I’ve been thinking about moving to Japan to study in a Japanese language school in Tokyo, my salary is a bit more than 1500usd, and I’ll go with a few thousands in savings,
my plan is to keep working remotely from Japan, are those 1500usd enough to live in Japan? I’d like to use my savings only in case of an emergency
6 comments
Read the past posts and FAQ. If you come on a student visa, you cannot work. Working remotely is illegal. And if you get special permission to work, or working under the limit of hours, you have to pay taxes on that income in Japan.
Depends on your lifestyle. Are we to assume that your **monthly** after taxes take home salary is ~1500usd?
1) how much is your monthly rent and utilities. Some people say it shouldn’t exceed 30% after taxes. Is your tuition also coming from that 1500usd? You should read up on typical moving costs if you’re not staying in a school assigned dormitory btw…you should expect to put aside 2-3 months of rent to cover the initial costs if you are settling your own living situation that is also not a sharehouse.
2) what are your hobbies? You might not be able to eat out very often or travel much.
3) I would check about working remotely. And if you can do that legally. Idk how probable it is that you could get caught should it be illegal, but there’s always a possibility I suppose.
4) many language school students pick up jobs here. Sometimes your school can help organize it. Honestly even though they are part timers and working minimum wage jobs, I think it’s a strong factor as to how their language ability rockets up faster. I wouldn’t expect anything like an office job especially if your Japanese language journey is still starting but maybe working backend of a restaurant or working a convenience store clerk job. Met a fella who worked at a bento making factory.
That being said I’ve met people who scrimp and scrounge to get by on that here. It’s not glamorous but it’s possible
Something that hasn’t been said here yet is that you need to make sure you’re aware of is that to get a student visa in Japan you need to either have sufficient savings in your own bank account or a relative who does and has promised to support you. If you have neither of those, you will be denied the visa. Iirc this is around 2-3m yen, which sounds like it’s more than you have currently. You will likely either have to convince someone to fund you or save up some more.
If you go to study you can’t have revenue, you can just get a student job 28h/week, probably won’t make 1500usd per month with that
The few thousand in savings will be depleted on your first tuition payment. You’ll need to save a few thousand again to pay for consecutive semesters. You likely won’t be able to afford moving into an apartment after that as the first month fees are very expensive. Even if you do get situated with the tuition and finding a place, you’re going to be living on a tight budget paycheck to paycheck limiting what you can do. Will your current working hours even align with JST and is the $1500 what you make monthly in 28 or fewer hours a week? You’d need to at least save more money to relieve the burden of tuition payments.
i think it was 20000 euro a year for me, tuition fee and rent… that is without the savings you beed to show…
dont be so sure that you will even find a job… and if, it will be 1070 an hour…
i think i never met a student that didmt end up cleaning or being a line cook (if daddy doesnt pay)…