Samumu comments

Considering the demographics, just expect much more taxes in the future.

"How easy" is not the right question. "How hard" is the right question. In my case, I have been living here for nearly ten years, my bank account is as old, meaning my bank has nearly a decade of transactions history to verify what I do with my money. I have a debit card and I decided to get a credit card to purchase items online. I went to my bank, fill the proper form, just to get rejected. Needless to say the letter I received told me that they do not provide any explanations as to how and why they decided to not accept my application. Hopefully, I applied at the same time for a credit card with a western company. It took 24 hours to get the approval and about three weeks to get it home by email. That is how things are. There are several explanations. Obviously, a xenophobia by default : you're a foreigner, you're not reliable and prove troublesome somehow. "Why bother ?" is the unwritten rule. Then, there is the very japanese idea of what is a Credit Card. It's some kind of priviledge that requires the applicant "to beg" hard enough to get by meeting "criterias", all of them being a big mystery box. In the West it's just something one uses to pay stuff. In my country, I get a credit card with a single signature, regardless of my situation. In Japan, banks are absolutely convinced you will steal their money with that credit card eventhough you can't spend the money you obviously do not have on your bank account. When you tell them you can only spend the money you put on your bank account and can't use that credit card to spend the bank's money, they look at you with astonishment. They do not deny it, they simply can not process the fact that you can't use a credit card to rob a bank. No need to judge it overall, it's cultural and it won't change. It's hardwired and flexibily won't suddenly happen to accommodate foreigners, tourists or residents.