Foreigners who left Japan

28 comments

1. I went to university in Japan. One classmate married there and stuck around for over ten years.

   They have together left for Europe. Lack of career opportunities and lousy pay made them leave.

2. Language barrier, cultural differences, wanting to live near family in their home countries, pursuing further education not available/not specific to their interests in Japan, better career prospects in home countries, significant others who couldn’t/wouldn’t move to Japan… those are the main ones I’ve heard

3. Said above. Lousy pay and career ops are minimal. If you value innovation and more work life balance, then Japan isn’t worth it. Unless you drink a lot with bosses, forget getting ahead on the corporate ladder in most places. Not worth your health joining their kind of rat race. Also, their business practices are stereotypically bad as there’s no talk about mental health. You cannot advocate for yourself and others who are neurodiverse. Working culture is overall the reason why it’s not worth staying there unless you have freedom in your job to avoid the typical BS from higher ups and colleagues.

4. I’ve heard many people leaving japan. There are so many reasons.

   1. Unrealistic expectations (better to have no expectations).
   2. There is no interest in learning the language.
   3. People pass the honeymoon phase and learn that Japan is not some magical place where you’ll be happy every day for the rest of your life.
   4. Not being able to accept Japan’s problems.
   5. Failing to find people and a community where you can cultivate a sense of belonging (this can take years) …

   Personally, I love Japan, and I never want to leave this rock …not even for the end of the world.

5. I left Japan after 10 years for 3 reasons by order :

   My ex of 7 year cheated on me

   Weak salary

   What japanese governement did to foreigner living in japan during COVID was fucking horrible

6. I came to Japan because I got a job at Rakuten then I left Japan because I got a job at Rakuten.

7. People who stick around tend to be those who can speak the language (even if modestly) and generally have an interest in the culture. Others are hit-n-miss; it’s not an easy place to live for an extended period of time for those not prepared for it.

8. Low pay. Better chance in home country.

   ~6m yen in Japan vs 12m yen in China. My Chinese classmates just chose the latter despite all other pros you may name living in Japan.

9. The way you have stated this seems to be asking asking “Do you know people who moved to Japan but FAILED because not staying in Japan is FAILURE?” If leaving Japan is failing, wouldn’t leaving home country be “failing” there too?

   I mention this as I often do see comments with people seeming to have the attitude that once you come to Japan, leaving it for a different country or returning to original country is proof that the person lacks character or a “real” life. Yet moving from country to country shouldn’t be that.

   Anyway, people return to their home country in 1,2,5, 10, 22 countries for many reasons and not all are bad.

   Could be some positive pull: always was the plan to return with whatever degree or experience they got here and use it in home country / without that plan, they still were offered a great position back home that takes advantage of the skills they go here / family, as they want to be closer to aging parents or adult children or extended family / they inherited a home or land and want to live there / they decided to do a career change and the newly desired career is not one they pursue in Japan.

   Could be a negative push: if they were not a Caucasian male, perhaps they tired of the racial or gender discrimination they experienced * / regardless of gender or ethnicity they found Japanese society a bit too cloistered for them and wanted a place with more proactive innovation and thinking / they like it here but simply they can not find or keep decent paying employment / they did not want to raise children in the form-forcing educational system here.

   *Not all women or non-white people experience discrimination but it does happen often and just because Woman A didn’t experience it or Non-White Male B didn’t experience it, it does not mean Woman C or Non-White Male D did not experience it.

10. Yea, me.

    – shitty work culture
    – language barrier (slow learner – started in ~2011 and still somewhere between N3 and N2)

    Well, I went back to my home country (Switzerland) and now (8 years later) earn 3x as much as I did in Japan (also thanks to the weak Yen), so instead I just spend a crazy amount of time on holiday and workations in Japan and don’t need to look at prices in Japan anymore (not that I like luxury at all, but I eat a lot more sashimi and visit kore izakayas now than back then). I also get to see more of the country this way.

    Edit: To be clear, I knew what I was getting myself into – I was planning to spend 1 year in Japan (but was open to stay indefinitely if it worked out well). I ended up spending 2.5 years in the country (thanks to finding decent enough jobs). After 2 years my last employer (of <1 year) got into financial trouble and let me go – new jobs sounded shitty and unemployment benefits didn’t even cover my rent (yea, I lived in a nice 18万円 per month apartment – Asakusa but newly built with great views of Sensoji and the Skytree from an actually usable balcony), so I returned home after spending my savings on traveling the country.

