Hey all, I’m a 29 year old Japanese American living in the United States as a permanent resident. I was brought here as a 7 month old, lived here since. My parents moved back 5 years ago, haven’t seen them since. I would like to move (mostly fantasizing) for 1-2 years to spend time with them while they’re not too old, and to get out of my city because I’m bored of it lol.
I can speak conversational Japanese but can’t read 99.9% of kanji. I don’t have a college degree (disappointment to my parents, I know). Currently working in general building maintenance. Relatively new to the trades with 3 years of experience. I’m ok with working most unskilled jobs, but would prefer to be an English tutor or in a blue collar trade. Would like some insight.
How feasible would it be to move to Japan under these conditions?
Edit: I am still a Japanese citizen
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**Moving as a Japanese American**
Hey all, I’m a 29 year old Japanese American living in the United States as a permanent resident. I was brought here as a 7 month old, lived here since. My parents moved back 5 years ago, haven’t seen them since. I would like to move (mostly fantasizing) for 1-2 years to spend time with them while they’re not too old, and to get out of my city because I’m bored of it lol.
I can speak conversational Japanese but can’t read 99.9% of kanji. I don’t have a degree (disappointment to my parents, I know). Currently working in general building maintenance. Relatively new to the trades with 3 years of experience. I’m ok with working most unskilled jobs, but would prefer to be an English tutor or in a blue collar trade. Would like some insight.
How feasible would it be to move to Japan under these conditions?
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If you moved to the USA as a 7 month old, then I assume you still have your Japanese citizenship? If you never naturalized to US citizenship, then your Japanese citizenship should still be effective. As a Japanese citizen you can live work anywhere in Japan and there are blue collar jobs available even to non native speakers.
Be aware that if you live outside of the US for more than 1 year, your US permanent residency status will potentially be in jeopardy. However, if you obtain US citizenship, that won’t be an issue. If you want to be able to live in the US in the future, I would consult a US immigration lawyer before making a move. You probably also want to read guides like [this](https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/traveling-outside-u-s-green-card-holder/).
You can just go to Japan and apply for jobs. If you want to work as an English teacher, they’ll likely just ask you to show you had 12 years instruction in English. They may list a degree as a requirement, but that is an immigration requirement, not an actual job requirement. Just make some applications and see what comes back.
I moved to Japan in my mid 30’s, fluent conversational Japanese but no reading/writing skills. No degrees. Terrible at studying. Most of my life in the tourism industry (IOW long history but niche network specific to my small area).
Since coming to Japan I worked at a Roppongi (i.e. foreigner) nightclub, Japanese language school, 2 kitchens, and now my longest jobs are parcel delivery (Yamato, Amazon, etc), and tour guide.
Being able to speak fluent conversational Japanese has been noticeably helpful, but not by much if you can’t business nihongo or read/write. I once failed an interview for a Dominos delivery driver position.
I really did start with almost no Kanji – couldn’t pick out the days of the week if you asked me to. I’ve picked up a lot of kanji reading/typing skills from typing back and forth with my wife, friends, and coworkers. You google translate enough times and you begin to pick up the kanji. Also, the parcel delivery job really helped. Not being able to read most kanji I was scared shitless at first, but like I said you pick it up.
Don’t think too hard on it. Save some money, keep enough money for an emergency return ticket, come to Japan, stay at a guesthouse/sharehouse, go get a copy of your family registrar, make an inkan, convert your driver’s license if you can, then start living. If it helps, don’t think of it as a move outright. Just tell yourself you’re here for a long vacation, with the added bonus of having citizenship so you can work and make money.