can someone please help me figure out what it’s like to move and live in japan?

10 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **can someone please help me figure out what it’s like to move and live in japan?**

   i started to work toward this goal and really want to see it through because just like all of you i love japan and want to be there and live but the more i look into it the more i see people saying they wish they had never moved to japan and that it’s a big deep regret to them and i want to understand why and prepare myself so i don’t fall into the same issues. i’m sorry if this isn’t what people want to see in the subreddit but i thought i’d ask anyways. any info would be helpful plz and thx

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2. Why do you love Japan?

   I’m in the same boat as you, as in I am currently working towards moving to Japan, for a little while at least. I have, however, been to Japan several times already, and it has given me a little bit of an idea about the country firsthand.

   I think a lot of people regret it because it doesn’t live up to their expectations. It’s easy to see the positives of the country from afar, but without living there you don’t see the negatives.

   The most obvious one is the language barrier. Japanese people do learn English in school, but most of them might not be all that comfortable conversing with you in English. The most menial task might become stressful if you can’t comfortably express yourself. It can also be pretty difficult to get used to the difference in culture and there might be things that bother you even years down the road.

3. This is not going to be a useful question for you as people’s experiences “moving and living in Japan” will vary widely based on their jobs and life situation.

   For example a mid-career manager on a fancy expat package (high salary, moving costs covered, etc) will have a very different experience from an entry level English teacher on a barebones salary. Someone moving with a Japanese spouse will have a very different experience from two married foreigners who don’t speak the language and have to qualify for work visas.

   You can have a wonderful life in Japan. You can have a crappy life in Japan. “Japan” is often not the key factor, but instead money, job/family situation, and of course language ability.

4. There are many sub-cultures in Japan, too. Kyoto culture, Okinawa culture, inaka Shikoku culture, etc…. all different. I moved here and it hasn’t been easy but I don’t regret it. You should prepare, but some of the pains are unavoidable. Finding happiness isn’t about avoiding pain, it’s learning how to manage it.

5. I don’t recommend starting your career here or expecting a decent salary without lots of prior experience.

6. American? You can always join the military and hope to get stationed here – but that route obviously is loaded with a million factors, none of which are “hey, wanna move to Japan?”

   It’s interesting to me that you interact with people who want to move here. I can’t get my own family to commit to visit.

7. >i want to understand why

   Peruse the subreddit and find out.

   For me it was quite easy. First time I came on the JET Programme. That was in 1988. Seven years later I returned on an offer from a university. In both cases, I had an employer assist with the transition.

   Good luck.

8. Before moving completely you can always test it for a short amount of time first. I saved up for a 3 month language program under tourist visa. If you’re younger than 30, you can always do the working holiday visa. Without income/ some kind of savings, you will not be able to enjoy it as much.

9. 1st year English teacher: Pay was OK in the rural area I lived in and Interac paid better 16 years ago. Work was easy, I didn’t do much. I studied a lot on my free time. Sometimes frustrating how I couldn’t get the simplest things done due to lack of Japanese. I didn’t make much friends, I watched TV shows online and played WoW on AU servers.

   2nd to 6th year I was a grad student. I started to open up a bit more and went drinking with friends and lab mates more often. Though I had a very meager RA salary so I couldn’t do too much. This time I also got a GF and we would spend time, watch movies together and other things that didn’t cost too much momey. By this point I was about N3 so life did get easier. I passed N2 as I graduated PhD.

   7th year I started working. First I had some menial jobs in the chip industry but then I could transition to software engineer.

10. Japan is a nice place but they don’t let people move here unless you are needed. Japan needs two things: highly skilled professionals and super cheap labor. What you come as is where you are going to stay. Lots of people don’t seem to understand this and confuse cheap labor for professional work in the form of “teaching” that requires no qualifications. They then get mad that they will never be able to move on the high paid professional jobs and get it in their heads that it’s just Japan being racist and not their lack of qualifications or the fact they refuse to study Japanese.