Hello,
Recently and after a long in-depth conversation, my husband and I decided that we want to live in Japan. We’re both pretty set on it but the more I read, the less I feel like this will happen. We live in the US.
He’s a homemaker so would have to go on a Dependent Visa. I’d need a Work Visa. The biggest hurdle may be my education level and I feel like it will prevent us from going.
I only have an Associates Degree in Business Marketing (2006). I’ve only worked retail since 2004. My experience is 100% in customer service and leadership positions. I’m currently an Assistant Manager at a border store. Neither of us know Japanese beyond short phrases. He never took a language class and I took a couple years of Japanese in High School 20 years ago.
As far as funding goes, I would be selling my house and car and using any remaining funds after the loans are paid. I feel like it would give us a decent start but certainly not enough to only work part-time.
I reached out to JET and was told it wouldn’t work for me.
I just don’t know how I would get a sponsor without having a Bachelor’s or having a “Highly Skilled” role. Are there actually any options for us?
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Edited to fix which Visa my husband would use and to include information left out originally:
No, we haven’t visited Japan. I know it’s suggested to visit first. I know I will get a fair number of people telling me that moving there without going for a bit first is a terrible idea. Without going into details, I’ll just say that if and when we go to Japan, we want it to be just the one time and permanently.
We are both going to be talking online language courses. We just have to find an appropriate site.
My current employer has international locations but none in Japan.
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17 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Is this just a Pipe Dream?**
Hello,
Recently and after a long in-depth conversation, my husband and I decided that we want to live in Japan. We’re both pretty set on it but the more I read, the less I feel like this will happen. We live in the US.
He’s a homemaker so would have to go on a Spouse Visa. I’d need a Work Visa. The biggest hurdle may be my education level and I feel like it will prevent us from going.
I only have an Associates Degree in Business Marketing (2006). I’ve only worked retail since 2004. My experience is 100% in customer service and leadership positions. I’m currently an Assistant Manager at a border store. Neither of us know Japanese beyond short phrases. He never took a language class and I took a couple years of Japanese in High School 20 years ago.
As far as funding goes, I would be selling my house and car and using any remaining funds after the loans are paid. I feel like it would give us a decent start but certainly not enough to only work part-time.
I reached out to JET and was told it wouldn’t work for me.
I just don’t know how I would get a sponsor without having a Bachelor’s or having “Highly Skilled” role. Are there actually any options for us?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No easy options, certainly. Here’s a couple constructive thoughts before all the bad news bears pile in.
– You don’t mention if you’ve spent any/much time in Japan, especially as a family. It’s definitely going to be a big uphill climb to find a viable solution here, so being as sure as possible that you want to make the move seems smart. I was able to spend two weeks in an airbnb in a Tokyo suburb working remote before I made the decision to move. It wasn’t much, but it was a less-touristy experience – cooking at home, dealing with garbage, laundry, being in work mode, etc. If you haven’t spent time here, this should be your first priority. Even if a trip is expensive/complicated, it’s _less_ expensive/complicated than trying to move here.
– For solving the bachelor degree problem, some colleges specialize in returning learners, and give credit for previous studies, and for professional/life experience – at somewhere like https://www.sunyempire.edu/degrees-programs/ you can maybe fast-track (or I guess ‘fast’ track) a degree for less time/money that a trad 4 year course.
– Japan is talking about loosen up the rules for visas for people aiming to start businesses: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/Japan-to-ease-residency-rules-for-foreigners-starting-a-business. It’s a long shot, and a big commitment, but maybe there’s a way to think about how you could launch a consultancy or similar based on your retail and management experience.
My gut is it’s a very tough challenge with a slim chance of success, and you have to remember there’s a chance you won’t be happy living here even if it seems like there are a lot of reasons why you would. But I also never expected to end up living here, so I’m not gonna tell someone not to do it, as long as they’re going in with their eyes open.
Straight talk.
