Social/work life as single 30+F?

4 comments

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

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   **Social/work life as single 30+F?**

   I’m toying with the idea of trying to hop over the Japan in the future and work in the games industry there. Currently been living in Seoul for 6 years, did the English teaching thing but managed to make the transition to live operations/customer service/misc translation in a game company. If I do head over to Japan, I’ll be 30 or over by then.

   I know Korea is kind of similar to Japan in terms of being *ehhhh* about older unmarried women seeking long-term employment, but I’m wondering if anyone has any personal experience to share. I don’t have any interest in pursuing marriage or a relationship anyway, but I know the prejudice can exist. Is this bias still a thing?

   Also, how’s life as an older single woman? A lot of women in Korea get married and stop being really social outside of wifey circles around 30, so it does make it harder to make friends. I’m sure there are still a decent amount of non-student foreigners to befriend and hang out with though, right (assuming you’re in a major city)? I don’t have a good grasp of what the size of the expat community is like in Japan because it’s fairly small here in Korea.

   Thanks in advance for any insight!

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2. Living in Tokyo, I have a ton of friends, but they’re almost exclusively foreigners. Good news is that foreigners tend to be much more open to making new friends compared to back home. Bad news is that it’s because of how often people move away, so if you’re not constantly making new friends, you’re falling behind.

   But overall, my social life here is really great, and there’s tons of things happening all the time. As long as you’re someone who can put yourself out there and chat with people you meet, I think you’ll have a lot of success.

3. Most of the people I’ve become friends with here are single 30+ women actually! Not in a bad way, I just think they are more likely to be joining Meetup groups or more likely want to make new friends. Interestingly I’ve found this true for both Japanese and foreigners…

   In my opinion it’s quite normalised here to be single now so I don’t think you would really have an issue. There’s a FB group called Tokyo Expat Women which can be a great resource. The expat community is large but as another person commented, people are always coming and going, so your friends may not stay in Japan forever.

   That said though, I’m in Tokyo so it’s definitely more diverse than other areas, so it depends on where you will end up too.

4. This doesn’t answer your question but I was wondering how did you make the transition in Korea etc, I am currently trying to find a job in Japan as an English teacher so interested in hearing some stories, thanks!