When I live abroad, I often wonder, “What a nice country Japan is!” Of course, in Japan, for example, the toilets are unusually clean, there is no trash on the road, and the service is godly. But not only that, I think that diligence is at the top level in the world.
When I leave Japan and look overseas, I often wonder how sloppy it is to work abroad. Here, I would like to talk about what I have seen so far and thought, “Isn’t it too sloppy !?”
“Your last name is different”
Marriage certificate and family registration
My husband is Belgian. When filing her marriage registration, she first filed a marriage registration in Japan, translated the documents approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into Dutch, and notified her husband’s parents’ home to the city hall for approval. Naturally, we should be recognized as married couples in both Japan and Belgium.
When you submit it to Belgium, you will have a copy of your marriage registration and a copy of your family register. Since I changed my surname at the same time as I got married, I naturally fill in the marriage registration with my maiden name, but the copy of the family register I got after that is my husband’s surname.
Last name wasn’t correct
My son was born last year and I submitted a birth certificate to both Japan and Belgium. Since we live in China, we submitted it to the Embassy of Japan and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Belgium, but there was an unexpected problem on the Belgian side.
The birth certificate required me to sign my father’s husband and mother, and a copy of my passport. At that time, of course, my surname is my husband’s surname, but the Belgian city hall, which confirmed our marriage status after receiving an inquiry from the Belgian embassy, confirmed only the marriage registration written with the maiden name. He said, “My mother’s surname is different.”
In response to the news from the city hall, the embassy said, “My mother’s surname is still my last name, but in order to properly register my child, please prove that this old surname and the new surname are the same. I was contacted. The husband was furious and was stamped with the approval of the Belgian City Hall, which we received when we submitted the certificate of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a copy of the marriage registration and family register with the apostille, to Belgium. I sent the marriage registration and a copy of the family register to the embassy.
Later, when her husband went to the embassy and filed another complaint, she was told by the embassy, ”That was a bad city hall, sorry.” If you check the copy of the family register submitted together, there was no problem, and it would be a mistake of the other party who failed to check it. I had no choice but to think that it was a mess.
“Fill in the expiration date of your visa”
Checking in with machines
There are many times when I think it’s sloppy with American airlines. The other day, the assault of United Airlines drew worldwide attention to American airlines. I also always want to avoid American airlines if possible.
The other day, I’m talking about returning from the United States to China using American Airlines. Since I am Japanese and my husband is Belgian, we were both in the United States without a visa. When I checked in, I checked in for two people by machine, and her husband was lining up at the counter to check in my luggage.
Staff who wanted to help me…
It was when I first checked in myself and then decided to check in my husband. An American Airlines staff member appeared and came by as if to say, “I’ll help you,” and said this and that. I gave her her husband’s passport, thinking that she would do it.
She suddenly said, “She can’t issue a ticket without entering the expiration date of his visa.” She explained that her husband is an EU person, can enter the United States without a visa, they are registered for ESTA, and I was able to issue tickets for my Japanese.
That’s not for USA, but for China!!
She flipped over her husband’s passport and opened the Chinese Visa page for us to live in China. Then he said to me, “Hey! You have a visa here!” And started entering the expiration date of your Chinese visa.
“That’s a Chinese visa. It says the People’s Republic of China here, or does this visa need to expire?” She stopped and said, “Oh, that’s true, then. I don’t have an American visa, “he said, issuing his husband’s ticket. I’m not sure what he did, but it seems that her husband has finally been recognized as a visa-free person in the United States.
Even though he is a person from a country where he can enter without a visa, he is politically humiliated, such as being required to have a visa. Also, if you work for an American airline and ask a foreigner for an American visa, you don’t know what an American visa looks like, and you might mistake a Chinese visa for an American visa. I thought it was a thing.
“Apply for Family court”
Family registration paper didn’t have my mom’s name but my grandma’s name
That said, I don’t think overseas is the only place where work is sloppy. It is true that the Japanese administration is quick and will do the job relatively reliably, but I myself have had a ridiculous experience at the city hall.
In the past, the family register was handwritten. With the spread of personal computers, the data was input to the personal computers and is now managed by the data. I made a big mistake when typing on this computer.
When I was in the second year of junior high school, I got a copy of my family register to apply for a passport. At that time, when I suddenly saw the names of my parents near my name, her mother’s name was the name of her paternal grandmother. In other words, the father was in a state of being married to his mother.
”Go to family court to correct the mistakes”
When my parents returned to the city hall and sought to correct what this meant, the person in charge at the city hall said, “You cannot change the contents of your family register here.” “If you want to change the contents of your family register, apply to the family court. If it is approved there, it can be changed. ”
For her mother, she wasn’t on the family register, which was clearly a mistake in the city hall. In other words, this is a problem before “changing the contents of the family register”. Even though the city hall mistakenly entered the data of the family register without permission, in order to restore it, you have to apply to the family court, let alone have the contents of the family register corrected only after being approved there. There is something strange about it. However, it seems that there is no precedent, and the person in charge just insisted that “the change of family register is here …”.
They can’t correct it there
My father didn’t want to give up, and in the end the person in charge consulted with his boss and it was decided to correct it on the spot. However, the boss said, “Oh, I’ll fix it,” and he really tried to correct it on the spot.
Even though I had insisted on the family court a while ago, it is strange that the attitude of trying to correct it on the spot is also strange because of this pursuit. Moreover, the family register is very important in Japan, and it is a problem that the content is different from the fact, but it is strange that it is easily corrected on the spot.
Apology from the mayor
Eventually, my father requested a letter of apology from the mayor. The city hall is under the jurisdiction of the mayor, and the public servant working under the mayor made a terrible mistake, so instead of correcting the contents of the family register and making it absent, he became the mayor who is the boss of the public servant. After reporting properly, he requested an apology from the mayor.
At a later date, I received a properly corrected copy of the family register and a document signed by the mayor. This case would not have been noticed unless I had a copy of my family register to get my passport. However, family registration is rarely obtained unless there are circumstances. If you have never taken a family register or have never confirmed your name on the family register, you may want to check it once.
Every country has problems
Looking at it this way, we can see that sloppyness in work exists in every country. It is true that Japanese people are diligent and are highly regarded around the world for their work that values the spirit of hospitality, but they still have a high ability to solve problems when problems occur. There are some aspects that cannot be said.
We ourselves feel that we need to be smarter as consumers. If the other party is an administration, I don’t want to be swayed by the administration, but I don’t need to be careful, have time to spare, etc.
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