We gonna move to Japan in September with my partner. Would there be any benefits for us to get married in our home country before the move? Or could it just bring some extra hassle to move there as a married couple vs two individuals, especially when it comes to housing? Any tips appreciated. Google basically gives me results about how to get married in Japan, finding any pros and cons list seems impossible.
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**Moving to Japan as a couple – should we get married?**
We gonna move to Japan in September with my partner. Would there be any benefits for us to get married in our home country before the move? Or could it just bring some extra hassle to move there as a married couple vs two individuals, especially when it comes to housing? Any tips appreciated. Google basically gives me results about how to get married in Japan, finding any pros and cons list seems impossible.
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Do you both intend to get jobs that offer visas allowing you to live in Japan?
If only one of you has a visa-sponsoring job lined up, it makes sense to marry so the other person can get a dependent visa.
If you’re both getting your own individual visa, then there is no point. If it’s just one of you then you will HAVE to get married in order to apply for a dependant visa.
Is one of you a Japanese national or are both of you foreigners and from what country? Your nationality is very important here in a lot of ways. Hetero?
Getting a place to rent you will not be considered a couple. Income won’t be considered together only one of your incomes / savings will count when applying, and you will be restricted to places that allow room mates, but honestly may be easier to just get two separate small places unmarried. What’s your jobs? They probably won’t consider your relationship serious so they may not place you initially in the same city and in the future may ask one of you to relocate (very common here) If you were planning on signing up for anything together prepare to have only one of you bare the burden or getting it separately. Financially before coming if you have a joint account, sperate it before coming. Joint accounts are not a thing here even amping married people, so transferring money from joint account could trigger gift tax if transfer is large enough.
I’d say getting married before coming makes so many things easier especially if you plan on staying here long term and staying together long term. In all ways Japanese society won’t consider you a couple until youre married.
I won’t really make any difference. I speak from experience. Btw, getting married in Japan is super easy. Just go to the ward office and fill out a form or three. It’s especially easy for two foreigners to get married. Congrats!
There’s a lot of pros and not a lot of cons. Ie- if you’re married and someone loses a job or is laid off they can move to a spouse visa. Married couples much more easily and reliably can take medical control in the event of something bad happening. A lot of Japanese landlords are hesitant to rent to unmarried couples but since you’re foreigners anyway you already have to find a flexible landlord but being married may help chances.
Cons- it’s more difficult to separate in the event of a breakup.
Frankly if I was moving to any foreign country with a long term partner, I would get married beforehand
Getting married while IN Japan if you’re both foreigners sucks to do, wouldn’t recommend it. Before would definitely save a lot of trouble
How romantic