My situation, advice

16 comments

1. Buying rice fields has a huge amount of legal hurdles to overcome because they are protected land. (Only registered farmers can purchase them, and you have to get approval from a bunch of organizations to become registered etc)

   Are there are ways to perhaps use your skills? You can leverage that money to start a business if you want? 

   Otherwise Id just invest in a regular NISA, get that tax free goodness going 

2. English teacher?

   I assume 6 million is a pretty solid salary if you’re in the inaka. Are you planning on having kids? Would almost wonder if you could aim towards being a stay-at-home dad.

3. It’s good that you have a stable base here. Learning Japanese is probably important to make life easier and more fun.

   For the money, I would consider starting a NISA account for tax free dividends and capital gains. Especially if you are long term in here.

   Other ideas – if you are 1 hour from a major city, look for opportunities to run a small business catering for the city folks. Aussie cafe, a barbie restaurant, camping site, outdoor activities camps. I suggest doing something you are good at and start with a lot of sweat equity and low financial investment. You are bound to make mistakes at the beginning. It is much easier to recover from lost labour than lost capital.

4. I don’t know if this is primarily a finance query. It seems like you are a bit lost about what you are doing in Japan and what your long term plans are. It’s hard to give concrete advice if you don’t say what your goals are over the next 5/10 years.

   However assuming you will stay in Japan, I think the standard advice would be to open a brokerage account and invest at least half of that 9 million so you get a bit of growth out of it.

   I would keep the other 4 million yen or so in cash for now, in case you decide to go to school or want a bit of seed capital for a business (something agricultural? Exporting local delicacies? Importing Australian food?)

5. ¥125k monthly in inaka? I’m sure your wife’s parents must be rich.

6. Invest in learning Japanese.

   2 hours a day.

   Hire a private tutor to come to your house.

   Participate in activities with locals.

7. Throw yourself into learning Japanese. As someone who has been chronically time-poor ever since moving here (for various shifting reasons), this is something I really wish I could do. It will open up your range of opportunities immeasurably once you’re at a conversational level or above.

8. Depends on what your job was in Aus, but remote work is great if you can manage it as the time difference is only a couple of hours and Australian pay goes a long way in Japan.

   What to do with your savings is a bit more complicated and depends on which country you plan to stay in long term and your wife’s income etc. 
   Generally I would say if you are planning to live in Aus and you don’t own a place to live there you should be using it as a deposit. If you do already own a place in Aus, your options get a bit murky and I would seek a financial planner. 

9. I think you’ve already got the idea that learning Japanese will be the best investment of your time and money because it will help you enjoy the life you have here more. 

   I agree with others to hire a tutor. I know you said inaka, but you’d be surprised by how many older English speakers you’ll find. 

   My advice is honestly just invest a little time in being a part of the community. Consider going to a day service for elderly, especially if they’re doing some English lessons. 

   Connect with the people around you, and you’ll eventually find gaps that you can fill and profit from. 

   My most personal developing time was spent in the inaka. I started by trying to do one social thing a weekend, even if it was just saying hi to someone in the grocery store. 

   Eventually, I was running my own wine and cheese events, selling local products on mercari and eBay, and tutoring kids.

   Now I have a stable business, a wife and kid, and speak Japanese. I’m thankful for that time. 

   I’m just rambling now but if I had the money you have now back then, I would have used it to purchase product to ship. I had the websites and the means, but not the capital to do so quickly. 

   But that whole side hustle was thanks to sharing drinks with craftsmen and learning about the trade. 

10. Forget about whether they are relevant or not, what sklls do you have? Will make it easier to give suggestions.

    Outside of that, since you don’t have to worry about visas, except for keeping the Mrs happy, I very much encourage getting your language skills up ASAP, self study or some sort of course. FYI, there is no better way to lose a spouse than being a deadweight or unmotivated, so cook for her, lunchbox, etc for the Mrs (basically make her life easier, not harder).

    With regards to the farming idea, you should look into getting registered as a farmer, this is a good overview of the requirements:
    [https://effective.exblog.jp/33694545/](https://effective.exblog.jp/33694545/)
    Since your in-laws might already be registered, you could potentially simply inherit the ability to register as one as a member of the family, anyway investigate and look into it.

    As for how to handle your finances, that depends on the long term plans, if you are here till you die, it could make sense moving the money to Japan and shoving it into NISA while the Yen is cheap and then the rest should go into index funds or stock that pays dividends bringing extra income.

11. Id probably keep the money in your home country invested in the stock market. Never know when shit can hit the fan in Japan and you need an ejection cord.

    Would just teach myaelf Japanese and maybe learn something online

    You can buy vegetable farming land without any problem. Maybe do that for fun

12. learn japanese, go out, avoid other foreigners until your japanese is good. lots of opportunities to build here at least in my field: IT, fintech, finance, but I often bump into what I think are interesting problems with good business prospects in other domains as well

13. Put the money in a safe stock like KO.
    It’s been a safe money earner for decades

    https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/stock-price-history

14. Rice is very much a team sport. You need to be able to leverage local networks to get the machines you need at the right time of year. You’ll need access to grass cutting equipment, plough, planter, harvester, and maybe a drier. If you want to sell you will need the correct storage to protect the rice from rodents and that storage may need to be refrigerated to preserve quality so you need space.

    But, rice is fairly easy once you are all set up, and your in-laws already have the connections and maybe some of the machinery so you’re not starting from zero.

    I got my rice field by working on the in-laws farm so I could state that I was actually farming. That opened the door to renting my first field, which was my rice field. I don’t sell to market so my knowledge is only home use but in my experience it is not impossible.

15. I’d definitely be looking at what I could do online for payment in AUS$. Less work and more money than working here.

    Japanese lessons either locally or online (italki is pretty cheap).

    Working locally is a good idea for quick cash, Japanese language skills and networking. 

    I’d have the money invested in Australia for now and drip feed it to Japan if required (probably not if your wife is earning enough) or to hedge exchange rate changes (use NISA).

16. If you have access to land and are interested in horticulture/agriculture, there is a profitable market in growing rare plants as a side income. I have a decently sized balcony (about 15m3) that I grow various rare cactus and imported cultivars of fruits/veg that I sell online. It started as a hobby and has grown into a decent amount of side income over the years, from beer money in slower winter months to about 4万 a month during the growing season. It’s niche but I think that’s where you find your place. It’s kind of my ikigai, I really enjoy doing it and it makes me money! That being said, the only thing that hinders me is space. I’ve considered moving to the inaka to expand but as a single guy I think it’d be too lonely. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, feel free to pick my brain

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