When is the best time to move to Japan for a Japanese that’s lived overseas for their whole life?

13 comments

1. This is coming from a 19 year old who is about N3-N2 level and is spending a gap year here so it’s better to check what I say. I don’t think starting your career in Japan is the right way to go. Japan is known for its harsh hierarchies and in my opinion starting higher up the ladder is better in this case.

   Traveling to all kinds of places would also give you the chance to sort of scout for where you want to move to eventually

2. Japan will always be there. I’d lean towards gaining experience and setting yourself up financially before committing to living in Japan and working in higher roles. You could potentially find a Japanese firm to work in NZ or AUS or an international company such as ANZ that has offices in Japan then do an internal transfer. Travel more while you’re younger as all those experiences add to your growth. I moved my family to Japan when I was in my mid 30s and even back then it didn’t feel too late.

3. USA is about to go home, I’d wait till after that.

4. Graduating university at 18 isn’t trivial. If living in Japan is really a dream, I’d be looking at spending some time getting your societal street cred on the Japan side, even if that means another undergraduate degree at Todai. 

5. You can go for the master’s and see if life in Japan is for you or not in the long term. Assuming you are a dual citizen, you can always come back. Mind that the care-free student life is also very different from working at a corporation.

6. >I have aspirations of living in Japan so I was considering beginning job hunting in Japan when I start my masters but from the looks of it the average salary in Japan is around ¥3 million/year for graduates. I understand the cost of living in Japan is cheap but I’m thinking maybe it’s better to work overseas and go to Japan on holidays, then move to Japan for senior roles once I have the experience.

   FWIW this very much depends on your career aspirations, industry, and company prestige.

   I did new grad job hunting after doing my master’s here, and while my starting salary was more than ¥3 million/year from the start, it also increased significantly in the first several years and I’m making double what I started. This is typical at any of the large MNCs, where because you are hired on “potential,” they don’t want to risk perma-hiring a bad employee at a high pay scale. As long as you are fairly competent on the job, you’ll quickly be bumped up from trainee status.

   A lot of people talk about getting some experience abroad and then transferring from there, but I’m a bit skeptical of this path to be honest. I’d be curious to know how many people intend to do this each year versus how many actually make the transition to Japan, whereas of the dozens of int’l students I knew from my time in grad school almost everyone who did job hunting landed a full-time position before graduation. There are significant bureaucratic hurdles to hiring from abroad (though if you have Japanese citizenship this is not really a problem) in addition to skewed pay scale or business culture expectations, so many companies will find it easier to hire someone who more or less fits the bill locally than seek out the best candidate overseas.

   >I’m a Japanese born and raised in New Zealand so I can speak Japanese confidently (I passed N1) and have a relatively good understanding of Japanese culture.

   Something else you’ll want to keep in mind is that even though you say you understand Japanese culture, since you’ve lived abroad your whole life, you will inevitably do some things that stick out in seemingly (to you) minuscule ways that mark you as “not Japanese.” As a foreigner, this generally isn’t a problem but if you are very Japanese-passing then this is going to impact people’s judgement of you and may interfere with getting a job or your interpersonal relationships on the job. I think these things are a lot easier to learn, and potential faux pas more readily excused, while you’re a new grad in your twenties versus the older Japanese guy who does things strangely because he’s lived abroad his whole life.

7. Lived in Japan 6 years. Was in miyazaki prefecture and life there was bliss. Blended in but left for personal reasons. My wife is native japanese and we both know it’s a struggle just to make ends meet. Save your money and go to china to teach. Money you earn here is 3 times as much than japan. Vietnam, Malaysia, hong kong, korea are equally good pay but china is tops and in china they dont discriminate as bad as others. Go to the south or if you go north make sure your on the outskirts. More rural and pay is little less the main Shanghai but youll save more and locals are more friendly
   Then after 10 years, when you’re close to 30. You can buy a home in Japan dirt cheap, get it all fixed up and again, live somewhere like Osaka or Nagoya or Miyazaki. Don’t waste your time in Tokyo. Sorry to all you Tokyo lovers out there but 1 year placement in Tokyo had me leaving faster than a Shinkansen

8. I’m 23 and half Japanese grew up in the US my whole life. I graduated with an IT bachelors last year and moved just moved to Japan 2 weeks ago with only internship experience. I think for me I want to be able to spend my early 20s here. The money didn’t matter as much. It depends on what you value more. I chose what I thought was the more exciting path.

9. How do you finish Math bachelor at age of 18😭. Did you just skipped high school and went straight to the university

10. Beyond work, are you interested in starting a family with a Japanese partner? That will be easier in Japan. What do your parents think about this? There is more to life than school and work so look at the broad picture.

11. If you wanna join the yacht club
    You gotta get your stocks up kid

12. Because of compounding interest, being able to invest savings early on in your life will go a long way (a common example is $100k USD could be worth $300k to $1m in 25 years if you get 5 to 10% on your investments). I would recommend that you just apply to jobs in both NZ and Japan and any other countries that you would consider working in and compare concrete job offers and roles rather than making up your mind before having any numbers on the table.

13. It’s perfect time come and spend few years here before deciding anything
    I honestly recommend finishing your master degree first being a student here is very different from working in a corp-
    for work you gonna have to try it for yourself some people like it some people find it depressing – but
    Tbh with your degree I’d work elsewhere Japan is not the best when it comes to salaries even in senior roles
    For personal life dating and relationships here is hard especially if you’re raised outside of Japan.

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