grant foreigners 住民票 by 2012. Immigration handles the visa/foreigner registration stuff, and the local government governs us just as they govern any other residents — sounds good to me.

Maybe you’d have no problem when you take a look at your wife’s 住民票 and see her listed as the head of the household, with your children listed as well, and not a mention of you whatsoever. It’s as if you don’t exist. I’m not sure what, if any, legal issues such an absence could cause but it certainly could be a pain in the ass if you tried to register as a family for a service that requires 住民票 — you have to go and get the foreigner registration, too, and pray that the person in charge is competent/aware enough to understand that foreigners don’t have 住民票, and so on and so forth…

Anyway, for me, the issue is more of an emotional one than anything, and since you obviously can’t understand such a point of view, well, maybe you should just accept the fact that some people do feel strongly about this and make your peace. I think Christianity is bizarre but I don’t take the first chance I get to rant and rave about how all Christians need psychological help. Have a beer and relax.

Neither is an “Honorary residency certificate”.

Are you a foreigner? Do you reside in Japan? If so, do you have a 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 on file in the city you reside in? Well then guess what – you are not someone who “should be considered” a resident, you are not a “would-be resident” (which any reasonable person would interpret as “someone who wants to/plans to live in a certain place but does not yet do so” anyway), you are a resident. And you have a residency certificate. Not exactly the same one as a Japanese does, but you have one, and one that that is as legally powerful and effectively shows all the same information as a 住民票. You want the exact same piece of paper as a Japanese national? Then become one! Or else show some cogent reasons why a 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 is not a valid certificate of residency, or how not having the exact same piece of paper (住民票) as a Japanese national is discriminatory and negatively impacting the daily lives and legal status of foreigners. But since both the 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 and 住民票 are for all intents and purposes exact legal equivalents, that would be a hard argument to make. If the argument can be made, though, it should, and such an argument should be made rationally. Complaining about a seal or an otter getting a meaningless and non-legal “Honorary residency certificate” as a publicity stunt, however, is not making a rational argument, it is comparing apples and oranges and merely shows the stupidity of the complainer, as well as being counter-productive. Protesting Tama-chan and Ku-chan will not make people consider the merits of giving 住民票 instead of 外国人登録原票記載事項証明書 – it will just have them scratching their heads in puzzlement and make it that much harder to have a rational discussion about the merits of the issue.

You consistently show no reserve in showering honest opinions and concerns with scorn and bile. What’s so difficult in offering up some perspective without being insulting?

News flash: it is not. It is a publicity stunt, kind of like dressing up as a seal to protest a city giving said mammal “honorary citizenship”. The difference is the former is harmless fun and kind of amusing, the latter is humorless, grating, annoying and just plain retarded.

I have to wonder if people who get upset about this would get upset about some mayor giving “the key to the city” to someone/something – as if there is a big door at the city limits that you need the key for to open and get in. “Hey, how come HE gets a key but you won’t give ME one!”

It is surprising that overseas otter-lovers are making Ku-chan part of their vacation plans. Nobody tell them you can see otters in local zoos, okay?

…really?