Hi everyone!
I'm hoping to get some feedback on our family's plan to move to Japan mid-2026.
We're a white (unfortunately that seems to matter now) American family of 5. Wife and I are mid-30s, 3 kids under 10.
I'm currently a freelance engineer in the telecom industry but plan on applying for Hokkaido University's MJSP program, and just passed Japanese N5 level. I intend to do designated activities work for additional income while on a student visa.
My wife does freelance work that can also fit under the 28 hours for designated activities on a dependent visa.
Obviously, were looking at being in the Sapporo area, and would be putting the kids into public school. From what I've found, Sapporo appears to have quite decent foreign support and we would also enroll them in private classes to catch up on Japanese. I figured <150,000 yen per month for rent looks attainable.
We will be landing with about 8M yen. Between my part time work and her freelance work we estimate a monthly income of 350-400,000 yen.
Thoughts, critiques, suggestions?
Just to recap the numbers to be clear;
8M Yen initial savings
~4.5M Combined Yearly
by Gokussj5okazu