Japan's parliament has passed legislation to give a cash hand-out to every resident in attempt to boost the recession-hit economy. Most people will get at least 12,000 yen, while children under 18 and people aged over 65 will get 20,000 yen as part of the scheme.
It was unclear to me if we foreign residents would receive this hand-out. Then, two weeks ago, I received a letter from the local government with instructions on how to apply for the "Supplementary Income Payments", and that included some Japanese peculiarities.
1) The cash hand-outs are managed by local governments, which means that for example each of the 23 wards in Tokyo manages them on their own. They design the forms, distribute them, set up a approval process and process the payments. I can not imagine how much extra work is being done if this is done in a bit different way in each of the 783 cities of Japan.
2) I need to verify my address, which the local government already had when sending me the application. My address was printed on the application, but I needed to hand write it the document AND to provide a copy of my alien registartion card which has the same address on it. In some parts of Tokyo also phone number, which means that the aplication forms are designed individually (refer to #1). They have my correct address, but I have to confirm it twice!
3) I need to fill in my bank account (which is actually the only information the local government did not have). And to verify that I need to provide "A copy of a bankbook page indicating the account holder, account number, financial institution and the branch of the account where the Supplementary Income Payments is to be deposited". To start with, I did not have bank book in Finland since mid 80's...
4) Everybody will get the cash hand-out. Even the prime minister.
I wonder who will have time to go trough all the copies submitted with the applications? There will be tens of millions of applications (1 per family), which means huge waste of paper and money on this process.
In Finland I would imagine that
1) similar process would be managed by KELA, The Social Insurance Institution of Finland, who would already have
2) the addresses (not needed) and
3) the bank account information of
4) families with children, students, uneployed, retired, disabled, and other people in need receiving social security payments - others might not need the cash hand-out.
(Or there might be a tax cut, which is slower to implement)
That would not work in Japan, where the people do not have, and will not have a social security number. Now, how would I take a copy which verifies my "computer-readable integrated circuit card" they plan to implement instead...
Anyway, we will be happy to receive the 64.000 yen (500 euro) cash hand-out and will spend it on local services or local products to boost the Japanese economy.
Riikka will have another lecture about Finnish education tomorrow. Here is a link to a report (in Japanese) of her earlier lecture. And attached are some sample slides she uses.