With no degree and skills that are not in high-demand in japan (no offence), you don’t have many options to stay here in the long term. The only path I can think of (and it is slim) – is to get hired by an american multinational in the united states and eventually convince them to transfer you to japan using the Intra-company transferee visa. Personally, this option is terrible because 1) there is a very low probability this plan would work and 2) you are basically not allowed to change jobs .. ever.
You could also attend language school in Japan for a couple of years. But this option also sucks because if you find you love japan, too bad. You have to go when your visa is up.
If you are really serious about moving to Japan, then you are going to put in the work. Start by finishing your 4 yr degree. Study Japanese.
First, to clarify, your husband would need a dependent visa, not a spouse visa. Spouse visas are for spouses of Japanese nationals (which I assume you aren’t, given this post).
You’re correct that you would need a work visa. Unfortunately, immigration (in general) requires a BA minimum, which is why JET probably turned you down.
So yes, the degree is in many ways the biggest hurdle, as even if a company wanted to hire you and sponsor your visa, they wouldn’t be able to. Immigration will accept 10 years of experience (narrowly defined), but that’s more for jobs like software engineering, not customer service.
If you want to pursue this you’d likely then need a BA or a complete career change. Also be aware that since your husband would be a dependent, you’d need to have a job that provides a salary that can support a dependent. Otherwise his application would be denied.
Not judging, but how can you both be so ‘set on living’ in a country you haven’t even visited?
Sorry but you guys are out of your mind imho. In order to be able to live in Japan you need to be able to adjust well enough to the Japanese way of thinking/doing things which isn’t such an easy task for a lot of people. It requires a degree of flexibility that a lot of people don’t have. Maybe not that much if you work/stay only with foreigners but then there is no point living in Japan.
You have no language ability and have never been here before.
Those are huge red flags 🚩 🚩
Can you explain what it is exactly that you like about Japan specifically?
I think if you put that into words it would help us understand your perspective better.
My thought is that perhaps you could go enroll in language school in Japan and at the same time complete an online bachelor’s degree that would equip you to be more employable— your husband could do the same. Downsides of this are 1) expense and 2) there is no guarantee you would be able to stay beyond completing language school.
I won’t criticize your feeling of really wanting to live in Japan because that was me too before I got here. Luckily I had a degree that is in enough demand here that I could get a job, but I had also never even visited Japan before I moved here and that’s a BIG risk. It worked out but it’s definitely a huge and kind of insane decision to make without even visiting 😅😅 so the benefit of the language school route, if you can afford it, is that you’ll get to experience living here and see if you really do want to stay.
Not sure why there’s hestitancy to visit Japan first. I mean, you don’t just buy a car without test driving or move into a home without seeing the place.
There are so many red flags. It appears there more underneath the surface than just suddenly wanting to move there. Moving to Japan isn’t an escape to whatever issues you do currently have.
When moving, most people need to prep and research, with the research actually including visiting. If you both just wing it, there could be lots of negative consequences, from relationship to finances to reputation, etc.
Not to gatekeep, but make sure you plan/prep to make it as successful as possible, not just relying on luck and chance.
From reading your post, I’ll just cut to the chase and tell you it’s not gonna work. And you’re also not gonna have the mental fortitude to push through and make it happen. Never been to the country, don’t know the language, no transferable skills, a husband who doesn’t work, no bachelors degree at a minimum.
Confused as to why you even want to go to Japan. You didn’t even post why you think you MIGHT like it.
I’ve spent about 4 years in Japan and it’s great, but you gotta put in a little effort lol.
If you returned to college and finished a bachelors, you would have more options. Not having a bachelors, at the moment, is less of a roadblock and more of a deep and wide river between you and where you want to go, and the bridge across is a few miles out of way.
Of course it’s fine that your husband is a homemaker, but seeing that you don’t have any kids I believe, I’m just wondering why your husband cannot work as well? If you are willing to get a degree in the US to help in your search of a work visa in Japan, why can’t your husband do the same? That way you have two people trying to get a work visa and double the chance to finally make it here.
Frankly your home will be quite small, especially if you live in Tokyo, so they’re really isn’t much for a homemaker to do
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If level of education is your issue, you really should go on degreeforum.net
There are people that are essentially degree hunters and they get degrees as fast as possible. They helped me out years ago and I got a bachelors from zero in a year from WGU while working full time. You get your degree from a real, accredited university and after 2020 a semester of non transferable credits are required.
