I need a reality check about my effort to live in Japan.

30 comments

1. You can go to a school and start learning Japanese at any age.

   Just do whatever makes you happier, if you feel bad at your current work and that you have enough saving to support yourself while studying Japanese and researching another opportunity then do it.

2. >I honestly want to believe I’m unlucky and stepped on a problematic lab. However, work in this place became unsustainable, and I decided to leave **before something unethical happened.**

   This is the beginning of a new virus spread isn’t it?

3. If you can afford to do language school, then go for it!

   And this is only anecdotal, but I have a friend who was in a lab at a big public university and was absolutely miserable because the department was awful. She moved to a other university in another prefecture and is so much happier in a better team, AND working on stuff closer to her interests.

4. I am a fellow researcher. Maybe this is field/group dependent, but I was also disappointed with the science situation here. My experience has been also that here research is much more an individual activity with meetings, rather than a group effort. I decided to leave academia and currently I am looking for companies, but I have N2 and my wife is Japanese.

   You could try to look for a job, but it’s going to be hard. Have you tried looking for other post-doc/research positions? Do you prefer a job related to your PhD or are you willing to do something different? Why do you want to stay in Japan? Have you joined some researcher association of your country where you could reach some peers for advice?

   Nobody knows what’s best for you apart you.

5. I have been similarly disappointed by Japanese companies I worked in but there are some good ones out there. Try to contact a specialist recruiter and explore your options.

6. I came Japan at my 30s. Took one year studying Japanese , never too late.

7. I’m sorry things didn’t work out with the lab.

   Japan has done an incredible job of convincing the rest of the world it is something it is not. You’re experiencing the real Japan and it’s shocking to many. This really can only be understood by living here.

   There are still cool things to find and experiences to have in Japan besides a career. So long as the positives are outweighing the negatives, it’s a place worth exploring. Until the scales fully tip, why not stick around? Learning the language will be huge and will open doors you didn’t know were there.

   がんばれ!

   p.s you’re not too old you can chill.

   Edit: spelling

8. I started language school at like 35. My biggest regret is I stopped to take a job; I should’ve finished it. You’re not too old!

9. It’s not childish to live the life you want to live, especially if your wife is onboard with it.

   And you’re not too old. I know a guy with kids in his 40s who just moved to japan last year and started studying. He’s damn near conversational at this point

10. If you are going to interact with people, being able to speak their language is a big plus. Since it’s a matter about being able to communicate with people or not at all.

    For the language school itself however, make sure to do your research well. Plenty language school have too many group projects, which is fine too since you have to speak with fellow students more. Problem is that most of them also couldn’t speak japanese.

    For otaku route though, reading visual novels is very good for boosting your level.
    Plenty of my friends are able to hit N1 level in under 2 years. Including speaking, as they actually read the lines instead of silently reading it.

    I tried language school too out of curiosity, couldn’t really benefit from it sadly. But might be personal preference.

11. I moved to Osaka when I was 38. Spent a year there, went to language school, now live in Tokyo and making enough money to think about having a house built somewhere in Japan well before I retire.

    You’re not too old. Go for it.

12. I’m in my 50’s living in Japan and I’d say you have a good solid plan. Just stick to it. Good Luck.

13. What are you optimizing for? If two things you want conflict, which one wins? What’s your utility function?

    If you really want to live in Japan, the only place in the world to do that is Japan, and you take whatever knocks come with it.

    If you like Japan but really want to make a lot of money, go to America and take vacations in Japan.

    If you like Japan but really want to do cutting edge science, I dunno, not my area.

    You need to think about your tradeoff logic, and no one else can tell you what yours should be. It’s by definition unique to you.

    For my part, I’ve decided I really like living here, but I have a hard requirement that I must be able to invest $X per year for the future. So, I look for jobs here first, and if I ever can’t satisfy my criterion (not an easy criterion to satisfy these days, alas 😵‍💫), then I’ve gotta leave.

    What’s your decision logic look like? If you need to be in Japan no matter what, accept the consequences. If you prefer to be in Japan but only if criteria XYZ are satisfied, then articulate XYZ in as rigorous and concrete a way as possible, and then conduct your search. Don’t make it a fuzzy “science lab that feels good” criterion, because then you won’t really know if you’ve satisfied it, and the situation can change slowly and trick you.

14. I have research clients in the medical field, and they seem to be doing legit research. They get published in serious journals, and I haven’t heard of any shenanigans. This is at a prestigious uni in a respected department.

    At the same university in a completely different department there was recently a case of academic fraud (not in the medical department) and the uni came down hard on the person. I was privy to the investigation report. The perp was a foreign researcher, but his boss also got busted for not supervising him closely enough.

15. PhD in Medical Science here, did my whole PhD here…and I don’t buy this shit about “high-tech advanced country anymore”, I have seen enough.

    I have seen professors writing thesis for useless students with whole lab doing experiments as well…
    Or utterly incompetent idiots holding Assistant Professor positions or being in charge of certain equipment without any knowledge about it. I have also seen crazy micromanagement on personal level while completely ignoring any scientific feasibility of whatever project was a student assigned to ( something like being more concerned with proper pipette positioning then actual quality of data).

