As I mentioned on the previous page, I arrived in Japan earlier than the start of the academic year in April 2020. Because of this, I initially entered Japan on a Researcher (研究) visa. With this visa, I was registered as a research student, which allowed me to adapt to the research environment before officially becoming a degree student.

I arrived in Japan on February 1, 2020, and immediately began my activities as a research student. Not long after that, I had to prepare various documents to change my visa status from Researcher to Student (留学). The main documents came from two institutions:

• NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science), which provided an employment contract as proof of financial support (salary).
• The university, which issued an official letter stating that I would formally become a student starting April 1, 2020.

In mid-February, I went to the immigration office in Mito, Ibaraki, since my residence was registered in Tsukuba. I felt quite relieved, as the Mito office was much quieter compared to the Shinagawa Immigration Office in Tokyo, which is usually very crowded.

However, something interesting happened. Normally, a visa status change takes only one to two weeks to process. In my case, the application was delayed for several months, and I was only able to pick up my new visa in early April. The reason was actually quite reasonable: since I was still officially a research student and receiving a salary until the end of March, immigration held my visa change. If they had approved the application in February, I would no longer have been allowed to work under the researcher contract. Instead, immigration sent me a kind of “love letter” (a postcard notice, hagaki) asking me to come back and collect my new visa in early April.

To be honest, I was quite anxious at the time. Living in Japan without a residence card feels very impractical—many administrative procedures and public services become inaccessible. It felt like being a “temporary tourist,” even though I was planning to stay in Japan long-term. Fortunately, everything was eventually resolved, and I was able to start my life properly as both a student and a researcher in Japan.