I (32F) want to move back to Japan with my Japanese Husband(33M).
We met and lived together in Japan for about 3 years and decided to move to my home country, Austria, since I had a hard times adjusting to Japan during the pandemic. Now my husband has a worse time here and I would prefer us to move back.
The bissiges issue with that plan is employment for the both of us.
If it comes to worst, I would be fine teaching English again for a while until I reach N2.
My husband on the other hand doesn’t see a good future in the job market in Japan for himself. He has been unemployed in Austria for 2+ years and says, that it will be very hard to find employment in Japan with this big gap in his resume.
My question is: Is this true?
I can’t tell if he is being pessimistic or the job market for Japanese is that strict. If so, is there anything we could do to prepare and enhance his chances?
He used to work at a logistic company and was buying medical products from overseas and selling them to the Japanese market. He is also really into data base as well as starting to learn to code. Beside Japanese, he is fluent in Englisch and is good in Brazilian Portuguese. German would be intermediate.
What kind of chances might he have to find employment again?
by Byabann
5 comments
Well, the job-market is tough if you don’t have any marketable skills, just like everywhere else.
But surely there’s something he can do here, even a part time job would be better than being unemployed, no?
I think you should decide what country you want to live in for all the other reasons, and then you figure out the work situation somehow when you decide that.
He isn’t wrong about this big Gap when applying to japanese companies.
However him being fluent in English and good in Portuguese would make him the perfect candidate for our company which sadly isn’t located in Japan.
I would recommend him to contact international companies which have an office in Japan.
I also work in logistics and was able to secure a position where I can work from home (from Japan) while our company is located in Germany.
I would usually advise to just submit to as many companies as possible that fit the qualifications of your husband, currently here in Japan there is also an labor shortage and people are needed almost everywhere, sadly companies still fail to realize that there isn’t an endless stream of applicants anymore.
I hope the best for you two.
I’m sure he’ll be able to find something low level for the time being.
You as a white woman would have a much better time in Japan than him as an Asian man in Austria
The job gap will hurt him especially since he has no experience to show for his time in Eurooe
My husband is not Japanese, but I lived in Japan previously for about 6 years, and we are moving there together with the goal of life. I don’t know if you have any kids, but we have one (a toddler), and we made a series of plans to make coming back to Japan foolproof.
1) At least one of us needed a skilled job. I got a professorship. If my husband lands a job, mediocre or good, our child will go to daycare, if not, my husband will work part time, study Japanese and skill up in his field, and watch our child. Honestly in Japan, I would prefer to be home with the child and work part time and manage the home, especially since I already know a lot of details about daily life in Japan my husband does not… but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to moving abroad. I got a decent job, so things will be this way unless/until my husband can get a decent job. So OP, also think about how you can make good money in Japan if you really want to move back. I will be skilling up a little too; I just took N2 in December and decided that no matter the result, I should begin studying for N1 and BJT. The five extra points between N1 and N2 could mean the difference between me getting PR faster….
2) Find a path to make staying in Japan more stable. Since you’re married to a Japanese national your path is much easier. Just stay married more than three years and you can apply for permanent residence. So this one is more for other people skimming the comments. OP, go to #3…I am looking at paths to speed up getting permanent residence. I have an advanced degree and other items that make it possible I might be able to get permanent residence within 2-5 years. If not, I may revoke my home citizenship after 5 years if it becomes clear we will definitely stay in Japan. I have little reason to visit the US (my mom passed away in 2021), and being American gets in the way of some investing paths in Japan for retirement (such as NISA). I also hate having to report my Japanese income to the US. It’s awful (most other countries don’t require this) and so I will pay the fee to go through the process if need be.
3) Save up money to make it foolproof. Probably you know this from your first move already. Since the yen is weak, last time (11 years ago) I brought 300,000 yen as a single person and saved 10-20% of income and was fine. This time is different. We are going with 3-4 million yen in cash on hand, so between cash and the net pay of my job (after taxes, pension, health insurance) we will have ~8-9 million yen the first year, so we will be ok even if my husband has to work part time (which would bring it to ~9-10M). Of course, if he works full time, any extra cash we brought will go into savings. My husband also has a separate account we aren’t touching yet with 10 million yen that we plan to use to buy or help us buy a used house once we decide where in Japan to settle.
If your husband is worried about his job prospects, make sure at least one of you can work a decent job. I would say even if he is working full time at a low level job and you are teaching eikaiwa, you can probably earn a combined 6 million yen gross. My Japanese ex and I were comfortable on that income prepandemic (we split for other reasons), living in Chiba and working in Chiba and Tokyo. I’m sure with the inflation it’s a lot tighter, so 8-10M would be a minimum goal in greater Tokyo area for comfort for a couple with no kids, and not just getting by, I imagine. Idk what area you’re in, but outside of Kanto 6-7M may or may not be still ok. Check with others.