Been here a long time now.
My situation is comfortable but can’t help notice the country is going through some changes.
Other countries DO have a lot of the same issues of course, but you can’t deny the work culture is evolving in many western countries. Salaries in the UK are shocking but are slowly going up..
Japan has awful wages and isn’t raising them enough, prices are going up, Korea officially has overtaken Japan with a higher minimum wage, the work culture here with the long hours and hot fetish for meetings is really showing how outdated it is:
You here a lot about Japan being a sinking ship and slowly collapsing to the point it won’t exist eventually.
For people like me who enjoy life here but are aware of these changes, do you plan on sticking it out hoping for change? Will you go home?
Is this the media doing what it does best and scaring people?
29 comments
Always surreal to see posts like this on this sub—not that I should be surprised because probably 70% are from Western countries..
But if you come from shitholes like the rest of us—Japan is an imperfect paradise (for lack of a better word). Lots of good things happening around because the government tries as opposed to back home.
I don’t understand people who really believe japan is just going to magically collapse into nothing
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Yeah no Japan has 0 reasons to be jealous about Korea with its beggars everywhere.
In Japan prices increase but the quality of things too and I love to see my taxes used properly. Clean, safe, always renovating everywhere, all crime rates super low, homelessness 0%…Japan banzai.
It may be sinking, but for now it’s still above water (socially speaking, not financially speaking), which is better situation than most western country.
It has a lot of merits but a ton of disadvantages and drawbacks as well.
All in all, in the long-term I’m hesitant about naturalizing and staying for good while the hassle of PR doesn’t seem worth it too. (It’s not as ‘permanent’ as it seems and has to be constantly maintained. May also be revoked under certain circumstances)
Imo it’s a comfortable and beautiful country to experience for a good number of years like for overseas studies and for work, but as a forever home with the natural disasters and the way the demographics, economy and social systems are headed (untenable pension system, etc.) it’s a big gamble. For those with family roots or significant other here, then it’s a different story of course.
I plan on staying here long-term, possibly permanently, but I’m never giving up my home country’s passport and naturalizing. Having the ability to return should things turn south or “collapse” too hard is way too big of a safety net to ever give up.
I do agree that Japan can be categorized as sinking ship looking at factors like Population is shrinking, No immigration, JP companies being less competitive. For me it is all about not putting all of your eggs in the same basket.
OP are you crazy?
Japan has low national debt compared to western countries (I made a mistake here, it’s low debt owed to foreign entities with it mostly being held by Japan itself), it has the second highest currency reserve in the world. Home to some of the largest corporations in the world that they have protected and kept Japanese. Japan has a huge amount of domestic tourism and travel, they are nation of shoppers and office workers and they sustain more shops and restruaunts than I could ever imagine. Crime and corruption is low minimizing loses.
There are many issues with Japan but read between the lines, see the facts and figures. Japans biggest problems are the weak yen and birth rate. Japans severe problems run two pages of a newspaper, there are not enough pages in western papers list how many problems there are.
I’m from the UK so you have the birth rate, corruption, political incompetence, lack of investment, crumbling health system, eroded social security, Inflation, crime, rising racial tension, poverty, housing crisis etc
My wage here would struggled to get me anything but a stressful anxious life in the UK, but here in Japan I can save over a third of my wage every month without even trying.
UK wages are slowly going up, but their NHS is on its deathbed. Healthcare is going to start eating up those wage gains AND MORE in short order. Brexit has fucked the economy and the UK is closer to actual collapse than Japan is.
The US has higher wages but cost of living is outrageous and don’t even get me started on healthcare and kids getting gunned down in schools. The US is on the verge of a civil war due to irreparable social and political differences. It is also one of the least free “free” countries out there.
Japanese wages are low, yes, but cost of living and standard of living are still infinitely better than “home” for me. I’ll probably never go back. I’d rather live in a collapsed Japan than a collapsed Europe or US. But, I don’t get the impression that Japan is on track to collapse. It’s a lot more stable than many other G7 countries.
I plan on staying here permanently but my skills are limited to “higher” education. Student populations are dropping = universities disappearing or getting strapped for cash. The current situation is already not so good with unis following the American model of relying on underpaid adjunct staff. Even full time positions are 5-6 year contacts, sometimes renewable once. There’s no job security. Between work and medical I have no energy to direct into acquiring new skills or making myself competitive. Even if I did have the energy, the only jobs with any money or security are STEM, and I don’t have the prerequisite knowledge nor a math-oriented brain to do STEM unless I slogged through college again from zero.
OT in my birth country is サービス only. No such thing as 正社員, you can get asked to quit unless you’re related to (or sleep with) management.
So yeah, Japan is good enough. For now at least.
Future is scary, especially with Kishida and his 増税 bs.
I’m also comfortable in Japan and will continue to live here as long as it stays that way. It’s still the best place to live for me overall in terms of convenience, safety, product selection, entertainment, work opportunities etc.
That being said I’ll be quick to pack my bags if things do deteriorate badly, which I do not think will happen during my lifetime unless there’s a catastrophic natural disaster or actual war.
I also don’t have children and don’t need to care about future generations so that probably influences my opinion as well.
