Hiya
Firstly I’ll give a little background on my situation.
I (50) met my now wife (34) in September 2021 when she came to the UK to do a masters in audio/visual translation, which she successfully completed and now works freelance. We got married in April of 2023 and we now have a 4 month old daughter. Life is great, we are very happy.
We now intend to move to Yokohama at the end of 2024 and will live with her mother who is totally happy with the situation and has been very helpful in registering our marriage, updating the koseki, and registering the birth of our daughter in Japan.
I’ve spent a total of 9 months of my life in Japan so I’m not going in cold, I have a few friends there and even a cousin who’s lived there for a couple of decades, but obviously things will be different this time. My current main concern is the visa, and the fact that I’ll need to find work!
As far as I’m aware my options for the visa are finding a job in advance, or spouse visa. My wife is already preparing our application for the latter.
My Japanese is barely beginner level, but I’m learning. I don’t have a degree; my experience is mostly from working in manufacturing and supply businesses, specifically warehousing systems and production planning (mostly using the SAP ERP system). I’ve never been a particularly career-minded person and don’t really have any managerial experience, so I have very real concerns over what I’ll be able to do there. I have put forward the suggestion that I could continue to work for my current employer remotely, but I’m not counting on this. My wife says there are western businesses there where English is the office language and some research I’ve done does support this. But I really just want get a realistic idea of what my chances are and what others would do in my position. Additionally, although I’m a very young 50 😅 I do feel my age may go against me.
Any thoughts, anyone been in a similar position?
Thanks in advance
by MrColobus