Moving to Japan while pregnant

Layoffs are happening left and right in my industry. I’m pregnant and starting to feel some anxiety that I might be in a job hunting situation before or during maternity leave. I’d say it’s pretty 50/50.

Obviously no one wants to be job hunting while pregnant. Discrimination isn’t supposed to be a thing, but inevitably it is. But there are great companies that don’t mind interviewing and hiring pregnant people.

However… My husband and I had been planning on seeking out our next roles to be back to Japan. Employment opportunities are strong in our fields, we speak Japanese, we lived there before & have friends there.

If I am indeed laid off anytime soon we’ll lose our sponsorship to stay in the UK. We’d have to move. Our options would be to either go back to the US to live with parents (yuck) or (with a touch of insanity) speed up our plans for returning to Japan.

We’re familiar with the issues around booking birthing hospitals, epidurals, childcare and nurseries.

But I’m curious to hear from anyone who has moved to Japan as a pregnant employee, pregnant spouse/dependent, or with a newborn (under 3 months).

How did you or your spouse navigate the job market? Any regrets or pleasant surprises about moving during pregnancy or with a newborn? Did you tell companies you interviewed with about this up front, or at the offer stage? Did you share this info with a recruiter?

Appreciate this is probably an exceedingly rare choice to make. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

2 comments
  1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

    **Moving to Japan while pregnant**

    Layoffs are happening left and right in my industry. I’m pregnant and starting to feel some anxiety that I might be in a job hunting situation before or during maternity leave. I’d say it’s pretty 50/50.

    Obviously no one wants to be job hunting while pregnant. Discrimination isn’t supposed to be a thing, but inevitably it is. But there are great companies that don’t mind interviewing and hiring pregnant people.

    However… My husband and I had been planning on seeking out our next roles to be back to Japan. Employment opportunities are strong in our fields, we speak Japanese, we lived there before & have friends there.

    If I am indeed laid off anytime soon we’ll lose our sponsorship to stay in the UK. We’d have to move. Our options would be to either go back to the US to live with parents (yuck) or (with a touch of insanity) speed up our plans for returning to Japan.

    We’re familiar with the issues around booking birthing hospitals, epidurals, childcare and nurseries.

    But I’m curious to hear from anyone who has moved to Japan as a pregnant employee, pregnant spouse/dependent, or with a newborn (under 3 months).

    How did you or your spouse navigate the job market? Any regrets or pleasant surprises about moving during pregnancy or with a newborn? Did you tell companies you interviewed with about this up front, or at the offer stage? Did you share this info with a recruiter?

    Appreciate this is probably an exceedingly rare choice to make. Looking forward to hearing about your experience.

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  2. You probably already know this, but there are endless possibilities of complications that may make you unable to take a flight during pregnancy. I wouldn’t bank my plan on being able to fly before giving birth.

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