Hello, I was wondering about the difficulties of an American living in Japan. I’m currently serving and will further my Japanese language skills through college and tutoring until I’m done. I’ve always been fascinated by the culture and the people. I really see myself making a massive effort to co-existing there and making a livelihood out there. Can someone who is a NATIVE or was living there tell me anything I might find difficult as well as some positives as a foreigner. I’ve been told I’m pretty adaptive with most people Things to take into account by the time I move there
•Prior Military 🪖
•Experience in leadership and diversity
•Palm sized tattoo on my forearm
•Out going personality
I’ve already been told by people who were there and read online about the sentiment of Americans in Okinawa but I’m told that everywhere else is better for us. Also I assume I’ll run into issues with a tattoo.
I’ve always wanted to teach English there too. Would really appreciate accurate answers as this would be my next big step in life
13 comments
FYI: NATIVE almost always means “get job based on ethnic background alone”. Companies put that in to make the job look like it has some kind of special requirement but all it really means is you need to look like Chad or Nigel.
As far as living here as an American….. Honestly, the Americans tend to have the highest attrition rate among the English speakers. You will be completely stripped of any kind of privilege you had back home and a LOT of Americans can’t handle it. In the foreigner social circles, the military bro is the absolute bottom of the ladder. It is fine to have been in the military at some point but you need to realize that nobody cares and it won’t help you in any way here. Having ink means you can’t go to many onsens, bath houses and waterparks. The ink will also work against you in the workplace. Unless you are wearing a suit 100% of the time, you won’t be able to keep it covered.
If you want to teach use your GI bill and get qualified to be a teacher. Don’t waste time and money on stupid certificates, nobody in Japan cares about those. Get a MA and then decide what direction you want to go. From there either get a k-12 teaching license or pick up some part time classes at a community college while you publish some papers.
Any job that specifies “native English teacher” = Brittany from Florida or Bill from London. No teaching ability required. Got coverup makeup for that tattoo for precarious employment and low wages?
STEM teachers are in demand everywhere but you’d need teacher preparation, a license, and experience to compete in the tight international teacher job market here.
University jobs are competitive and require publications, relevant MA, and teaching experience.
I lived there for just one year, made paltry progress on my Japanese, and generally just enjoyed my first year of employment after college.
My good friend from Canada made a life there, truly mastered Japanese, lived there for almost a decade.
What I noticed was that no matter your level of assimilation or adaptation, you will never ever be considered a true member of the society. A clueless foreigner kid like me (at the time) got applauded for using chopsticks or managing one or two phrases in nihongo. My buddy would participate in nuanced discussions on Japanese politics and would have his nihongo criticized.
As an American who has always lived in very diverse parts of the country, I found the monoculture and stranger danger reactions bizarre, especially in the largest metropolitan area in the world.
Being prior military, have u thought about getting a civilian job (a GS job) on base through USA Jobs? Maybe come over doing that at first, assimilate yourself, learn basic Japanese (taking classes at the college on base) you’ll at least learn to read and write. Then practice and apply what you learn through conversations off-base with people you meet or with the nationals you would work with on base. Once you’re comfortable enough, take the JLPT tests and start looking for work off base or don’t take the JLPT and continue to work on base. Not sure what kind of life experiences you would like in Japan, but it could be a start. And eventually you’ll figure it out. Good luck to you
Honestly, I would plan to live here a year or two for the experience but have a plan to be able to head back.
Most Americans aren’t happy here after the honeymoon phase (I say this as an American who has been here nearly a decade…got married and have kids, so going back would mean splitting up my family).
Just about every American I meet goes back after a year or two. The ones who don’t end up bitter and isolated. Don’t get me wrong, you can have a social life, but it will be pretty superficial because you will never be considered a real member of society. I know people who were born here and are not considered real members of society because they are not ethnically Japanese.
It can be entertaining and novel at first to be so noticed everywhere you go, but it gets tedious and annoying after a while.
I don’t mean to be a downer. Japan is super fun for visits and extended—but temporary—stays. Lots of interesting places to check out. But the daily grind of life just isn’t a good forever. And visits back home are an expensive airfare ticket for us.
As far as teaching goes, it doesn’t pay a lot and there is no advancement in ESL jobs, but it’s relatively easy entry. You just need a bachelors degree. It doesn’t matter what it is in, it’s just needed for the working visa. No experience needed either. Just be entertaining because that is what people are looking for—most are just joining some class for a hobby and it was this or yoga. Some are studying for a upcoming test…they often drop classes after the test date, so the hobby students are your longterm students. Expect to take a few months to get a full teaching schedule built up, so have money saved for that when you come. Or you can try to get a job through one of the chain schools before you come. They don’t like to recruit in Japan because someone who is already here can more easily quit their contract than someone who relies on them entirely…these companies will place you somewhere and you will have no say in that, but the salary is more reliable (though still low).
