Context/Scenario:
* I (27m) work for a well-known Japanese company in North America
* Currently make about 100,000 USD with OT and Bonus in a very HCOL region. I have about 200,000k USD in savings earning high yield interest.
* I have the opportunity to transfer to JPN BUT I’m expecting a localized payband adjustment which would end up being around 50% buying power.
* I also have a perpetual freelance gig with a small American company which will continue to pay additional 1800-4000usd a month depending on how much work I have lined up.
* I’m also getting my master’s degree from a prestigious American university remotely.
* I’ve visited several times and have managed to make good acquaintances, and a couple people I would go as far as to consider friends. (I’m moderately extraverted)
* I only speak as much Japanese as one could from 101 and 102 college courses and a collective period of two months in Japan. I fully intend to learn the language as it aligns with my goals.
**My motivations/pros are:**
1. The food culture (i.e it’s possible to eat out affordably)
2. I have a goal of being trilingual and I can’t imagine a better way to learn than sink or swim
3. I don’t want to drive a car every day.
4. The live music scene is one of the best I’ve ever experienced
5. Safety
6. Seems like a cool place to spend your 20s and 30
7. Desire to challenge myself to do as the Romans do so to speak
8. I’m an anxious motorcycle rider and traffic fatality statistics speak for themselves
9. My career gives me a little bit of street cred with <40 Japanese people B)
10. I already have some friends in the country
11. Have lived in the same region my whole life, I’ve always wanted to live abroad but have never had the right opportunity
**Things that are making me hesitate:**
* Many accounts of people being lonely
* I’ll always be a foreigner
* If I don’t like it and want to remain with my company I would have to be there for a minimum of 3 years.
* I fear I’m too old at 27 to be making this move.
* Potential career stagnation (though I feel working abroad would look good on a resume)
* I don’t think I’ve seen a single outdoor patio seating area at a restaurant.
* Slightly less money into savings.
**Straight up cons:**
* The Yen
* Geji Geji
* Those fucked up centipede things
* Thought I saw a hummingbird but turns out it was a really big moth.
* The humidity (I’m from perfect whether socal)
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I realize after typing this I do have a better situation than most people trying to move abroad, though I do appreciate the insight regardless.
26 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Is this a good scenario to move to Japan on?**
I need strangers on the internet to tell me that I’m either
A. Delusional
C. Have a pretty good scenario for making it work out
Context/Scenario:
* I (27m) work for a well-known Japanese company in North America
* Currently make about 100,000 USD with OT and Bonus in a very HCOL region. I have about 200,000k USD in savings earning high yield interest.
* I have the opportunity to transfer to JPN I’m expecting a 50% value decrease based on the current Yen value.
* I also have a perpetual freelance gig with a small American company which will continue to pay additional 1800-4000usd a month depending on how much work I have lined up.
* I’m also getting my master’s degree from a prestigious American university remotely.
* I’ve visited several times and have managed to make good acquaintances, and a couple people I would go as far as to consider friends. (I’m moderately extraverted)
* I only speak as much Japanese as one could from 101 and 102 college courses and a collective period of two months in Japan. I fully intend to learn the language as it aligns with my goals.
**My motivations/pros are:**
1. The food culture (i.e it’s possible to eat out affordably)
2. I have a goal of being trilingual and I can’t imagine a better way to learn than sink or swim
3. I don’t want to drive a car every day.
4. The live music scene is one of the best I’ve ever experienced
5. Safety
6. Seems like a cool place to spend your 20s and 30
7. Desire to challenge myself to do as the Romans do so to speak
8. I’m an anxious motorcycle rider and traffic fatality statistics speak for themselves
9. My career gives me a little bit of street cred with <40 Japanese people B)
10. I already have some friends in the country
11. Have lived in the same region my whole life, I’ve always wanted to live abroad but have never had the right opportunity
**Things that are making me hesitate:**
* Many accounts of people being lonely
* I’ll always be a foreigner
* If I don’t like it and want to remain with my company I would have to be there for a minimum of 3 years.
* I fear I’m too old at 27 to be making this move.
* Potential career stagnation (though I feel working abroad would look good on a resume)
* I don’t think I’ve a single outdoor patio seating area at a restaurant.
* Slightly less money into savings.
**Straight up cons:**
* The Yen
* Geji Geji
* Those fucked up centipede things
* Thought I saw a hummingbird but turns out it was a really big moth.
* The humidity (I’m from perfect whether socal)
As I’m writing this out I realize that I am in a much better scenario than most for kind of move but I’d appreciate the insight none the less!
