Insight from Americans receiving SSDI benefits in Japan?

Hi all! Long post incoming so please bear with me!

I’m 36F and an American citizen that is planning to go to Japan for language school for at least a year, hopefully two. If the stars align the way I need them to then I will be setting out to start the Spring 2024 term at ISI’s Takadanobaba campus. I visited the country once before in 2005 as a high school graduation present – but that was only for a week; this is a whole new ball game.

I have a bit of a not-so-common situation: I am currently receiving Social Security Disability benefits here in the States. I’m not giving exact numbers but my current benefit is over $1,000…however it falls short of the 200,000 yen monthly minimum requirement, so my retired father is taking up the role of my sponsor (he and my mother receive both federal and state retirement benefits and have a joint bank account), and has authorized access to my US-based bank accounts to place money in for me to collect. I, however, do have enough in my account for at least the next year, largely thanks to my lump sum of retroactive SSDI benefits. Barring any nasty surprises, I should have more than 3M yen by March of 2024. I’m working with GoGoNihon, who has told me that they’ll try to see if double sponsorship will be possible.

For the record: I have lupus and after some changes to my medicinal routines it’s fairly managed now – one of the biggest caveats is that one of my main medicines (Cellcept) tends to nuke my appetite. I already know about the *yunyu kakuninsho* forms I’ll have to fill out, and am already mapping out how much of my preexisting medicines will be sufficient for me to take until I can locate a practitioner. I am an occasional cane user but I’m pretty sure that won’t be too much of a problem.

I know obviously I won’t be able to double-dip since I’m already receiving US money, but I was wondering if there were any other things I would have to square away re: benefits. I know I’ll probably have at least a couple trips to the US embassy once I get there, but I was thinking more of any kind of breaks I could catch. I know I’m not the only one who’s gunned for language school while on SSDI but it’s pretty uncommon, I’m sure.

AND because I know the question will eventually come up: I was studying Japanese in the States in college, but my school dropped the Japanese programs due to budget cuts, my financial aid fell through, and then I started getting sick. My student loans were recently forgiven through a SSDI-related Total and Permanent Disability discharge, but I’m now in the 3-year post-discharge monitoring period; they’ll be reinstated if I try to take out any more during this time, and frankly I don’t feel like dealing with that all over again.

Also, because people tend to get the two mixed up: yes, you can leave the US on *SSDI*. That’s *SSI* that won’t let you leave and collect benefits for more than 30 days (and not have more than $2,000 in the bank).

Thank you in advance! I really hope I can get some valuable insight here – Google wasn’t too much of a help!

P.S. I’m also Black so I know I’ll stick out like a sore thumb (again), but I know as long as you don’t act a fool and at least try to make an effort to speak Japanese things will be a little easier. As far as hair goes – I’m just taking all my wigs with me, lol.