Greetings, I am 22m British, my wife 21f Polish, and we are looking to move to Japan.
Background Information for context;
I have completed my Banking and Finance degree BSC Hons, I have 4ish years work experience from before and during my degree in customer service and as a University warden/site management. I have applied and have been accepted onto a PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate in Education) Maths with QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) which I will finish in July 2027. I am doing the PGCE for financial reasons as they pay roughly £45,000 in tax free grants & scholarships that will help me and my wife start our life and move to Japan. I would like to work in finance, consulting/management, and/or fin-tech, for my first job I don't really care as long as I can get my foot in the door and gain some experience & new skills. Japanese N5 currently studying hope to achieve N4 by next years end.
My wife has graduated her Degree psychology & childhood youth studies, and is currently doing her PGCE in primary education QTS & additional learning needs. My wife wants to become a teacher, and currently is.
For financial, economical, personal, and safety reasons and after much discussion we have decided to move to Japan, as part of our life plan. We have 2 possible plans of how we plan to move there and I wanted to ask all you lovely folks if it's feasible, which choice you'd recommend, and any other suggestions you might have.
Plan 1) After completing my PGCE me and my wife will have about £60,000-90,000 in cash savings, I will apply to do a masters degree at a Japanese University, either DXP (Digital transformation with AI & machine learning automation), an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) or a Finance/Economics degree. I will apply to English taught programs, and it will cost us about £20,000-£30,000 assuming we don't get any scholarships. During my masters I will complete advanced Japanese language courses provided by my university to get me up to N2 by the end of my course. When I go I bring my wife with me on a dependant visa, and she will apply for English teaching jobs, private/international school Jobs and hopefully get someone to support her working visa and she can swap from dependant to working visa, she has until I finish my masters to get a job, so 1-2 years of Job searches. Then after my 1 or 2 year masters I will hopefully get a job in any field related to my degree and hopefully qualify for Permanent residency within 1-3 years via special skilled visa as I meet the criteria. If I didn't manage to get a job I can become my wife's dependant until I can get one.
Pros of this plan is that I am only in education for another 1-2 years.
Cons of this plan is that I am not guaranteed to reach N2 JLPT.
Plan 2) After completing my PGCE me and my wife will have about £60,000-90,000 in cash savings. Both me and my wife apply and go to a language school in Japan, either Tokyo or Fukuoka preferably. I will do a 18 month course to ensure I reach N2 on the JLPT to maximise employability, and my wife will do 1 year and try to get to N3/low-N2. During my wife's 1 year course she will be applying to any all jobs in her related fields, that offer a work visa. By the time I finish my 18 months, hopefully my wife is employed, and I have 2 options, either go directly into employment in Japan, with only a banking and finance BSC and Japanese JLPT N2, or I can go into a Japanese or English taught masters either an MBA or DXP and then I go into employment.
Pros of this plan is that I have a much higher likely-hood that I reach a high N2 JLPT.
Cons of this plan I would be in education 2.5-3.5 years.
Which plan would you recommend? Any other suggestions? Advice? Do you have any alternative plans? Also I am very scared that we will really struggle to find jobs , some comfort would be appreciated. Are we being foolish? In both circumstances after me and my wife land our first Jobs we will likely move to a more desirable one a year or 2 afterwards.
by Sexy-Pepe