[Columbine]

So one of my old university pals is currently working in Japan as a JET and obviously she's being paid wages. But what we're wondering about is what tax she should be paying. The kicker is that she got some forms in the post being asking her to pay taxes from Sept 2007-May 2008 when she was a student at university in Japan. Her supervisor says it was only optional but then the Japanese Collections Agency called also asking for the money.

Is this legal or possible? She's being asked for about $2000, and was in Japan on a student visa. She wasn't earning at that time, and she's an American citizen. This is her first year working JET.

Basically, we understand why she might be asked to pay tax for ~THIS~ year, but why from the year before last? There are others from the same Uni out there as JETS already, and others applying to go out next year, and we're all now understandably worried that we're going to get lumped with an unexpected fee from our uni. days, or else that this is some kind of scam.

Thoughts?