Credit Card Application Session (October 30 and 31, 2019)

 Explanatory sessions were held on October 30th and 31th to assist international students in obtaining credit cards from Japanese banks so that they may conveniently live in Japan.
 Credit cards are a basic necessity for doing various things in any country, from conference registration and plane tickets to online purchases and billing. Living in Japan, students need a Japanese credit card to avoid various charges that make even inexpensive purchases expensive. While there are many banks offering various credit cards for students, the applications are written in Japanese and can often be confusing.
 The Center for International Students and Scholars (CISS), with the support of the International Student Affairs Section, organized these sessions as part of its mission to support international students so that they may fully enjoy their studies at NAIST. The sessions opened with a brief explanation of credit cards, debit cards, and their different uses by Robert King (UEA) who heads CISS, and then students filled out their applications with the help of the staff. Common questions were about students' names, because some were too long and some students names are not actually divided in to a first and last name.
 About 25 new and current students attended and both sessions were busy with the staff fielding questions and the students doing their best to fill in their applications without mistakes. These sessions are held regularly each semester for international students and those who couldn't participate this time may stop by CISS if they would like an application and/or help filling one out.