    The amount of sheer incompetence and idiocy I have seen in my 5 years was incredible. This does not necessarily mean that there are no good researchers or labs.

    What matters is whether your lab is led by a globally renowned PI (the kind which goes outside Japan, has international collaborations and publications) and is affiliated with a top-ranked uni/institute. Usually, the good way to filter these ones out is checking their English level.

16. I can’t provide any advice about the lab, but you’re never too old to go to language school. There was a Taiwanese lady in my class who was at least as old as my mom, and my mom just turned 60. Most people were in their 20s, but many also in their 30s.

17. I had a friend who is in your age group that lived the exact situation you described but she was a post doc and her lab experience and overall experience in Japan was very good. In two years she and her husband managed to get to N3 because the campus provided free classes.

    It sounds like it’s not you but your situation that might be bogging you down. Taking language classes sounds like a great first step to getting the experience you want. Never too late! Hope it all works out for you.

18. If you did stay and study the language, what’s your plan after that? If doing research here is now off the table then are you just throwing good money/time/effort after bad?

19. Welcome to Japan! It is always like this. Accept or move on.

20. Getting better Japanese won’t help your research prospects, so if you want to stay in the field you are in, it might be better to explore options in other countries (or at other universities).

    /Quit academia in Japan almost 20 years ago, so my advice might not be relevent. My wife is Japanese though, so we had a reason to stay.

21. I’m 34 and in a Japanese school with my bf the same age as me ^^ so no you’re not too old !

    I don’t know if it’s just us but our school is not really as we thought and to be honest we’re losing a little of Japanese we have’.
    So (I do need a reality check too) maybe it is not all school and maybe you’ll find a good one but for the moment to go straight to the point our school don’t care about how they teach us Japanese because they assume we’re all here for visa and work 😕

    I too have a bad experience in Japan unfortunately for those who think that Japan has nothing to be hated about but I wish for you that the experience you’re living in that labo is only there ☺️

22. I can only comment on the language school thing. about half my class was in their 40’s. It’ll vary depending on where you go

23. Sorry it didn’t work out as you planned. My skill set is abundantly used in Japan but due to lack of language I can’t even find a gig. Furthermore I bet it’s grossly underpaid.

    I’ve been to a language school and have friends that have been going for over a year and a half, they still haven’t passed N3 nor landed jobs that will secure their visas. Anyways point being if it’s not your main priority going to a school will only get you so far.

    Realistically just do what makes you happy and go from there. Life is so short, live it

24. To try and live in Japan and think its going to be great without knowing the language is not really feasible.

25. I don’t think you are too old, and learning the language is certainly the way to go if you want to stay long term.

    I have heard getting your first visa gets difficult after about 25-30, but it wouldn’t be your first visa. You can look for a better job while going to the language school.

26. No one else is saying this, but mhm also STEM here, dont make a break in your CV if you dont absolutely have to. Yes, you can make it in Japan with a gap as a foreigner, but you will be inferior to your (potentially foreigner and Japanese speaking) competition by that gap. Search out another lab – network first, ask people who already work there or you know you are in the right age bracket: apply to be a team leader yourself.

    I also want to add that – as far as you write – you have not alerted anyone to what you perceive unethical? you left/decided to leave already, right?, so there are no way of reprimands for you, why not at least alert someone? Ethical labs dont grow magically, but from the constant self-checking. By not saying anything, (and maybe falsely putting this on Japanese work culture, though it seems more an issue of language or individual by how you are hinting that other foreigners involved), you are kinda contributing to the issue. If it truely still bothers you so hot as in your post, at least file a report.

27. I have two PhD Brazilian friends with this same complaint. One is finishing her research and received a very nice offer to take over a lab that is encompassing her research but all these “downsides” are leading her to search the market. I will see them both on Sunday, hopefully with some good news.

28. Mostly agree with the other comments, but you could double check the institution you’re at. My experience from my (kind of techy) field is that only a selected bunch of top universities do some acceptable level of research here, from my perspective. I would sometimes be happy if p-hacking or post-hoc hypotheses were the only problems. Most projects lack a discernible or even remotely meaningful research question. It’s terrible.
    So, if it’s an option for you, switching to some place like Keio, Todai, Tsukuba, Waseda may help if you’re currently at a small institution. “University” is a broad concept in Japan. Almost everyone enters some university after high school, so many smaller/remote institutions would not be considered a university in the West. Otherwise you can try to find a lab with a western PI.
    Other than that, I don’t know how many labs you have been to before, outside of Japan. Unethical research practices are not only a Japanese problem. Maybe you were particularly lucky before and particularly unlucky now?

29. I think your experience could improve a lot if you’re ability to communicate at a higher level improves. If you’re looking into language schools I would recommend jccc btw.

30. I was last year in a Japanese language school and at that time I was 31. There were also people in their 40s and 50s. I think you are never too old to learn something!