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Just from my brief time on this sub you seem to have by far the most comprehensive and reasonable scenario to make a potentially successful move to Japan (with the usual caveats you mentioned).
Do it. 3 years is a drop in the bucket and it sounds like you have backup plans and backup money. You only live once and with how prepared you are, I only see positives.
Also, mukade are scary but got nothing on the Joro and huntsman spider. Not to mention the Suzumebachi hornets
You have a guaranteed visa and income more than 90% of the population.
Your passive income from dividends is nearly minimum wage and your side gig money is still way more than most people make.
I don’t think you will have issues struggling.
Sounds like you’re sorted.
You’ll make friends. Go for it. You’ll be making more than most foreigners here.
The bugs are fine.
You’re more than set to move to Japan. I used to plan 5 years in advance and prepare for the worst, but that really only hinders progress (constantly stressing, thinking about savings, measuring myself against an invisible future me, etc.). Plan for 1-3 years out at the most and right now you’re in a good position for those 3 years.
Yeah you’re fine dude 27 is young man just don’t overthink it and enjoy your time there. Dude you’re totally fine with the finances, average salary in Tokyo is like 5mil yen.
If you white, yes. If you brown or black, maybe you should reconsider.
Your age is totally fine, I actually think it’s the perfect age to make this move, so just go for it, as you are also in a very good place when it comes to money and job too.
You sound like you have a pretty good grasp on the pros and cons, so let me present some scenarios for your consideration: 1) You don’t go, and spend the rest of your life asking “what if”? 2) You go and you hate it, but you’ve kept your professional contacts and career growth and return with new experiences behind you. 3) You go, you love it, and maybe you’ve earned a bit less, or saved a bit less, but you had a solid base to start with, and you’re still young, and there are still plenty of years ahead to continue saving — or maybe you become a permanent resident — who knows!
If you do go, please get an accountant well versed in US and Japan tax law as soon as possible, well before you go, and possibly even before you make a final decision. You’ll want to make sure your existing investments and your side work don’t cause tax issues, and you’ll want to have time to make adjustments that serve your new situation best (eg., there are some investments you can’t hold if you live overseas). Also, and this is a tough one, consider any relatives who might pass away and give you an inheritance while you live in Japan. The inheritance taxes are intense, and you should at least understand what you will face if the worst happens.
Sounds like a pretty good scenario to me! I moved at 32
Not much outdoor patio seating, but there is terrace seating and rooftop seating.
I feel like some of the respondents might not necessarily live here and haven’t posed much legitimate advice beyond if you should/should not do it, so I’ll offer a bit more specific advice and open a dialogue pertaining to your situation;
– You’re expecting a 50% value decrease for an intra-company transfer? I mean, it’s certainly not improbable, but why? Are you expecting your pay to be changed into yen? If so, are they going to match your current salary or will it be a flat rate change to say 10m yen?
– Your freelance gig will be taxed as local income and means that you hold additional tax liability. Because of the amount, it may or may not pose an issue to your visa depending on the scope and focus of the work. It’s a weird situation where immigration doesn’t want people coming over as ALTs and working remotely for 2x their salary and focusing primarily on that, which as you can see *might* apply to your situation depending on the immigration agent and their mood when they process your paperwork.
– The remote education won’t pose any issues aside from the reality of living in a drastically different timezone.
Regarding your concerns:
– Some people are lonely, others aren’t. You have friends here already which is certainly a leg-up ahead of most others who are considering moving here.
– Yup. If that bothers you, there’s nothing you can do about it, so you’ll have to get over it.
– 3 years isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things.
– I don’t think 27 is too old, personally.
– Depends on your industry which you have not specified.
– There are plenty nearby parks and outside the 23ku.
– Yup.
You seem to have it mostly down with the typical over worrying fears of “different”. You’ll be fine. 🙂
Language solves about 80% of people’s “Japan bad” problems anyways.
> My career gives me a little bit of street cred with <40 Japanese people B)
What kind of work do you do out of interest?
Do it! I did it at 29 and then again at 49. Was not too old either time!
Also, you can find the outdoor dining options if you look for them (not that many, I will grant you). Many of them are on rooftops.
I’ll address your hesitation list.
– People being lonely is a problem, same in many parts of Europe or America, make friends and meet with them regularly just like there and you’ll be fine.
– Yes, but as soon as you can speak a little people stop treating you like a tourist (for the most part).
– I moved in a similar situation as you, and this is the only problematic one long term, don’t get me wrong I love my job but you wouldn’t want to work for most Japanese companies so the only choice is to work for other multinationals.
– No age is old but certainly 27 isn’t, I moved in my early 30s.
