January 30, 2004
Bureaucracy
Let me diverge from Japan for but a moment, and have a right hearty bitch about my antipodean friends, the NSW State Government.
Matt and I have to get birth certificates to apply for a marriage license (which we have to organise from Japan) and its ridiculous how anal the NSW Government is.
I understand that to get a birth certificate, the government has to be pretty certain that you are who you say you are, but Matt had the good fortune to be born in South Australia, where all you need is a copy of your passport, the most sacred of documents.
In NSW, you have to supply 3 forms of ID - Passport (List 1) , Medicare Card/Credit Card etc. (List 2) and ID from List 3 - a document with your current residential address on it, either gas/electricity account or bank statement. Herein lies the rub.
My Japanese bank doesn't issue statements (I mean, its not like the Japanese banking system is in the 21st century or anything) and the gas and electricity accounts are in Matt's name, Matt being in a superior linguistic position to decipher the bureaucratic mayhem that is, well, any Japanese utility.
"OK", says the NSW government (who, to their credit have been very prompt with answering my questions), "howsabout a tax statement or official company document with your address on it?" "Eureka!" cries I, "they send me enough of those buggers! The address is in kanji, though, is this OK?"
"Well, no, actually, if the address is in Japanese, you need a certified translation of it." Huh? You don't got no Japanese readers in the NSW Government to translate a measly address? Shit, even I can read it!
Do you realise how difficult it is in Japan, to get a document with an address in English on it, it being Japan and all, where they speak, um, Japanese??? Does the NSW government have any idea how goddamn difficult this is?
I could bite the bullet and put my parents address as my residential address which would begin the painstaking middle-man process, but I really would like to get my birth certificate this year. Sometime.
Damn. Adelaide is beginning to look pretty good after all.
Actually, I can very easily provide you with a certified translation of your bank address or tax forms, as long as you give me a little notice. I am a professional Japanese-English translator with 4 years experience and a MA in the discipline! I've done several certified translations in the past. Email me to get more info!
Thanks,
Wendy
A rather frequent reader of your blog.
Thanks Wendy! It's nice of you to offer, but I was really hoping to send it today or Monday so managed to twist the bureaucratic arm to let me send a letter from my health insurer on company letterhead with my address in English. So problem solved but, sheesh, not that it wasn't hard work or anything!
ganbare kinki!
I think birth certificates are really dumb! They don't have a photo on it and even if it did, I think I look a little different now. I don't even live at that address.
I brought my original birth certificate to Japan....ummm, now where did I put it!!!
Yeah, BCs suck, but if I wanna drag my cohort kicking and screaming down some aisle somewhere, then I'm gonna need this shit. Would you be so quick to criticise if I told you my original BC was PINK? Nah, didn't think so...
re: the BC --- your mum can still apply for it herself, can't she? Seems that should be one of the perks of giving birth, lifetime entitlement to a piece of paper that says you've done so.
Agreed, it should be one of the perks, and in theory, someone else can apply on behalf of you, but for Aussies its just so much easier and less hassle to apply for yourself. Don't know how it works in other countries.
I feel your pain. I also had to organize my wedding in NSW to an Australian while we were in Japan (I'm American). Believe me, after you get the BC and other stuff, they'll think of new reasons why it just isn't good enough. But the fun doesn't really begin til you have a kid, and try to get his passport from over here.