ABOUT
This is not a site that explains Japanese rules.
It gives you things that still work after you leave.
Practical, honest guides for people from Nepal, Sri Lanka and beyond — money, housing, work and visa.
What this site actually gives you
Plenty of sites explain how things work in Japan. This one does too. But it does not stop there.
The 28-hour work limit. The word NISA. The five years on your residence card. None of it means anything once you leave Japan. Given enough time, it changes inside Japan too. Memorise the rules and what you memorised expires in a few years.
So this site also writes down the principles underneath the rules. Cut fixed costs before you cut anything else. Put time on your side. Spend first on what does not come back. Those hold in any country, in any decade.
They work when you go home. You can hand them to your children and grandchildren. Money is not the only thing you can take back with you from a few years in Japan.
Why I can write it. I am Japanese, so I can read the source documents — the ministry notices, the tax office Q&As — in the original. And the topics come from real problems that friends from Nepal and Sri Lanka brought to me. One side can read it; the other side is living it. This site is written from where those two meet.
Where it leads. Not just to you losing less money. To you becoming the senpai for whoever arrives next.
Before and after
Common situations, not made-up ones:
Before
You are billed ¥100,000 when you move out, assume that is normal, and pay. You send one lump sum to your father for the whole family. Every renewal you get three years and feel relieved.
After
You can say that normal wear is the landlord’s cost. You send to each person separately and claim three deductions. You go into your next renewal aiming for five years.
Every one of these is just a matter of knowing. Not knowing costs you the same money again, every year. And once you do know, you become the person who tells someone else “you can refuse that.”
Losing money is not because your Japanese is weak
In Japan there is a word: senpai (先輩) — a senior who quietly tells you how things work. When I was a university student, mine told me things like “that restaurant is cheap” and “this will be on the test.” Small remarks that saved me over and over. He had been told the same things by his own senpai.
That is how Japanese people receive this knowledge. Nobody looks it up, because the person next to them already tells them.
When you arrive from abroad, you have no one in that position. Nobody explains the deposit and “key money” on an apartment, the 28-hour work limit, or that an unfair move-out bill can be refused. So you lose money without ever learning the rule existed.
And there is a second wall: the information itself was split in two. Japanese articles are accurate but buried in kanji and technical terms. English articles are readable but written for a stay of a few months — no tax, no pension, no visa renewals. Someone living here for years fell straight through the gap between them.
This is not about your ability, and not about your Japanese. You are outside a chain of handed-down knowledge, and the information was split in two. That is all it is.
Both of those walls have now come down
The first wall — no senpai. This site takes that job. What a senpai actually did was tell you before you knew to ask. That is what these guides do, in writing.
The second wall — the split in the information. Every ministry document is now published online. Checking the original and putting the same content out in both Japanese and English became something one person can do. Ten years ago it was not realistic.
And the rules are moving right now. From April 2027, the residence period required for permanent residency changes, and permanent residence becomes revocable. Know it and you have time; don’t and you don’t. That is why this is being written now.
How this site works
1. It gives you an order, not just a list
A pile of information does not tell you what to read first. The order exists because earning while your foundation is weak means losing what you earn.
- 1. Protect — visa, contracts, health (most important)
- 2. Save — rent, phone, remittance fees, tax refunds
- 3. Earn — part-time work, Japanese, changing your visa
- 4. Grow — brokerage accounts, NISA, pension refunds
- 5. Spend well — family, culture, the life you build here
2. Numbers and procedures are checked against the source
Immigration Services Agency, National Tax Agency, the Ministry of Land, the Ministry of Health and Labour. The original document, not somebody else’s summary. When something is still only proposed, it says so.
3. The same guide exists in English and in Japanese
Read it in English, then read it again in simple Japanese, and the guide doubles as language practice. Every guide has diagrams, so the key points survive even if you do not read every line.
Who writes this?
This site is run by mori, a Japanese person. It started with problems that friends from Nepal and Sri Lanka ran into. Far too many of them ended with “if you’d asked me, I could have told you.”
Being written from the Japanese side is also this site’s weakness. I have never lived in Japan as a foreigner. So I do not invent experiences. Rules and numbers get checked against official sources; the problems come from what people actually told me. That is the whole method.
The Japanese versions are written at roughly JLPT N2. Simple is not the same as sloppy — the numbers and the procedures stay exact.
Your first step takes ten seconds
You do not need to read everything. Take out your residence card.
Look at the “period of stay” field. Does it say 3 years, or 5 years?
If it says 3 years, then from April 2027 you cannot apply for permanent residency as things stand. If it says 5 years, that problem does not apply to you. Ten seconds tells you which side of that line you are on. The details are in the permanent residency guide.
After that, pick the one guide that fits you now:
- Just arrived → registering your address and health insurance. Everything else starts here
- Nothing left at the end of the month → remittance fees. You send again and again, so the difference compounds
- Supporting family back home → the dependent deduction. How you send decides how much you can claim
- Not sure → start at Skill 1: Protect. That is where the order begins
One request
If this helped, pass it to a friend. Be their senpai.
Senpai to kohai is not a Japanese-only thing. Every time you tell someone one of these, that person does not lose the money you almost lost. That is what this site is really for.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs lazy-lazy?
mori, a Japanese writer. The site plays the role of the senpai you do not have yet, with facts checked against official sources such as the Immigration Services Agency and the tax office.
Is lazy-lazy free to read?
Yes, everything is free (as of 2026). Some guides contain clearly marked affiliate links, and they never change the advice.
Can I read the guides in Japanese?
Yes. Key guides have Japanese versions in simple JLPT N2 Japanese – use the language badge at the top of each guide to switch.
Is this only useful while I live in Japan?
No. The guides explain current Japanese rules, but each of the five skills also sets out the principles underneath them – cut fixed costs first, start investing early, spend on what does not come back. Those still apply after you leave Japan, and you can pass them on to your children.
