The Monday Read: Obon Again

My wife and I have taken over responsibility for the family grave. A family member who moved to Tokyo had been paying the annual fees but recently became unable to do so.

We had a chat with the priest at the temple and got the family member to sign off on us paying from now on.

The grave is in a small town to the south of Sendai and is absolutely gorgeous. The photo above is from Friday when we went down with the whole Sendai family to clean and look after it.

One of the articles below talks about where foreign residents are planning to be buried, and for me it’s very simple: here, after a quick cremation.

Do you have plans for your funeral and subsequent arrangements?

Had a wonderful season four finale for RetireJapan TV last week. The always inspiring Derek Wessman joined us to talk about naturalising in Japan, living here long term, and the current environment for people who want to get permanent residence or citizenship. It was really fun.

Check out the replay on YouTube or find it on your favourite podcast network.

Curated list of 3 random blog posts: northSaver’s story part 3 (fantastic guest post), it’s good to talk (it’s funny that I think we can probably spend 2-3 times as much as this if we wanted to now), and a really early post on the blog from 2027 The Three Elements (Earning).

Click here to read your own random post on the RetireJapan blog (we have well over 1,000 so you probably haven’t read them all yet). If you enjoy the post, paste the URL in a comment so I can share it with everyone next week.

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. No new videos this week, just the livestream with Derek.

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Speaking of which, the Forum is doing well (47,514 posts so far). The forum rules are here. In essence, they are:

1. Be nice

2. Ask any question you like

3. Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience

4. Don’t use AI to write posts or cut and paste from AI answers

Here are the latest active threads:

Still reading A Brief History of Japan, by Jonathan Clements and I also started Breakneck, by Dan Wang, about China’s growth and government.

Finished Stories from the Quiet War. Took me the first story to get into it, because I hadn’t read the main series, but really enjoyed it after that, so much that I bought the first two books in the series and will read those next.

Total books read in 2026: 33/52

1. I think the government should implement some proposals, see how things go, and then consider making new ones. Right now it’s a new proposal every month, before any of them are even implemented: ‘Total whiplash’: Foreign residents react to Japan’s changing permanent residency rules

2. This seems like such a mistake: Make mine maglev (6)

3. Oooof. 56% in Japan Now Oppose More Foreign Settlement, Up From 36% in 2024

4. It’s an interesting question. I fear the government has not put a lot of thought into this: What Japan’s language rules for permanent residency should look like

5. And now a cap? By area. I think Japan has jumped the shark at this point: Japan kicks off debate on setting cap on number of foreign residents

6. Yen at 180? Yen Has Already Given Up Half Of Its Gains From Joint US-Japan Intervention

7. Know your rights: ‘No way I can pay that’: Property resales drive steep rent hikes for tenants across Japan

8. I think smarphones should be restricted to 16+: ‘Smartphone addiction’: Japanese teen logs 11 hours, 26 minutes a day amid school struggles

9. Never even heard of this: Melon-gate was a non-issue in Japan. How did it get elevated to a crisis in Australia?

10. I don’t think there was much of a need for this: Law to punish national flag desecration takes effect in Japan

11. Sleeping peacefully, like my grandfather. Unlike his passengers, who were crying and screaming… Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?

12. Japan has to be leading the world in heat adaptation. I hope they are monetizing it: It’s Hot. Why Don’t You Put On a Jacket?

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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