– Career stagnation could be a problem, especially if you’ll be the “guy remote” in the team, no matter how good you are some level of nepotism always takes over and the people in the same time zone get better opportunities. Also working abroad means very little in 2023, I could say I worked abroad all my life and never mattered much.
– There are some in smaller cities, but Tokyo is a bit yucky in that sense.
– Not sure how taxes compare, since I moved from Europe, but quality of life on 100k USD here is much higher than the US, even while paying higher taxes it should come out ahead with cost of living.
You’d probably live in Tokyo or another big city anyways, so you’re rather unlikely to come across huge centipedes.
For your other negatives:
>Many accounts of people being lonely
You sound like you’re good at making friends, plus you’re into live music, which is a great way of meeting new people
>I’ll always be a foreigner
Yeah. So what? Honestly, you learn to just not care (on most days). Once you’re more proficient in the language, things get a lot easier. There are so many foreigners (comparatively) in the big cities anyways that people don’t care that much.
>If I don’t like it and want to remain with my company I would have to be there for a minimum of 3 years.
3 years aren’t that long in the grand scheme of a life.
>I fear I’m too old at 27 to be making this move.
Don’t deny yourself opportunities because you *might* be too old.
>I don’t think I’ve seen a single outdoor patio seating area at a restaurant.
I can come up with three different places, but yeah. It’s not very common. But it’s also way too hot/cold to sit outside for long stretches of the year, so I get it.
Give it a try, you might have the time of your life and if not – you can always move back to the States. 🙂
Do it! I think I share some similarities with you (also grew up in perfect weather socal, hate bugs, not a fan of driving, loves food) and while I’d hesitate on a permanent move, I’d jump on an opportunity like yours!
I studied abroad in Japan and also visited at various times of the year, probably experienced all months except February and to address some of your concerns:
Humidity: humidity is the worst when you visit in the summer, suddenly being dropped into a high heat & high humidity situation. I found it’s not as bad when you live there and it gradually starts yo get hot/humid, your body has time yo adjust. I learned sports drinks & “salt candy” are definite musts.
Bugs: honestly I haven’t encountered much bugs in bigger cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, have never seen a centipede in the cities (but Okinawa was bug and mosquito heaven). The worst experience I had in the city was a cicada landed on my coworker.
Good background.
Think about how to springboard medium and longer term.
The masters degree could be a springboard at graduation via the school’s job resources, but you lose that if you are in Japan on secondment. That is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I have done 2 transfers to Japan from the US, so feel free to DM me. There are a lot of considerations around your relo package.
Very brief (and sorry if it is a bit direct) answer is – I get that you want to try an adventure and do something different. That’s very cool and I suggest you do. Just don’t sell yourself short and accept shitty wages and a bad relo package to do that.
Don’t have a lot to add, but if 27 is “too old” then as someone who will be moving at around age 36 if all goes as planned then I’m in trouble, hah.
The novelty will wear off when you realise day-to-day life is pretty much the same everywhere in the developed world. So the only real question is “does it make financial sense?”
You’d better finish your master first and do some vacation here first before deciding to move
I would say that considering your current situation it’s not worth it to move if we speak rational facts
But at the end of the day it’s all about your feelings, you only have one life, just try to cover your back as much as possible if you decide to come back
NO.
Giving up 50% buying power. Are you kidding me?
You will miss driving your car when you ride the commuter everyday where you have to squeeze in a cabin everyday.
Food is very good but you get used to it very fast. At the end you will start to stick the same ones.
Working culture here is very different than the US. It will not be the same experience.
Houses in Japan are extremely small. Around 20 meter-square for singles. Many landlords don’t allow pets. They also try to extort money from you for “repairs”.
You are basically offered an expat job with half of your current salary.
I wouldn’t do it If I were you.
You are far too smart for these subs because from what I’ve seen (generally) is people moving here after college at like 21, still have to pay off college but when they move here and get a job they can’t afford anything because of the weak yen in relation to their debt they owe to college. Another post someone bought a house with a 30 year mortgage and only worked two years here before calling it quits. It’s insane. You’re not old btw! Perfect age for this kind of adventure. Hell, I’m 37 and feel the same way I did at 27 so I think you got plenty of time! Super happy for you
The only thing I would stop to calculate is: how much longer do you need to work in the US in order to functionally “retire” in Japan? Because if that answer is 5-10 years, it may be worth just being frugal for a bit and then doing the FIRE thing.
Personally, though, I’d take the opportunity. 27 is young, 3 years is nothing, and you have a direct path that makes all this immigration stuff a million times easier.