Help Potential issue returning to Japan at the border with debt?

[khangu]

I've been studying in Japan for almost two years and recently left the country with some credit card and application debt. I had an urgent issue in my home country, so I had to leave Japan quickly. I informed my school about my departure, but I didn't have enough time or financial resources to settle all my debts.

Recently, a Japanese company offered me a job and said they would support my visa through sponsorship. I'm willing to pay off all my debts as soon as I arrive in Japan, and I even tried to make the payments from my home country, but it wasn't possible.

Are there any potential issues I might face when returning to Japan at the border because of my outstanding debts?

 

[johnnyG]

As far as immigrations goes (on entry), I've never heard of a case where they knew about this--that someone had unsettled debt(s). I think you can just come back and deal with them as you plan to do.

That said, I think phone companies/providers do exchange details and info on 'bad' customers, so in order to get phone service--a SIM plan/contract--you may have to settle any debt connected to your previous phone service before being allowed to get a new service contract, even from a different provider (tho in the present-day proliferation of MVNOs, this may not be as bas as it once was). And there may be something similar for debit/cash cards and banks that I don't know about.

Things like residence taxes, pension, healthcare premiums, etc, may depend on if you filed a moving out report before you left. If you did, then fine, but if not, you'll probably have some explaining/negotiating to do about what you owe or not.

But don't worry about entry and getting in, that should work fine. And I hope you can turn this situation around and get back to normal life here. Good luck!