my hand hurts.

It is interesting to me that the only time we foreigners are seen as equals is when we are being asked to pay money. I can think of nowhere where i have gotten a discount for being forienger, but i have gotten ripped off because of it. I am suspicious that i have a broken bone in my left wrist.

I can

1) Use the cheap, New Zealand insurance that my company recommended (but is not considered adequate in Japan), pay all of my costs up front and hope for a rebate.

2) Sign up for insurance that covers (get this) people who are not working and pay the whole premium myself and 30 percent of the medical costs

3) Continue my petition for social health care where my company pays half the premium and i pay the other half plus 30 percent.

When i call my company, they say, call the insurance company in australia.

When i call the labor commision in fukuoka, they acknowledge that i am being wronged but the tax dollars being payed to employ them all are enough to force them to , guess what, regular labor practices.

When i call the city hall, they tell me to pay.

So why even write laws saying that people with full time jobs are entitled to social healthcare, without writing "unless they are foreigners" in the law. Because it isnt written, but it is there. I wonder how japanese people would feel if the australian or english governments excluded them from the system because they exclude british and australian people here from the system.

mark my words, the city hall will not get a dime from me until they get up off of their ass and enforce their own law.

One of the reasons the suicide rate here is so high is because of bullying. Sure there are signs, commercials, and hotlines for people to call, but its only lip service. In a society that not only turns a blind eye to bullying people weaker or in lower social positions, but to an extent protrays that as the definition of manliness, what do you think it would be normal for trains to be late once or twice a month at the local station due to businessmen jumping in front of trains. This is a place where a woman was raped in a commuter train bathroom and people stood by and did nothing. These large corporations just break the law openly, and yet the establishment sits by and wonders why their health care system is running short on money to care for old people. If you cant enforce the law, is it really a law? Or only a law for those stupid enough to obey it?

What is the benefit of paying taxes if no one will ever make you?
What is the benefit of being honest with your time card if there is no oversight against all the other people who are exploiting the system?
Why play by the rules if the refs have blindfolds on?

We like to believe in rules and order, but it is only a function of how important it is for everyone to have to follow them. What kind of rule makes sense if it has 15 exceptions? If the rule is to pay 10k dollars, you best believe i will find one of those exceptions that fits me.

The city hall is trying to bully me as the city hall and a large company against a long foreigner. But that wont play. We americans dont play that shit.

Enforce your law, then i will pay.

Ok, i cooled down a bit. As american, it is so disappointing hearing all of the merits of social health care, then i come to a country that supposedly has it, but i cant have it because im a foreigner.

Shame on Japan.