A little background. I’m 25M, originally from the USA, and I have been married to a Japanese women for like almost 2 years now. but I have been in Japan for 3 years total. My first two years I taught at an eikaiwa, it was okay, but I’m not great with keeping up with kids all day and some of them were terribly behaved. Now I’m a software engineer. I have my N3 JPLT cert, but honestly I’m running into a few large issues and my wife and I are seriously considering leaving in 2027.
I have loans to pay back from an American college and it eats up like 40% of my monthly paycheck after taxes, it stresses me out because it really has me down to my last 1000 yen every paycheck, but I have to pay it as my dad is a co-signer. I also worry that increasing visa and PR costs not to mention some possible tax on foreigners owning property in the country that has vague wording around it worries me, it may become entirely unaffordable to live here for me on my wack Japanese salary.
Also growing dislike of foreigners worries me. I’m brown, I’m of majority Mayan descent, so I don’t want to be that guy as I think all foreigners have problems in Japan but I do definitely think Brown, Asian and Black foreigners rank lower on the totem pole than White foreigners, comparing experiences with my White gaijin friends and other non-white gaijin friends+ myself this seems to be the case. The US has issues with racism and discrimination but in my whole life I have had 2 or so issues in the US and in the 3 years I have been in Japan I have had more than that already. People denying you housing, people making rude comments at work about you when you make a mistake, the occasional death glares you get from Japanese men on the train when they see you with a Japanese women, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon.
Also the work culture is the other main issue, actually my wife is fed up with this too, as she got fired back in September and has been searching for part time jobs just to have something until 2027. She says ironically the easiest job she had was when she was a hostess for a year in university and ironically she says that job had the least harassment out of all of her jobs lol, everything else in an office has been various types of harassment both power harassment and unwanted flirting from bosses and coworkers , unpaid over-time, and low salaries. And I have to agree low salaries, angry old dude bosses yelling at you, unpaid over-time seem to be the norm.
I think I have come to the conclusion that I love Japan; I love the cleanliness, the safety, the transportation, the scenery, I love buying my favorite character goods so easily, ect, but to be honest, I realise it is a terrible place to work, and I think back to the more relaxed work culture I had before coming here and I miss it a bit. I also know I could probably get paid more to paid a lot more in the US to do the same thing but in a more enjoyable workplace.
We would definitely still making regular trips to Japan and maybe if the situation ever improves we could move back but I just want to hear if anyone else Is in a similar boat or maybe to hear from anyone who has made a decision like this already.
by Legitimate_Jury_8729