A bit of background- I lived in Japan for nearly 30 years, I’m fluent in the language, love the culture, my kids live there, and I really miss it. Most of my work was in education (curriculum as well as teaching), but a third of it was in proofreading medical and technical papers/translation and a quarter of it in marketing and promotion. I have desktop publishing and API skills, and I’ve passed the JLPT N1. I have a B.A. from UMC and Sophia, and in six months I’ll be graduating with a second degree, a B.Sc. in Environmental Science, which I would love to put to use in Japan.
I wonder if anyone has any good words of advice for getting back to Japan. I lived for nearly all my time there in Fukuoka, where my kids are now, though I don’t have to go back there. It would be nice though.
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This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Moving to Japan at 60?**
A bit of background- I lived in Japan for nearly 30 years, I’m fluent in the language, love the culture, my kids live there, and I really miss it. Most of my work was in education (curriculum as well as teaching), but a third of it was in proofreading medical and technical papers/translation and a quarter of it in marketing and promotion. I have desktop publishing and API skills, and I’ve passed the JLPT N1. I have a B.A. from UMC and Sophia, and in six months I’ll be graduating with a second degree, a B.Sc. in Environmental Science, which I would love to put to use in Japan.
I wonder if anyone has any good words of advice for getting back to Japan. I lived for nearly all my time there in Fukuoka, where my kids are now, though I don’t have to go back there. It would be nice though.
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What visa would you qualify for? At 60, it’s going to be difficult to impossible to get a work visa. Is your spouse Japanese?
Your education and experience are great. I think it comes down to a visa. I can tell you that the average age of workers is definitely increasing. Next year I expect many companies will raise their age limit in their contracts to 65. Not that you will expect to be a seishain, but just to say that perhaps the attitude towards older employees will be in your favor.
Job-wise – you probably know it is extremely hard to land anything from outside the country. Apart from eikaiwa that is, which is not something anyone is going to suggest.
You lived in Japan for 30 years but never applied for PR? Or did you give up PR after you moved out of Japan and now wanting to move back?
1) You are not going to get a work visa
JLPT: 15 points
Bachelor degree: 10 points
Bachelor’s degree from Sophia: 10 points
Professional career 10+ years: 10 points
Foreign work related qualification: 5 points
Total: 50/70 points
You need to either make 8M JPY or more (+30 points!)
Work for a small or medium company in research.
[https://www.ro.emb-japan.go.jp/files/100500331.pdf](https://www.ro.emb-japan.go.jp/files/100500331.pdf)
2) You can likely ask your kids to sponsor you and you should travel to Japan on a regular trip and then apply in Japan. Not sure about that procedure. There is one for elderly parents, but you are not old enough for that one.
3) Final option is a business owner visa.
Your biggest risk is that you will need to get PR again before you are retired in case of option 1 and 3. Your only vital option is option 2. However, should something happen to your kids, you are at risk of losing your visa.
The good thing is that once you are in Japan you should be able to lay out your strengths in PR applications and no (local) immigration officer is going to reject you if your tax returns show a decent number.