I (M40) looking to move to Japan in about 3 years with wife and young child after leaving the military. For background wife is Japanese citizen, our marriage was registered in Shibuya ward, son was born in Japan and registered on her Koseki. As far as I understand, obtaining a visa (Spouse) should be fairly easy in my case.
We would like to live in the Tokyo/Kanagawa area. Living within the 23 wards would be preferrable but we can deal with living slightly outside. I lived in a rental house for two years in the past so I have a level of familiarity with living arrangements and daily life. I will be collecting retirement income equivalent to about 750K yen monthly (pre US taxes). I am unsure if that alone is enough for a family of 3 to live comfortably. I believe I’ll still need to work. When moving I will be 43 with 20 years of management/project management experience in a IT adjacent field. I am currently building a Linkedin, working on acquiring my PMP certification and am thinking about pursuing ITIL 4 certification as well. What else should I be doing over the next couple years to prepare and better position myself for such a move?
I am aware of USAJobs etc. Many of the US government civilian positions are capped at 5 years overseas so they wouldn’t be “permanent” but I will still look and see what is available. No telling what it will look like in 3 years but current openings are slimmer than in the past due to federal civilian hiring freezes.
I want to avoid English teaching jobs. Is it realistic to expect to find job prospects beyond entry level eikaiwa positions?
::Edit::
Currently I have scored 1+ on the US DoD DLPT test. I have not yet taken the JLPT. I am going to take the N4 JLPT this winter as familiarity for the test format. I am fairly confident I should pass. Next spring I’ll be doing a 3 week language immersion course sponsored thru work, hoping that should help me improve as well.
by Advanced_Sky8916