A trip to immigration

Amongst all the uncertainty,  it's almost reassuring to have the idiosyncratic vagaries of the Japanese documentation and privacy systems as incongruous as ever.

I took a trip to Shinagawa to renew my visa today.
In the documentation....

• a  application form to extend the visa
• Hiro's family register which his mother gets from the Odate local govt. office.
• a certificate of Hiro's place of residence (jyuminhyo)
• a certificate of my residence (even though I am written onto Hiro's as being at the same address I need to produce my own foreigner's place of residence certificate )
• a tax certificate of Hiro's  (they don't care about my income fortunately)
• a certificate of guarantee for Hiro to fill out in case I do bad things and get deported - it is just about a blank cheque.

The double certificate for residence proof is a relic of when foreigners couldn't be written onto the Japanese jyuminhyo,   but.... the last two were a cause for consternation.

I can't pick up Hiro's tax certificate from the local govt. without Hiro's permission... privacy..... (I picked up a form to get him to designate me proxy to collect it.)

BUT

I can fill in the guarantor form  which is potentially a blank cheque - in English  -  & use a 100yen shop stamp as a signature and they accept it !!!.

Bizarre....