I exclusively work freelance, but that is a difficult visa to get. I switched to a spouse visa once I was married and that made it much easier at the immigration office.
Practice speaking Japanese out loud. Just studying your grammar won’t cut it. People tend to panic a little when interacting with foreigners and don’t seem to have a lot of practice with it, so your pronunciation needs to be perfect. And if you aren’t super comfortable with saying things out loud, you are likely to blank. Being able to *use* basic Japanese will make your life easier. Just remember speaking/listening are very different skills than reading/writing.
You need a bachelors degree mate. Your tattoo isn’t an issue, just don’t show it.
Read though the other threads here on the forum and take note. There is more than enough information about English teaching to give you a good idea of what it is like. My personal take:
– English teaching without qualifications isn’t a career. It’s a low-pay, no-respect McJob. If that’s okay with you, fine – but living in an expensive foreign country without much money and no other prospects for work won’t be fun for long. A good number of teachers wind up lazy and resentful. Others find themselves going back to school and leaving Japan to get a better job.
– Whether you assimilate or not isn’t up to how hard you try or even how well you speak Japanese. It depends on a good number of factors, but the biggest one is your personality and whether it meshes with local norms and values. Some people like the conservative, risk-adverse, collectivist Japanese mindset, while it drives other people crazy. Even if you enjoy yourself at first, the honeymoon may end abruptly. It really is hard to know how you’re going to feel in a year, five years, or ten years.
– It can also be difficult to make close Japanese friends. The locals here, like everywhere else, can be negative about immigrants and disinterested in people whose cultures are different from theirs. And people who are only interested in you because of your foreign-ness will be happy to use you as their exotic “friend” but the relationship will be entirely superficial. It can be very difficult to build a social life, and your expat friends will often leave.
I’m prior military and currently have been here since 2014. Reach out if you got any questions
American here.
The tattoo won’t be much of an issue if you can cover it up when needed, like during interviews. Once you get to know the people at your school it won’t be much of an issue either. I know a guy who has a neck tattoo, did JET, and because he drank with the vice principal and got the “if anyone had a problem with it, they can talk to me,” he doesn’t need to worry about it anymore.
As far as life here, your military experience or being an American doesn’t matter. I’d probably never bring it up about the military, but you will be asked where you’re from often. If you end up with a direct hire full time position as an ACTUAL teacher (with licence) the military exp might help with proving prior working experience (meaning more salary).
The biggest determiner of whether or not you’re going to like it here is you. Not learning the language and/or not being comfortable with being an outsider will get your hand hovering on that eject button.
If you have no qualms about working for the DOD longer term, I’d definitely recommend getting a teaching degree after your service and just working for them. They pay is nice and the housing is good, too. My partner did his teaching certification in Aviano, Italy and the teachers were living very well. It sounds like you might enjoy that type of life, either in Japan or elsewhere.
Hmmm I got detained and scammed by some crazy bitch that was a formal apple worker and her mom was a formal professor that worked in one of the top colleges in Japan.
(There were other chain reactions that lead me to end up encountering with such monsters)
And my dream of moving to Japan was then shattered.
Japan’s cops are shit btw
I still love Japan as a country and the food is amazing.
I think the biggest and most important thing is to consider whether Japan will be a good fit for you. Some people come here and expect the entire country to change for them or for them to not have to change anything at all about their lifestyle or way of communicating and still be quite successful in Japan. All those people go home miserable.
Consider whether you’re okay with:
living in a smaller place, having to be quiet as to not bother the neighbors/people around you, communicating indirectly, listening more often than you’re used to, dealing with bureaucratic systems, having to put more effort into making friends, having people make judgements about you based on your immigrant status, working longer hours, having to be more soft-spoken about your opinions or sometimes even holding back on sharing your opinions, assimilating into Japanese culture, and being alone a lot in the beginning of your time in Japan.
You will undoubtedly deal with all of these things and while you don’t always have to like some of these things, they will be a fact of life regardless. If you find any of these things too difficult to manage, you probably won’t be very happy living in Japan and it’s probably better just to come here on vacation once that’s possible again. I’ve seen people come and go and these things often end up being a problem with people…and sometimes even frustrate me even though I’m happy here haha
People will say “you’ll never be accepted here” but that’s really not true. Sure, there will always be some xenophobic jerks somewhere. But if you make an effort to assimilate into the culture and be a part of the community, you’ll probably be accepted by the people around you. I get greeted by my neighbors when I go out and about and they don’t treat me any different than others and defend me when people try to do that (ex: blaming me for poor garbage sorting). Stuff just works differently here. It might even be more important to understand the culture than it is to understand the language.
Super easy!