I want to live in Japan so bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've thought about moving there after my youngest leaves for college. For a couple of years. What are your thoughts on a single older woman going over there for a stay to work?

I have similar plans, but mine would include working at an international school in Singapore or Japan after retiring from my current career.

I think that if you were planning to take a transfer from a company and work in an international office there, there would be a lot of challenges to being an older woman in a Japanese workplace unless you have crazy seniority or it’s a small company where you already have a lot of power.

I’m aware that by being in a workplace that centers around expats, I’d lose the chance to be completely immersed in a place. But as an older white woman, I would never be able to completely slip into a culture anyway- but my invisibility also keeps me safe from some of the stuff that younger women have to deal with.

I’m not concerned about healthcare in Singapore, but Japanese healthcare works so differently than the U.S. that I do worry about navigating the system successfully.

I'm not really looking to slip into a culture or live there forever. Just thought it might be fun after working here 30 years to go off and work overseas for a couple of years to a healthy country especially one that is short workers.

[Anonymous]

If you’ve done your research and know that you’d be happier there, you should do it. Life is too short to be unhappy about where you live: you should go and live where you’d be happiest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've thought about moving there after my youngest leaves for college. For a couple of years. What are your thoughts on a single older woman going over there for a stay to work?

I have similar plans, but mine would include working at an international school in Singapore or Japan after retiring from my current career.

I think that if you were planning to take a transfer from a company and work in an international office there, there would be a lot of challenges to being an older woman in a Japanese workplace unless you have crazy seniority or it’s a small company where you already have a lot of power.

I’m aware that by being in a workplace that centers around expats, I’d lose the chance to be completely immersed in a place. But as an older white woman, I would never be able to completely slip into a culture anyway- but my invisibility also keeps me safe from some of the stuff that younger women have to deal with.

I’m not concerned about healthcare in Singapore, but Japanese healthcare works so differently than the U.S. that I do worry about navigating the system successfully.

I'm not really looking to slip into a culture or live there forever. Just thought it might be fun after working here 30 years to go off and work overseas for a couple of years to a healthy country especially one that is short workers.

If you're not fluent the only thing you can be is an English teacher. Even badly needed healthcare workers must pass the licensing exams in Japanese .
There is plenty about Japan that the DCUM crowd would hate. Special needs kids are basically warehoused. Fat shaming is rampant. Tattoos are looked upon with disgust and will get you ejected from some businesses. Tr*ns is considered to be a sympathetic mental illness. The gift exchange culture is exhausting. There is no concept of "you do you" which I hear here all the time. Public life is all about conformity.

[Anonymous]

Japan is a hard place to live if you are not ethnically Japanese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just got back from South Korea. I *LOVED* it, for the same reason OP loves Japan.

I would have moved there with kids, BUT, I would've put them in a private school with the intention of sending my kids to the US or Europe for college. I don't want them to deal with hagwons and the like.

As for the office culture, it is terrible. I wouldn't want to work for a Korean company, that's for sure. If I could, I'd work for a US company, and while I know the office culture would still not be the exact same as the US offices, it wouldn't be as bad as the Korean companies.

If they could fix their office culture and stressful school environment, it would be an ideal place to raise a family. Super safe in every way.

My kids are now in college and junior year in HS, so it's too late to move now. My DC's HS had two lockdowns last year, where at least one gun was found on a student. DC was super scared when that happened. Ugh. Horrible.

My kids don't want kids here because they don't want them to have to go through school shooting lockdowns, and the insane college process that my college aged DC had to go through.

We've taken our teens over summers to visit China, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Italy, Costa Rica over the years. My kid at 14 has said she has decided to apply to college overseas and will be doing her best to live a life overseas. My other kid has a learning disability and is not required to take a language in HS but he's still taking a language specifically because he's out of here. I support them 100000000%!

Some dyslexics find Japanese easy to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve done your research and know that you’d be happier there, you should do it. Life is too short to be unhappy about where you live: you should go and live where you’d be happiest.

They would be great if possible, but simply going there and buying property or even staying for longer than visa allows is simply not possible. I’d love to be able to go, apply for citizenship, and be able to rely on healthcare and ability to buy property. It just isn’t allowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cool. What's stopping you?

yup! Bye!

[Anonymous]

Go for it. I did not like visiting Japan. It’s a weird mix of decrepit old and modern. You will never be included in society, always an outsider. Their idea of personal space is much smaller than the US after 3 days I was tired of people bumping into me constantly and men standing too close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did the JET Programme 20 years ago and lived there for 2 years. Living there was the best time of my life. People were polite, public spaces were clean, lots of great Asian food, though not a lot diverse variety like Mexican at the time.

I don't know if I want my kids to live there unless they go to an international school.

Is it reasonable to assume there's no matzo ball soup to be found there, no real Jewish population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve done your research and know that you’d be happier there, you should do it. Life is too short to be unhappy about where you live: you should go and live where you’d be happiest.

They would be great if possible, but simply going there and buying property or even staying for longer than visa allows is simply not possible. I’d love to be able to go, apply for citizenship, and be able to rely on healthcare and ability to buy property. It just isn’t allowed.

Wait, what? Why not? That doesn’t even make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did the JET Programme 20 years ago and lived there for 2 years. Living there was the best time of my life. People were polite, public spaces were clean, lots of great Asian food, though not a lot diverse variety like Mexican at the time.

I don't know if I want my kids to live there unless they go to an international school.

Is it reasonable to assume there's no matzo ball soup to be found there, no real Jewish population?

That's your major obstacle? Just do what others do, and bring a suitcase full of goods that are difficult to find in a foreign country (and you won't have an issue bringing in packets of Manischewitz soup mix).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You must be a man.

Japan is still an incredibly misogynist culture. It's also deeply xenophobic. A gaijin will never fully integrate.

- Japanese woman who is happy to not live in Japan. But happy to come back for visits!

Stop your whining and learn to be Japanese again. I lived in Japan as a white man. It was great. Best place ever. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve done your research and know that you’d be happier there, you should do it. Life is too short to be unhappy about where you live: you should go and live where you’d be happiest.

They would be great if possible, but simply going there and buying property or even staying for longer than visa allows is simply not possible. I’d love to be able to go, apply for citizenship, and be able to rely on healthcare and ability to buy property. It just isn’t allowed.

Wait, what? Why not? That doesn’t even make sense.

You can’t do that! First, you go with passport, then you have to apply for a visa to stay longer, but ultimately you can’t buy property or use health care. Then your visa runs out and you have to leave.
There used to be ways to buy a property in Portugal and get citizenship into EU that way, but no more. I believe you have to go through Eastern Europe now.
Japan? I think it’s equally as hard. Work visa may be the only way to get a residence permit. I hear they are very strict about accepting anyone with health issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must be a man.

Japan is still an incredibly misogynist culture. It's also deeply xenophobic. A gaijin will never fully integrate.

- Japanese woman who is happy to not live in Japan. But happy to come back for visits!

Stop your whining and learn to be Japanese again. I lived in Japan as a white man. It was great. Best place ever. Period.

Ew, I don't know if this is parody or you are that blind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’ve done your research and know that you’d be happier there, you should do it. Life is too short to be unhappy about where you live: you should go and live where you’d be happiest.

They would be great if possible, but simply going there and buying property or even staying for longer than visa allows is simply not possible. I’d love to be able to go, apply for citizenship, and be able to rely on healthcare and ability to buy property. It just isn’t allowed.

Wait, what? Why not? That doesn’t even make sense.

It makes perfect sense from the standpoint of a highly controlled, xenophobic, rigid society where casual racism and mistreatment of the “othered” is the norm. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”