I want to live in Japan so bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If you really want to live somewhere, you can make it happen. People do it all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Not a parody. Loved it there. Japan really is my bag, baby

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If you really want to live somewhere, you can make it happen. People do it all the time.

Disagree- I wish that were true! I’d have moved a long time ago. I had friends that went the expat route and are still stuck in Eastern Europe trying to get permits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

OP here - actually Mandarin (I am Chinese) is the best language to learn if you are dyslexic or if you have a brilliant memory + an ear. You have to have an ear. There's no conjugations nor tense. It's straight memorization of sounds BUT - FWIW, I could not learn Japanese no matter what and I speak 4 languages!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is a great country. Do we have problems? Of course all nations do. And while it politically things seem dire right now, the best thing to do is stay and vote and help, not leave. Time takes time and a hundred years is just a blip on the linear course of world history. Our greatest natural resource is our young people, our children. If we can nourish that resource properly we can move to a better society.

Our young people are being desensitized to violence, a la school shootings and the like. #1 killer of children is guns in the US. Statistically, they are safer in Japan, or any other developed world other than the US.

Yes, but let’s be frank. Children being killed by guns is a very specific cohort. You can research what that cohort is pretty easily. You can also just read the major city newspapers every Monday morning to figure it out. If you remove that group the statistic that you cite changes appreciably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So move. Take ownership of your existence and stop being such a whiny little zero. Griping to DCUM of all places about how superior you are to the rest of the US is just pathetic.

On the merits, I like Japan and it’s one of my favorite countries to visit. But no way I’d live there. It’s exceptionally conformist, and all personal interactions other than (sometimes) within a family unit are built on a weird passive-aggressive politeness ethos.

No thanks. Give me people who say what they feel and what they want. Sometimes the Tokyo office bros get closer to that after some beers and whiskey, but come morning it’s back to being dutiful cogs.

+1 It's a very insular society and outsiders would not be welcome. The passive aggressive politeness and constant jockeying for social position would be a deal breaker for me.

Plus they look down on children with special needs. The striving is constant and you're considered a loser if you can't keep up. The other moms will gleefully point out (in a very passive aggressive way) that their children are doing so much better than yours in any way that your child isn't at the top. Their society is not at all individualistic, so if someone has a learning disability, then too bad for them. Let them go be a cashier or do manual labor. China and some other Asian countries are very much the same way.

It's basically everything I hate about insular, controlling, LMC area dynamics plus a lot more negatives in my book. Go if you want, but you couldn't pay me enough to live in Japan.

PP is not wrong. I love Japan OP and I love the culture but I would find it extremely difficult to actually live there. It's a very different kind of culture and totally different than American culture. There's is all about tradition and obedience. I really really hold Japanese culture in esteem and I love visiting there but if you really get to know what it's like there, I just don't think most Americans could handle it. I don't disagree that US is totally messed up and for the same reasons as you listed, Japan is cool as shit. I'm just saying, PP is not wrong in his post above. Everything has a pretty/ugly side and you have to be able to manage the ugly side of things to make it work.

[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.

I agree with this. I wanted to live in the UK so badly before I was married, but life and kids got in the way. It never went away and I'm going now, at 68. My kids are grown, I know they will be pissed that I won't be around to babysit once they start having their own kids, but maybe my ex's new wife will offer to babysit. I'm sure they will learn to like her, it may take time. And they can always visit me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is a great country. Do we have problems? Of course all nations do. And while it politically things seem dire right now, the best thing to do is stay and vote and help, not leave. Time takes time and a hundred years is just a blip on the linear course of world history. Our greatest natural resource is our young people, our children. If we can nourish that resource properly we can move to a better society.

Our young people are being desensitized to violence, a la school shootings and the like. #1 killer of children is guns in the US. Statistically, they are safer in Japan, or any other developed world other than the US.

Yes, but let’s be frank. Children being killed by guns is a very specific cohort. You can research what that cohort is pretty easily. You can also just read the major city newspapers every Monday morning to figure it out. If you remove that group the statistic that you cite changes appreciably.

Maybe so if you narrow it down to a cohort, but what about the day-to-day grind of people breaking the law in broad daylight and no one says a thing. Someone keys a row of cars for fun. 3 kids jump out of a car at midday and steal 9 Rolexes from the store window. You wake up and your car's tires are gone, your car is up on milk cartons. More people jump the turnstiles than actually pay. It's a steady drumbeat with the mass murders as the melody. I'm so done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is a great country. Do we have problems? Of course all nations do. And while it politically things seem dire right now, the best thing to do is stay and vote and help, not leave. Time takes time and a hundred years is just a blip on the linear course of world history. Our greatest natural resource is our young people, our children. If we can nourish that resource properly we can move to a better society.