Basically, I agree that Japan is a sinking ship but it’s sinking very very slowly, and as long as the buffet is open while I’m alive, that’s fine with me
Honestly, it’s still much more livable here than the US for me. So idk what that would mean for the US.
Seems like you are having some challenges at work. Hope you can relax this weekend.
Japan work environment isn’t ideal for many folks that weren’t born and raised here.
>You here a lot about Japan being a sinking ship and slowly collapsing to the point it won’t exist eventually.
I honestly find such talk ridiculous, so I don’t worry about it
Getting my popcorn ready!
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”
I have the same feeling. I do not think it will collapse and cease to exist, it is a large country with huge population but it will likely evolve into something very different and much less pleasant than now. The passiveness, reactive nature of most people, unwillingness to look outside and change which leads to stagnating science, education and wages will do the job.
I guess my home country (or home town) would collapse much faster than Japan, so I guess other than earthquakes I have nothing to worry about.
This thread feels like discussing the YouTube version of Japan. Where are you coming from and what are you basing this on? If you follow Japanese business media, Gen Z are already leaving on time, not putting up with a lot of stuff and there are droves of young Japanese people in professions like nursing leaving to make money overseas. We can throw as many random data points around as we want but can you explain in a coherent way exactly what you’re worried about.
Why aren’t you moving to a gaishikei?
I can see what you mean. If I were a young person from overseas, not sure if I would consider Japan as a long term option any more. But at this point in my life (moving close to retirement age), it is good enough. I’ve grown comfortable, and Japan is a great base if you want to explore Asia.
IMHO the demographic issue is the one that will sink Japan. Seems like any form of immigration reform is dead in the water. Most Japanese would rather see the country slowly shrink into insignificance rather than allow outsiders to come.
LOL if you think Japan is sinking then you clearly have no perception of the outside world. Japan is one of the most comfortable, privileged nations on the planet. Billions of people would think they’d won the lottery if they had the lifestyle average people have here. Your concerns are absolute lunacy.
You seem fixated on money. If you want more money, move abroad – Japan is low paid. That won’t change. The low pay is made up for by safety and the very low cost of living. I also find it weird that you say UK salaries are shocking when they… aren’t. They’re fine, and much better than Japanese ones.
You seem quite (very) shaky on facts here, a lot of tenuous emotional statements without a lot of grounding in reality. Your concerns aren’t practical or necessary, you don’t need to worry. If you think Japan will collapse, then leave and let the rest of us enjoy the collapse.
Erm sorry what? Yeah no I just can’t get on board with this. Option one, go back the UK where I’ll be homeless and struggle to even rent a shoebox room on the already overcrowded island with a population almost triple that of Australia. Work at some meaningless dead end job constantly “counting the pennies” and “scrimping enough to get by” no. Not for me. That’s not a life.
Here I’ve at least got an apartment to myself albeit not a huge one by Western standards but I could care less, its somewhere I can call home at least without having to worry about being “outbid” by other renters. An ok job and healthier diet overall with a lovely culture surrounded by great people. Sorry OP. You’re wrong on this “sinking ship” vibe. I felt the complete opposite. I felt the UK is a sinking ship and not Japan
From what I can tell America (where i’m from) is sinking way faster than Japan is right now
I’m from a place where there’s a fucking homeless/ fentanyl epidemic
I’ll take Japan any day of the week
So long as the media, domestically and internationally, keep allowing the ruling LDP junta to hide behind the fig leaf of declining demographics to excuse their 50 years of neoliberal policy failure, nothing will change. Japan’s economic woes are not due to the falling birthrate; they are the cause of it.
The corporate behemoths are richer now than in any time in Japanese history but largely keep their money off-shored free of taxation while crying beggar back home for countless Billions in project aid every year from the govt as handouts. Without clawing that money back from the “elites”, Japan will never pay off its debts and the yen will continue to collapse into the void.
According to most people here because Japan isn’t the UK or USA it’s paradise.
So weird.
Weak yen is an immediate problem you can see with your eyes and feel with your purchases, but the economy as a topic is vast and filled with complex systems and topics that make it hard to break down or condense into a water-cooler conversation about the fate of the country.
Do I think Japan will recover?
I think what it’s already experimenting with is rather important to study. Keeping their domestic purchasing power relatively strong against global purchasing power. Do you know any other developed country I can get a mortgage for as cheap with a down payment as low as here? I don’t.
Would I like to see wage increase across the board? Without question. They’ve been getting away with working people too long for too little, since probably the end of the 80s bubble.
Do I feel equipped to speak on anything concrete? No. Beyond these very simple thoughts, there’s more to it that I don’t know enough about.
Weak yen is an immediate problem you can see with your eyes and feel with your purchases, but the economy as a topic is vast and filled with complex systems and topics that make it hard to break down or condense into a water-cooler conversation about the fate of the country.
Do I think Japan will recover?
I think what it’s already experimenting with is rather important to study. Keeping their domestic purchasing power relatively strong against global purchasing power. Do you know any other developed country I can get a mortgage for as cheap with a down payment as low as here? I don’t.
Would I like to see wage increase across the board? Without question. They’ve been getting away with working people too long for too little, since probably the end of the 80s bubble.
Do I feel equipped to speak on anything concrete? No. Beyond these very simple thoughts, there’s more to it that I don’t know enough about.