robertliu.com

So I’ve got just under a month left in Japan now and last week I started calling around to cancel my subscriptions etc.  Even though the Japanese themselves don’t pay the TV licence fees, I was caught out one day when I was expecting the postman but answered the door for a NHK representative who was collecting the licence fees. Apparently, you’re required by law to pay it (like in the UK with the BBC) but there aren’t any penalties for it. I didn’t know this at the time and thought it was the same as the UK system so duly signed up to it to pay about 2000 Yen a month. I am a law abiding citizen after all. Mustn’t forget about my latest farewell gift from Japan – a “Residents tax” bill which comes to an eye-watering 6 figure number

Anyway, if you’re in a similar situation and need to cancel your NHK subscription to the licence fee, just call the number on the bill. I simply said “do you speak English” and just hung on for a few minutes until they found someone that could. When they did, I was greeted by a cheerful “Hi”. Some girl that sounded very junior but knew some English. I explained my situation and she understood and said she would send me a form to fill in. Fairly nice of them to support in English without any complaints (I’ve had pretty bad experiences with Yahoo! technical support in Japan who insist on only speaking Japanese.) But I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the letter a few days later and found that the NHK people had added instructions in English to help me. I hope the “buck” here doesn’t mean a dollar tip!