Our young people are being desensitized to violence, a la school shootings and the like. #1 killer of children is guns in the US. Statistically, they are safer in Japan, or any other developed world other than the US.

Yes, but let’s be frank. Children being killed by guns is a very specific cohort. You can research what that cohort is pretty easily. You can also just read the major city newspapers every Monday morning to figure it out. If you remove that group the statistic that you cite changes appreciably.

Maybe so if you narrow it down to a cohort, but what about the day-to-day grind of people breaking the law in broad daylight and no one says a thing. Someone keys a row of cars for fun. 3 kids jump out of a car at midday and steal 9 Rolexes from the store window. You wake up and your car's tires are gone, your car is up on milk cartons. More people jump the turnstiles than actually pay. It's a steady drumbeat with the mass murders as the melody. I'm so done.

Is it actually like this in your neighborhood? And you can't afford to move? Once crime started back on the upswing, we left DC for a nice suburban area. Now we don't have to deal with any of these problems. Area with lots of poor people are going to be rife with problems everywhere in the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is a great country. Do we have problems? Of course all nations do. And while it politically things seem dire right now, the best thing to do is stay and vote and help, not leave. Time takes time and a hundred years is just a blip on the linear course of world history. Our greatest natural resource is our young people, our children. If we can nourish that resource properly we can move to a better society.

Our young people are being desensitized to violence, a la school shootings and the like. #1 killer of children is guns in the US. Statistically, they are safer in Japan, or any other developed world other than the US.

Yes, but let’s be frank. Children being killed by guns is a very specific cohort. You can research what that cohort is pretty easily. You can also just read the major city newspapers every Monday morning to figure it out. If you remove that group the statistic that you cite changes appreciably.

Maybe so if you narrow it down to a cohort, but what about the day-to-day grind of people breaking the law in broad daylight and no one says a thing. Someone keys a row of cars for fun. 3 kids jump out of a car at midday and steal 9 Rolexes from the store window. You wake up and your car's tires are gone, your car is up on milk cartons. More people jump the turnstiles than actually pay. It's a steady drumbeat with the mass murders as the melody. I'm so done.

Hard to find stats on Rolex thefts and car scratches. What I was referring to was Nr 1 reason for children’s deaths in the US and trying to show that very specific cohort of children is killed at an extraordinarily —shockingly — high rate. If you remove that cohort from calculations, the numbers change quite significantly. Japan does not have that cohort. At all. So yes, there is a big difference between the US and Japan in children being killed by handguns, every weekend, year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Way better quality of food

Infinitely better education

WAY BETTER public transport

virtually zero gun crime

Zero school shootings

Affordable healthcare for all

Murder rate is virtual nonexistent

Obesity rate is below 5% while US is 50%

People obey the law

Virtually zero fare evaders on the Shinkansen

High speed internet and cell phones everywhere.


I do not give a crap about toxic work culture. I’d take that little zit vs school shootings and America’s unaffordable healthcare snd obesity. Do Americans realize how much it sucks to live in america?

A plane leaves everyday and nothing is stopping you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get what you are saying. We've talked about moving to Sweden or Germany but we worry about acclimating. It sounds great but the reality just seems lonely and hard. One reason these countries have all these desirably features is that they have very homogenous and insular cultures. That's why crime is so low -- high social cohesion. They tend to be suspicious and unwelcoming of outsiders. It's great for people who are born there but I don't think it's as easy to just adopt those countries as your own as you might hope.

Do you have family there? How fluent are you?

Speaking as a German, that is fundamentally incorrect, especially in places like Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich

[Anonymous]

I’m not fat and I have health care, why would I want to move to a place where I have to work more hours than I do now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Gaijin” means “outsider.” As PP’s have observed, Japan is an insular, xenophobic society, with highly rigid social rules, tightly controlled opportunity paths, and collective/conformist expectations that will boggle the mind of a Westerner. There is a significant incidence of suicide alongside a shame-based morality that drives people to despise themselves.

Oh, and married women need spousal consent for abortion.

Well, at least they can get an abortion.

Are you sure? Abortion only become legal in S.Korea a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

I was just there in August.

Yep.

Clean, safe, educated people.

Everyone is so polite, willing to help you. Never did we feel safe in the big cities. No trash anywhere. Food healthy.

Here, cities dirty and crime everywhere. Many drug users. In US education is not valued. Too many people on welfare. And tooooo many illegal immigrants where Japan has virtually none.


We are wasting to much money on social programs, welfare, migrant aid and not using money for roads/bridges. In Japan everything is well maintained.

US is in decline. If you don’t see it, then you’re blind. We had family visit from out of country. They were disgusted at The shit in San Francisco and witnessed a robbery.

Shame.