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TLDR: Parents are healthy, young, working, and qualified to work in Japan. Considering inviting them to move here. Anyone done this? What was it like? Interpersonally, mostly\]
Took a look through previous posts and only saw people asking about parents already/nearly retired and/or ill, but has anyone convinced well, working parents to join them?
My spouse and I are from different countries and have been living in Japan for years. We love Japan and have no desire to “go home” to either country except for family, with whom we’re close and spend a considerable amout of our incomes to visit as often as we can.
While my spouse’s family are content in their country, mine are miserable in my home country. They spent most of their lives working overseas, and express so much frustration about that country, plus are a bit isolated where they live now and don’t have many strong ties. They’re so sad about “missing” so many things in the future (grandkids, especially) and naturally worried about who will take care of them as they age, and those things are concerns for me, too.
Given their life experience as expats, I’ve wondered if moving abroad again to work and then retire would make them happier, but recently my spouse suggested that perhaps just coming to Japan might be good for them. They could both easily find work with their skills and experience (TEFL, master’s, etc.), plus they like the part of Japan where we live. Of course language and culture are a barrier (they appreciate Japanese culture but don’t love it), but they’ve become fluent in langauges before and otherwise I feel like it’s a pretty natural solution and the pros of being together, better work opportunities, lower cost of living, etc., far outweigh the cons.
Maybe I’m just looking for affirmation, I don’t know, but I’m also legitimately curious if anyone has done this?
by th3rd_couturek1d