Water Supply and Sewerage

Starting and Stopping Your Water Supply

If you would like to start using the water or if you would like to stop water services because you are moving out or other such reason, please notify the Sakado/Tsurugashima Waterworks Bureau three days in advance.
To start using the water, you must give your name, address, telephone number and date for the start of services. To stop water services, you must give your Customer Number, name, address, date of the termination of services, forwarding address and new telephone number. Your Customer Number is written on the Water Usage Amount Notice or Water Bill Receipt.

Water Bill

The fee for water services is charged once every two months. When you receive your invoice, please pay the fee at the counter of the main or branch office of the financial institution listed on the back of the invoice (If you pay at a post office, please pay at the counter of the metropolitan prefectural post office listed on the back of the invoice) or at the Sakado/Tsurugashima Waterworks Bureau office.
Payments can also be made safely and conveniently by automatic debit from your financial account, so please take advantage of this service.

Breakdowns

Please contact the Sakado/Tsurugashima Waterworks Bureau if the water supply stops or if your water pipes leak.

* Inquiries concerning the water supply (If you do not speak Japanese, please have a Japanese speaker make the call for you): Sakado/Tsurugashima Waterworks Bureau
Tel: 049-283-1951

Sewerage Service

You must pay for sewerage service in certain areas of the city where a public sewerage system is in operation for sewage discharged from your home or factory.
The fee is based on the volume of sewage discharged. Furthermore, to start or stop sewage services, please notify the Drainage Union as early as possible in the same way as with water services.

* Inquiries concerning public sewage services (If you do not speak Japanese, please have a Japanese speaker make the call for you): Sakado/Tsurugashima Drainage Union
Tel: 049-283-2051

Postal Services

How to Send Mail

Mail can be sent by affixing a stamp to the item to be mailed and depositing it in the red mailbox with the mark. If the mailbox has two slots, the one on the left side as you stand facing the mailbox is for regular mail, while the slot on the right side is for other types of mail, such as express or international mail.

International Mail

There are various ways to send mail overseas: airmail, sea mail, SAL (Surface Air Limited, which is less expensive than airmail and faster than sea mail), intelpost (which sends messages by facsimile transmission) and international business EMS (which offers sure and speedy delivery). For simple messages, international postcards and aerograms are convenient and available at the post office.

Notice of Delivery in Absence

If no one is at home when registered mail or a parcel is delivered, a card indicating that mail is being kept is left in your mailbox instead. Take the card and some form of identification, such as your foreign resident registration card (if you have a name stamp, please bring it), to the post office designated on the card to receive your mail. If you contact the post office, you can also have the mail re-delivered to your home.

* Inquiries (If you do not speak Japanese, please have a Japanese speaker make the call for you): Sakado Post Office 2-5-15 Chiyoda, Sakado-shi
Tel: 049-281-0881

Driving

Driving

Most traffic signs in Japan are those that are common around the world. However, traffic moves on the left side of the road in Japan. There are penalties for traffic violations. Foreign residents are not given special treatment. You must pay a fine for such violations as illegal parking.

Driver's License

To drive a car in Japan, you must have an international driver's license from a country that is a signatory to the 1949 Geneva Convention on Traffic Rules and Regulations, or a Japanese driver's license.
(The international driver's license must be acquired in your home country. In addition, the international driver's license is valid for only one year from the date of disembarkation.) Furthermore, if you have a driver's license from a foreign country and you stayed in that country for at least three months from the date your driver's license was issued, and it corresponds to Japan's driving licensing system, then you may convert it to a Japanese driver's license.

* Inquiries (If you do not speak Japanese, please have a Japanese speaker make the call for you): Saitama Prefecture Driver's License Test Center 405-4 Konosu, Konosu-shi
Tel: 048-543-2001