11. Salaries were too low in Japan. I plan on moving back in a few years but in a FIRE type situation.

12. One of my friend’s friend managed to find a job in japan after he graduated. He came back after less than a year after dumbing so much money into the move. He said one of the reasons was because he thought japan would be more like anime… ngl I didn’t know what to say to that answer. He moved to a country without knowing anything but stuff he saw on tik toks and anime. I feel like so many people are doing similar mistakes.

13. My enlistment ended lol. Moved back last year, going back to school now to get my bachelor’s and then hopefully return through the jet program. Do that for a couple of years and maybe open up a taco shop in Sendai and capitalize on cow tongue tacos there. I’m still taking Japanese now, so I’m still striving to improve my Japanese.

14. 99.999% of English speaking foreigners leave Japan within a year or two.

    &#x200B;

    Ignore the “bad pay” people, most of them expected to be catapulted to the upper class because of the language they speak and the nation they are from and got mad when they weren’t given special treatment.

15. Wait. We… we can *leave*?!?

16. I know a few. A reason that I often hear is social exclusion.

    They severely underestimate how social integration is difficult there when you look foreigner. They also tend to underestimate how long it takes to actually learn Japanese. And not shopping-level Japanese but proper fluency in the language.

    After a few years of being excluded from society, they left.

    Also, some of them tend to idealize Japan quite a bit and can’t accept that it’s just a country like any other.

17. Most people around me (usually married and often with kids) seem to leave due to:
    – better family support
    – “better” education system (quotations are because it’s somewhat subjective although in most cases I’d agree)
    – better exposure to different languages and cultures

    These are usually people who have been quite well established here in Japan though, so it goes well beyond any period when people leave because the “honeymoon phase” ends etc.

18. Family back home. How are you supposed to look after elderly parents during their last year’s of life from 6000 miles away?

19. I left because of the lack of career growth. I also valued a healthier work life balance.

20. Most of my friends left due to money. Pay is too low despite having years of experience in a professional career.

    IMO Japan is good place for entry level jobs and gaining experience for young folks. But once that’s past and one starts worrying about retirement, it gets harder and harder to justify staying and “falling behind.”

    I’m Japanese American and have a remote job so I consider myself fortunate and have an excuse to stay as my parents are here.

21. Most of my countryman who got to Japan end up staying and getting PR

    Why ? Cause we are third world country so Japan is just plain better

    But other foreigners especially other developed country is more of a trade of and depends on the persons

22. I have to wonder how many people are lifers. That seems to be the exception, not the norm.

23. I’ll be leaving in April. Main reason is horrible work culture, salary and lack of career growth. I work as a software engineer for a local company in a rural area and earned about 2.4 million (17K usd) yen (gross) this year with 2 years experience.

    Japan is not the place if you want to have a career and make decent money.

24. I couldn’t even leave if I wanted to, salary is so bad that I got stuck here

25. Among my circle of friends and acquaintances, I find that most of them come as English teachers and fall into one of two categories:

    they either know from the get go that they only want to stay a couple of years before going home to their actual careers, or they want to stay in Japan but can’t get out of the English teaching life and have no real direction or idea about their futures.

    So when their residence status runs out they sorta panic and either get forced to go home or take on crappy Eikaiwa jobs while feeling lost about what they wanna be doing in life (but many ultimately end up going home anyway)

    These category 2 types tend to not speak Japanese well and don’t have a lot of other skills to fall back on

26. There was a point when I couldn’t handle the loneliness and reached a dark side of my life. I was younger, stubborn, and didn’t ask for help, and I was desperate to return home.

    I regret my decision a lot because I fought so hard to live there, and probably if I had gone to therapy at the time, the story could have been different. However, I’m proud of myself for achieving my dream to live in Japan, and it’s never too late!

    The experience helped me to be the person I am now, though. I started going to therapy, I know myself way better, and I have the tools to fight to go through life.

27. Many gaijin, especially westerners, who immigrate to Japan are basically losers in their countries.
    They mistakenly believe that if they go to Japan, everything will be fine and they expect to be treated like gods.
    But in reality, the Japanese don’t even favour whites and put them in the same category as blacks and Asians. I mean, they’re all gaijins. And when they find out what’s going on in Japan, they eventually are disappointed with Japan and go back home.
    And even when they leave Japan, they stick to Japan and criticise Japan all day long on social media.

28. Many people complain about the salary, but isn’t such a thing obvious before coming to Japan?

    Did they come here without knowing anything about it?

    Isn’t there really some other reason?