I, (28M), am currently in the process of finding and contacting a language school to apply for an intake for April 2026 (I don't think I can make it for October 2025, will try though). While doing this a thought came to mind that I might have tunnel visioned on moving to Japan as my end all be all. With that, I would like to sincerely ask for some suggestions or advice on if I should move to Japan as soon as possible or, should I wait and get more work experience and savings before doing so (like 2 more years). Also, other related advice is welcome! Some information about me is near the bottom and after this is my reasons behind this whole thing.
Reasons for why I decided on moving to Japan has multiple factors. One of it being exposed to the culture when young and becoming fascinated by it, an escape from my current life (more so in the terms of actually trying to not be tied down by family and the pressure of it and living conditions at home rather than the "Japan is so clean and advanced…" stuff but it's still an escape and improvement over my current country). I also considered, for the timing, is that I am gonna hit 30 in 2 years and that may pose a problem in getting a visa so I thought it might be better if I made the decision earlier and smaller trivial reasons are being added by the day. Another is a follow-up to the one before it is going from a 3rd world country to a 1st world country, and lastly no relatives in Japan (closest thing is the foster family of my father who caused the first reason, and that still essentially means nothing).
I also understand that the reasons are quite shallow and I could have picked another country over Japan due to the language barrier being one and that Japan is still just another country and has its own share of problems too and it won't necessarily be the dream like the saying grass isn't always greener on the other side. However, I am not going there thinking of the fantasy I am considering it as a place to plant my roots. Also lowkey, even I'm not so sure as to why I got this fixated on choosing Japan but I'm gonna roll with it.
Some Info on me:
- Single, no kids, no pets
- Education: Bachelor's in Business Administration Major in Human Resource Management
- Work Experience: HR for 1 year, but was competent enough to be assigned tasks for senior positions and was able to improve multiple HR processes within said company (Mostly manual, no HRIS in the company yet)
- Japanese level: Low (150 Hr. Certificate of Completion for N5 course, though have progressed my Kanji vocab to around N3)
- Savings: around 20k to 55k USD (converted), no liabilities
- Others: Taking a course online for Data Analytics and am planning to get certification on being an HR practitioner (imposter syndrome, I know)
- Plan: Go to a Language school in Japan for 2 years while doing part-time job in Japan, pass N2, work in Japan for an international company
Sorry for going a bit off tangent in some areas there and the grammatical errors. Thank you for reading this and hope you have a nice day!
by Silent_BuilderV