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OASIS SPORTS CLUB IN SHINJUKU
ASKS UNNECESSARY I.D. TO LET FOREIGN MEMBERS JOIN
FINAL REPORT

Background to the story is here.

Final report on the outcome of the Oasis sports club ID requirements for foreigners applying for membership.

By Julian Wheatley

Facts:

I have been advised by Sakazume san of Oasis' head office, that a new law ªiш÷ZÑ@É…ãú­ƒ­¾­ŽÔòÑqãú­íö{ÆlÉmäFãú­ƒÉ…­á­Žö@÷´ªj concerning an individual's identity and financial institutions has been enacted by the Japanese government this month (Jan 2003).

The letter of the law is here (in Japanese):

Consequently, financial institutions now demand that all individuals, Japanese and foreigners alike, produce evidence of confirmation of their name, address and birthdate. Since membership of Oasis automatically includes application to the DC credit card company to pay the monthly fees, Oasis' new policy is for ALL prospective members to produce ID to satisfy this requirement. One of seven forms of ID are acceptable: unten menkyoshou, passport, kenkou hokenshou, inkan touroku shoumeisho, juuminhyou, kokumin nenkin techou and gaikokujin tourokushoumeisho. However, Mr Sakazume told me that in the case of foreigners, ONLY the gaikokujin tourokushoumeisho would be acceptable and also that the clause referring to the passport meant only those issued by the Japanese government.

This morning I went to DC Card's Shibuya office and picked up an application form for their "general" card. I checked the relevent section pertaining to ID requirements and asked the staff for clarification. The upshot was that the shochou, a Mr Tanuma, called the application verification section (Shinsa busho) and confirmed that in the case of foreigners, DC required confirmation of name, address, birthdate and visa status. Providing these requirements were met, a gaikokujin tourokushoumeisho would not be required. For example, a combination of a driving license (name, address and birthdate) and passport (visa status) would be satisfactory.

This afternoon I contacted Mr Sakazume and passed on this information. He had been under the impression that foreigners do not have Japanese driving licenses or health insurance cards, and therefore would not be able to officially confirm their Japanese address with anything but the alien card. He agreed that providing similar documentation as DC would be satisfactory. I asked for his understanding that some foreigners felt uneasy about giving a copy of their alien card and asked him to memo his branches with this new policy information and also amend their flyers accordingly.

Conclusions:

The enactment of this new law rather makes my original complaint of Japanese nationals not having to produce any form of ID and foreigners having-to a moot point. It does however level the playing field somewhat in these cases for the future and all that was left for me to do was to clarify what exactly was required. I am hoping that it will also have further ramifications and help clarify the occasional situations we sometimes see about foreigners' complaints of having to supply excessive ID for rather simple banking transactions. Me? I shall be joining the club next week showing my passport and driving licence. Phew! Time for some exercise :-)

Report ends.

Julian Wheatley. Monday 20th January 2003. 6:22pm. Tokyo.