View At Home:Pests and Pets
Pests
Depending on your home country, you may or may not be used to sharing your home with unidentified objects, flying or otherwise. They tend to create havoc with your life during your first summer and for some reason leave you pretty much alone thereafter. The Environmental Sanitation Sections of each prefecture attempt to combat this by treating the sewage system with chemicals that kill flies and mosquitoes.
Cockroaches are also a problem, ranging in size and ability to freak you out. There are a whole range of products available in convenience stores if you are into killing them-go into any large store with a whole floor of cleaning products and so on, and they’ll have an extensive display.
Pets
Most landlords/ladies don’t allow dogs-if yours does, then I am very jealous. Dogs must be vaccinated before they are 91 days old and registered with the local public health centre or a community branch office within 30 days of the vaccination. If you acquire an adult dog, it too must be registered. Dogs must be vaccinated annually. If you have brought your dog from home, then you need to show the quarantine certificate when you register it. Check with your embassy regarding quarantine laws regarding taking pets into and out of Japan.
In public they must be kept on a lead at all times, yet everyone seems to ignore this law and carries them in handbags or bicycle baskets. Your dog must wear a collar with its registration and vaccination tags. You have to clear up after your dog if it defecates in the street, so save all the plastic bags you accumulate from the convenience stores.
If your dog or cat dies, you must tell the Public Health Centre or Community Branch Office to cancel your registration. The Refuse Collection Office will collect your pet for a fee and they will contact a pet cemetery for you to save you the trauma.