A bachelors does not take 4 years. If you did nothing but study you’d finish in 6 months. Overseas this strategy is well known, but unsurprisingly, here in America we have zero info on anything useful unless you really dig.
>I only have an Associates Degree in Business Marketing (2006). I’ve only worked retail since 2004. My experience is 100% in customer service and leadership positions. I’m currently an Assistant Manager at a border store.
For you to be able to have a visa and not to mention a dependant, you’d need a proper job. The chances of someone hiring you without at least a bachelor’s degree not to mention sponsoring your visa are slim to none.
Retail is basically a part time job in Japan, same as waitressing. Finding a part time job without Japanese is borderline impossible. And you ain’t getting a visa doing a part time job.
Sorry for the cold water but without higher education and language and perhaps a skill if you don’t want to be an English teacher for the rest of your life, selling your house to move here doesn’t sound like the brightest idea.
Japan is very welcoming to visitors and tourists.
Japan is not in fact very welcoming when you want to live here and have a good job and prospects.
Other negative comments brought up elsewhere aside, do you have any bills, debt, or loans to pay off? Not sure if you mentioned where you’re from, but if you’re planning on paying ANYTHING off in your home country, it’s going to be ROUGH. Fingers crossed the yen picks up in the coming years, but it needs to be accounted for. And if one of you is working and the other is at home doing nothing, at current exchange rates, it’s literally not going to be possible unless you have a VERY well paying job or bottomless savings.
Hey I don’t want to judge where you are coming from and I do not want to say whether if you can make it or not but here are some very logical and factual informations that you need to know before moving.
Here are some facts that I think you should know.
1. you HAVE to travel to Japan even before thinking about moving to Japan. I understand that your husband is afraid of flights but he needs to overcome that. Moving to Japan will be much more scarier and socially more claustrophobic than ‘quick’ 14 hours of flight, which has a very slim chance for you to get into an accident. If you guys have money, take business class and just visit Japan at least once for 1-2 weeks.
2. Japan is very prone to earthquake. If your husband is very conscious about safety and stuff (stemming from the idea that he is afraid of flight), you guys need to really talk about this and once again, taking a quick 14 hours flight can be much safer than experiencing earthquakes in Japan.
3. Get Bachelor’s degree. Japan can be a xenophobic country (any homogenous country) where if they think you can’t provide a monetary or social benefits to them, they will simply not accept you to live. There are other foreigners with great educational background who are willing to come too.
4. Are you a vegetarian or a vegan? You will be limited to many cuisines here.
5. Japan will be a very very very very difficult country to settle down at first when you don’t know anyone here. For example, you need to make a phone but you need a proof of housing （住民票）but you cannot rent a house without a cell phone number and it just becomes a infinite loop of blackhole. And when things are not settled down asap, you simply cannot do things in order and it may cause unpleasant situations or 迷惑/失礼（you should know these words because Japan run by these) to your employer.
6. No matter how much you study Japanese in US and how fluent you become, you will not be able to have a fluent conversation with Japanese in Japan and you will be having hard time reading stuffs in Japan. I am not questioning your brain capacity, I am stating the fact that seeing something as a 3rd person perspective and actually experiencing something in your hands are two completely different things. Just like how NO ONE is actually prepared to become a father or a mother. You will start from the bottom and make a mess.How do I know this? Because I spoke and texted in Japanese with Japanese folks back in US and it was still very difficult once I moved here when it comes to renting a house, cell phone making and a lot of ward office related works.
American culture has this ideology where it encourages folks to ‘follow your dream’ and ‘do what you want’. Having a goal or a dream is a beautiful thing but if those cannot be supported by actual tangible skillsets and logistics, those dreams will become a very expensive nightmare.
P.S. If you and your partner can’t do number 1, please do not even start the whole ‘moving to japan’ plan. You can ask 10,000 people the same question and I guarantee 98% of the people will say the same.