Thank you all so far for the help as my wife and I figure out our moving to Japan situation.
Our situation is my wife is a citizen, and I am a U.S. citizen (Japanese grandmother though) who speaks fluent conversational Japanese (never tried it for professional) and lived there for nearly 2 years, and based on my last post, it was clear we would probably be eligible for a Spouse visa (married to a national). We are hoping to have children in the near future and move back to Japan. We are going to talk to a 税理士 tax counselor about my situation of working remotely with a U.S. company and tax obligations, etc., but my wife was originally a nurse for 3 years before moving here. She still has certification, but she just needs to update it with her new last name, basically. According to her, she could try 介護 caregiving instead of nursing (just due to it being more suitable for her personally), but she is worried about good wages and opportunities based on location. We’ve been doing research on where we’d like to live, and these are things that we had heard from others.
So basically, we have some preferences and potential locations to live.
**Ideal Preferences:**
\- Good place to raise bilingual children (Japanese/English). (Although once we’re in Japan, moving to different parts wouldn’t be as difficult, so this can always be more on the backburner.)
\- An area with pretty reliable internet. I like having fast internet in general, but it would be more necessary if I work from home. That being said, we generally like the idea of living more in the suburbs, near a big city for better access to shopping, etc.
\- A place that has friendly people. Generally, I’ve loved meeting new people in Japan while living in Tokyo and Kanagawa, but we’d like to be able to make good friendships with people nearby. We the atmosphere of the Kansai areas.
\- A place safer from/less prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunami. I know this will always be a thing throughout Japan, but my wife has a preference for this in particular. Same with crime rates, etc.
\- A place with reliable public transportation. We’re not sure if we’ll try to get a car later on, but we’d prefer being near train/bus stations, etc., that have good access to surrounding areas if possible.
**Candidate Prefectures:**
**Kanagawa:**
**Pros:**
\- My wife grew up in Fujisawa, and I have lived in the same area around Yamato and Hiratsuka. We like the area from our experience and since it’s close to the airport in case we want to visit the U.S. more easily. Prices for housing, etc. seem to be better than Tokyo.
\- Near Tokyo and some of our family. Familiar.
\- Good public transportation.
**Cons:**
\- Might have the highest housing costs out of our choices since it’s near Tokyo.
\- Might be a bit *too* familiar (a bit boring as a result).
**Hyogo:**
**Pros:**
\- Easy access to both Kobe and Osaka. We’ve only visited Osaka and Kobe, but the area seems to have really friendly people and seems more foreigner friendly (especially Kobe from what we hear).
\- Housing seems cheaper compared to Kanagawa.
\- Have heard that it has good cities for raising kids.
\- Close to Kansai national airport, so still reasonably easier to visit U.S.
**Cons:**
\- Seems to be more prone to earthquakes/tsunamis, and right next to the ocean (and sandwiched between the ocean and mountains in the Kobe area?).
\- Some areas seem a little higher in crime rates (such as Amagasaki?).
**Fukuoka:**
**Pros:**
\- Rent is apparently very cheap.
\- Has a lot of good food.
\- Good public transportation.
\- Less prone to natural disasters (compared to the other two?).
\- Have a friend living in a nearby city.
\- Have heard that Fukuoka has a lot of new tech companies and opportunities.
**Cons:**
\- Farthest away from a national airport.
\- Salaries are apparently quite low since housing is cheap.
\- Have heard that they’re less friendly toward foreigners. (Specifically foreigners who don’t speak any or very little Japanese though?)
\- Summers are very hot (it’s already really hot in Osaka and Tokyo though?).
\- Neither of us are very familiar with Fukuoka, my wife having only visited her friend once.
TLDR; My wife and I are looking for the best candidate locations for where we’d like to live, especially some place that she could potentially find caregiving work or other work opportunities while I work remotely from home. We are sort of leaning toward Fukuoka, but do you have any recommendations based on what we’ve narrowed it down to?
2 comments
Ultimately its up to you but personally I would choose Yokohama.
Some additional Pros are
-Somewhat more international. If you want more western food options there are definitely more there.
-Yokohama population is growing, now surpassing Osaka as the 2nd most populous city. There is more local investing in this region. More modern condos and houses so property values may hold better. This is particularly true for the area within a triangle enclosed by the tokaido shinkansen, the proposed chuo maglev shinkansen and the yokohama line.
American living outside of Fukuoka City here. It’s great here. It depends on the area but it is super cheap to live here. There are lots of suburbs in really nice areas convenient to Hakata by train or car. Either west towards Itoshima or northeast towards Fukutsu. Salary may be lower but cost of living is as well all included my wife, son and I spend about 350,000 yen a month on all living expenses. You will likely need a car, even just a kei car to run to the market/doctor/city hall would be convenient
I speak nearly zero Japanese but everyone is super friendly, English is much less common that Tokyo, but doesn’t really matter much as I’d rather someone try to explain in Japanese using simple terms than a mess of English that is super difficult to understand. If in a new situation, it’s just “chotto chotto nihongo” and they understand and it works out.
Natural disasters happen but Fukuoka is less earthquake prone than other parts of Japan and the majority of typhoons hit Miyazaki or Kagoshima and lose strength before they hit us. Plus plenty of warning for typhoon unlike earthquakes which is a text alert 20 seconds before it hits if you are lucky.
Fukuoka has a good international airport that should be opening up routes to the US though Hawaii again.