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.

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Cool. What's stopping you?

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.

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%!

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.

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.