Hey! I’m 21 F and I’m trying to move to Japan. I’ve always wanted to live in Sapporo (since I was 7) and I am working my hardest to make that happen. I am going to school and hope to obtain a creative writing degree and I’ve been studying Japanese. My plan was to do the JET Program and find a job from there while working on my own writing.
The problem is I was diagnosed with autism (and some other disorders). It’s been debilitating and caused me to flunk my first attempt at college. I’m going in for my second attempt in the fall.
I’m worried that I won’t be able to preform a “real” job the way other people do and that will hold me back from moving.
My time frame for moving is 5 years (although I’d like to move much sooner) and I’m trying to be realistic. It’s possible my situation may change and I may get better at dealing with my autism and other disorders but I may not.
I am currently on disability income because of this. I recognize how lucky I am to have that. But it also holds me back from saving money over $2,000.
I guess I’m just concerned. If anyone has any advice, that would be much appreciated. Or some encouragement. Or perhaps some hard truths.
Thank you for reading my post.
5 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Need Advice as a Disabled Person**
Hey! I’m 21 F and I’m trying to move to Japan. I’ve always wanted to live in Sapporo (since I was 7) and I am working my hardest to make that happen. I am going to school and hope to obtain a creative writing degree and I’ve been studying Japanese. My plan was to do the JET Program and find a job from there while working on my own writing.
The problem is I was diagnosed with autism (and some other disorders). It’s been debilitating and caused me to flunk my first attempt at college. I’m going in for my second attempt in the fall.
I’m worried that I won’t be able to preform a “real” job the way other people do and that will hold me back from moving.
My time frame for moving is 5 years (although I’d like to move much sooner) and I’m trying to be realistic. It’s possible my situation may change and I may get better at dealing with my autism and other disorders but I may not.
I am currently on disability income because of this. I recognize how lucky I am to have that. But it also holds me back from saving money over $2,000.
I guess I’m just concerned. If anyone has any advice, that would be much appreciated. Or some encouragement. Or perhaps some hard truths.
Thank you for reading my post.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Focus on college for now. Don’t even worry about Japan. If you can’t make it though college, you won’t be able to move to Japan anyway. Work hard at school, get some skills that could land you a job which you are capable of doing. Then worry about how you can leverage those skills and experience to come to Japan.
Unfortunately without a degree you’re not going to be eligible for a working visa. So your first step needs to be working with your doctors/therapists/other professionals to figure out a plan that allows you to graduate from university. That’s really the only way to be able to live in Japan long term.
All that said… If your issues are severe enough that you’re pulling down disability you should probably *seriously* reconsider the idea of moving to Japan. Japan’s support for autism and other mental health situations is pretty terrible. Autism is generally considered a major handicap (The R word gets thrown around a lot), and PTSD treatment is laughable. You’re not going to have much of a (if *any*) support network available to you here, and finding doctors who will take your situation seriously and get you on a modern support regime is going to be a nightmare.
Before you even consider japan, you need to set yourself up to succeed not just in japan but anywhere in the world and it’s best to do that in your own country first.
Japan is not a country that is friendly towards those with autism or disabilities in general.