Hello,
My wife and I recently visited Japan for two weeks and loved it. We’re in our early 40’s, no kids, single income, work for a large tech company and have about 600k in cash.
I’ve been a software engineer for 10 years, and I don’t really see myself wanting to move up the corporate ladder. It’s been fun working on large-scale systems but I think I’d like to try to learn a new language (I’ve learned German as an adult up to B1 before), and we really like Japanese culture. (Yes, we know it’s not perfect, like every culture.)
I’m trying to think of ways to move to Japan. Tech companies are generally not hiring as much now, and internal transfer mobility is limited at my company for the next year or so. And anyway, I’m not sure if I want to keep doing the same thing – I’d like to try something new and immerse myself in a new language and culture. I could wait a year to see if positions open up, but that’s a year of my life spent unhappily and suboptimally, now that I know what I want.
What are our options for moving to Japan, say within the next year? My wife has an associate’s degree from the US (not a degree from a 4-year university). Would it be possible for us to enroll full-time in a language school in a LCOL area like Fukuoka and extend our stay permanently somehow (we’re also considering buying real estate in Japan, if possible)?
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**Moving to Japan for language school?**
Hello,
My wife and I recently visited Japan for two weeks and loved it. We’re in our early 40’s, no kids, single income, work for a large tech company and have about 600k in cash.
I’ve been a software engineer for 10 years, and I don’t really see myself wanting to move up the corporate ladder. It’s been fun working on large-scale systems but I think I’d like to try to learn a new language (I’ve learned German as an adult up to B1 before), and we really like Japanese culture. (Yes, we know it’s not perfect, like every culture.)
I’m trying to think of ways to move to Japan. Tech companies are generally not hiring as much now, and internal transfer mobility is limited at my company for the next year or so. And anyway, I’m not sure if I want to keep doing the same thing – I’d like to try something new and immerse myself in a new language and culture. I could wait a year to see if positions open up, but that’s a year of my life spent unhappily and suboptimally, now that I know what I want.
What are our options for moving to Japan, say within the next year? My wife has an associate’s degree from the US (not a degree from a 4-year university). Would it be possible for us to enroll full-time in a language school in a LCOL area like Fukuoka and extend our stay permanently somehow (we’re also considering buying real estate in Japan, if possible)?
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>Would it be possible for us to enroll full-time in a language school in a LCOL area like Fukuoka
Over a certain age (and its not a hard number) immigration starts asking to see proof of independent learning of the language before they grant student visas for language school. I think its something like 100 or 150 hours approximately (or something like JLPT N4). So if this is something you’d like to pursue I’d urge you to check out your local community college for night lessons you could take to get you started.
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>and extend our stay permanently somehow (we’re also considering buying real estate in Japan, if possible)?
If you have the cash you can certainly buy property here. You’re unlikely to get financing from a domestic bank for it. It also doesn’t confer any rights to entry nor residence, so it won’t help you stay here long term.
If you want to stay here long term, you’ll need to get a job here in Japan. With 10 years of experience as a software engineer I wouldn’t expect that to be a particularly difficult hurdle for you though. Once employed you could sponsor your wife as your dependent, which would allow her to work up to 28 hours a week if she wanted (she’d need to request permission from immigration first though).
If your wife wanted to work full time, well the education requirements vary a bit depending on the specific work she’d be looking to do. With only an associates degree she’d not be able to work full time as an English teacher (although as your dependent she could work part time as previously noted).
You can enroll in a Japanese language school to start and probably get a student visa for about a year. The school would be your sponsor. After that, I’m not sure. Good luck!