{"id":17750,"date":"2026-07-18T13:11:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17750"},"modified":"2026-07-18T13:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T20:12:03","slug":"aly-rustom-on-the-unequal-treatment-of-being-gaijin-carded-for-phone-service-at-rakuten-mobile-anyone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17750","title":{"rendered":"Aly Rustom on the unequal treatment of being Gaijin Carded for phone service at Rakuten Mobile. Anyone else?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From: \u00a0Aly Rustom<\/strong>
\nDate: \u00a0July 11, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

On July 5, 2026 my wife, and I went to change my carrier to Rakuten mobile. A week earlier in my wife had already changed to RM and the process was taking too long so I couldn\u2019t get my carrier changed on the same day as well. Therefore, we elected to go on the 5 of July.<\/em><\/p>\n

All went well and smooth until the staff member directly asked me for my Zairyu card. I remembered last week that he only asked my wife for ID and she produced her drivers license which he accepted without any issues. However, when I said that I would also be presenting my drivers license as that is what I always do when I am asked for my residence card. I noticed that he was a bit uncomfortable, but said OK.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the paperwork was pretty much finalized, he said I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s Rakuten\u2019s policy that we need to see your Zairyu card. I responded with that is illegal to request that. My driver\u2019s license is a Japanese drivers license that is valid. I pay the same taxes as any Japanese so I should be treated the same. He wouldn\u2019t relent so we canceled the contract and got up and left.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wonder if any other people have had the exact same experiences I have. Has anyone else gone to Rakuten and been specifically asked to show their card when they have a drivers license? Because that is exactly what happened to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sincerely, Aly Rustom<\/strong><\/p>\n

==============================<\/p>\n

— Hi Blog. \u00a0Debito here. \u00a0Anyone else finding that for trying to get service from a private-sector business, ID that would suffice for a Japanese, e.g., their driver license, has not sufficed, and they have unlawfully required you produce your Zairyuu Card?<\/p>\n

There were a couple of situations I encountered on my trips to Japan like this — not for contracts, but for government agencies. I just said I was a citizen, produced my Japanese driver license, and that sufficed. But that’s not a panacea for everyone.<\/p>\n

More on this issue of producing Gaijin Cards here (ancient page, but still valid<\/a>). \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rustom: On July 5, 2026 my wife, and I went to change my carrier to Rakuten mobile. A week earlier in my wife had already changed to RM and the process was taking too long so I couldn\u2019t get my carrier changed on the same day as well. Therefore, we elected to go on the 5 of July.<\/p>\n

All went well and smooth until the staff member directly asked me for my Zairyu card. I remembered last week that he only asked my wife for ID and she produced her drivers license which he accepted without any issues. However, when I said that I would also be presenting my drivers license as that is what I always do when I am asked for my residence card. I noticed that he was a bit uncomfortable, but said OK.<\/p>\n

After the paperwork was pretty much finalized, he said I\u2019m sorry, but it\u2019s Rakuten\u2019s policy that we need to see your Zairyu card. I responded with that is illegal to request that. My driver\u2019s license is a Japanese drivers license that is valid. I pay the same taxes as any Japanese so I should be treated the same. He wouldn\u2019t relent so we canceled the contract and got up and left.<\/p>\n

I wonder if any other people have had the exact same experiences I have. Has anyone else gone to Rakuten and been specifically asked to show their card when they have a drivers license? Because that is exactly what happened to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,43,33,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-bad-business-practices","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17752,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17750\/revisions\/17752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}