日本の謎 / Mysteries in Japan #5: 身分証明書 / ID

It's a little past 9 PM at this Starbucks here, and the joint is, as they would say, jumpin'. It's like, geez people, don't you have anywhere else to be??

I have an excuse, because I don't have Internet at my apartment, and I need, as Kusanagi Motoko would say, to get connected to the Net. And I have discovered that the reason I have to be at a Starbucks at 9:11 PM on a Thursday night is because Japan has a pretty screwed up subject identification system.

I won't complain about the mind-numbing process of getting myself transferred into this city at the local ward office. I know I have it pretty good as a Japanese citizen, even having to wait around, explain to the officer about living overseas, clarify why I'm not contributing to the national pension system, or be dismayed by the persistent racism and patriarchy of the Japanese koseki (family registry) system.

But it does make me sad when I have to consider handing over my passport just to get Internet set up, or when I can't get a library card without a "government-issued" ID. I mean, really—haven't you people ever heard of MIGRATION??