How-To

Japan Highly Skilled Professional to PR Process and Necessary Documents

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van parked beside the road near handrail and ocean

Edit (October 12, 2022) : Fixed typos. Added some small details in required documents section.

Edit (August 4, 2021) : I have received my PR card. Updating documents required and all sections after and including “During Processing”.

Edit (April 14, 2021) : Added additional documents required for PR submission (self, proxy/agent). Filled in “Submitting Your Documents” section. Fixed typos. My PR application is currently still being processed.

Legal Disclaimer : The contents of this article do not constitute legal advice, are not intended to be a substitute for legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. You should seek legal advice or other professional advice in relation to any particular matters you or your organization may have.

This guide outlines my experiences transitioning from an HSP (HSFP) Visa to Japan’s permanent residency. I have lived in Tokyo, Japan since March 2014, starting out with an Engineer Working Visa before transitioning to HSP Visa (90+ points) in April 2019. One who maintains their 80+ points after a year of holding the HSP visa will be given the opportunity to apply for Japan’s permanent residency.

The permanent residence application process may vary from individual to individual, so please do go through the “Before You Read Further” section to understand my situation and background before going through the prepared documents and process. However, one thing you should know before this is that I worked with Deloitte to process my application, and there may be documents which may NOT actually be necessary but were provided for the sake of fortifying my application or just as a just-in-case. The permanent residency application requires so much of your personal information it will be like taking off all your clothes and showing them your bare naked body… the government will give a VERY thorough screening of your situation and background so it is best to provide them with as much transparency and info as possible to reduce delays to your application.

That’s it for the disclaimer… so let’s get right into it!

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Essence of Taiwanese Mahjong – Introduction

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Even after immigrating to California at six years old, I have played Taiwanese mahjong on and off for a good majority of my life – mostly with family and friends. No friends and relatives around me were very serious about mahjong, so it wasn’t until a few months ago I was humbled by the skill of strangers. That night I played 4.5 complete, 4-wind games, and lost about $100 playing $3 base/$1 tai bets. Since that night I have researched – from both them and other research – about how opponents think and how they play.

This is the beginning guide to a trilogy of Taiwanese Mahjong, going into statistics and numbers before delving into player behavior and playing scenarios. I don’t think other places in the internet has quite as detailed analyses (in English), and I will continue to add to it for, as I have always mentioned in other of my posts here, personal learning and memorandum.

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Opening A Rakuten Bank Account

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Disclaimer (2020-06-03): The first half of the guide (first page of registration) has now been updated to the latest version. The second section about Credit Card information has been left as-is since its UI has been left nearly the same since two years ago. Ignore the sudden jump in numbering as I have only updated the first half of the guide. That said, if there are any discrepancies please do let me know in the comments section!

Introduction

Rakuten Bank is an online service that aims to provide various banking services to customers. Those who use or subscribe to various Rakuten services will often enjoy additional benefits for their banking needs. Just like with Rakuten Card, there are no physical offices you can go to so everything is managed online instead. Having an account with Rakuten is recommended if you heavily use things such as Card, Securities, Edy, or Super Points. In any case, you can read about a non-exhaustive list of advantages and disadvantages below:

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Driving in Taiwan With Japanese Driver’s License

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van parked beside the road near handrail and ocean
Photo by gya den on Pexels.com

Visiting Taiwan and want to drive but forgot to apply for an International Driver’s Permit? If you have a Japanese driver’s license then it is possible for you to drive in Taiwan without having to transfer your license to Taiwan D/L or needing an International Driver’s Permit (IDP). On top of that, unlike IDPs which requires one to process before embarkation, those who are too late (already in Taiwan) are still able to process the necessary documents to drive – and it will be available to use immediately.

Read on for details, procedures, precautions, and other important information regarding driving in Taiwan with a Japanese D/L.

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The Difference Between Fresh and Stale Coffee Beans

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Introduction

Many folks who, like me, wish to try pour-over coffee will definitely look into some details online – via articles or videos – about what tools to prepare and how to make the best cup of coffee. Obviously it is without doubt that the pictures and demonstrations displayed will use the highest grade of tools and materials (coffee beans included). Viewers who want to imitate the pour-over technique may be disappointed to find their results to be sub-par and not what the pictures/videos portrayed at all.

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Secure Your WordPress Using HTTPS

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(Update 2020-04-24: About two years after the making of this article, some of the content has changed, specifically regarding software updates for the GCP Click-To-Deploy VM, as well as different prompts from LetsEncrypt. The post has been updated to reflect the changes.)

This is part 3 of a three-part guide to setting up and configuring WordPress hosted on Google Cloud Platform and registered with a Google Domain URL. Readers should make sure their WordPress instance is running and behaving properly using GCP, have WordPress admin access, and registered their custom domain (eg http://www.example.com) before attempting this section.

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Registering Google Domains to Google Cloud WordPress

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This is part 2 of a three-part guide to setting up and configuring WordPress hosted on Google Cloud Platform and registered with a Google Domain URL. Readers should make sure their WordPress instance is running and behaving properly using GCP and have WordPress admin access before attempting this guide. You can read part 1 here.

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How To Deploy WordPress Using Google Cloud Click-to-Deploy

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While considering what to write for my first How-To article, I came to a realization that the entire process for deploying WordPress and getting it to run on a cloud provider with a custom domain is a rather arduous process. While there are many guides scattered around the internet detailing the various stages of setting up, the concept of a holistic, DIY-everything guide is missing – especially if you go into the details of EXACTLY what platforms and services you are using. Therefore, I’d like to write a comprehensive guide for how to deploy a WordPress instance by yourself using Google Cloud, followed by how to register this WordPress to a custom domain hosted by Google Domain. Finally, I will walk you through the steps of SSL verification and having all traffic route via HTTPS for enhanced security.

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