Hello there everyone!
First off, this isnt a immediate question but more of a "I'd love a second opinion on this" kind of deal, secondly everything about the actual moving should be seen in ~4-5 years give or take.
So, I've been intending to move to Japan for a little while now, reasons being a-few-fold, they're investing heavily into my field of research, I love the Landscape and the Infrastructure even more, and I've made some amazing friends there over time. Oh and some of the Sports (Kendo, Kyuudo) are just lovely. Andandand, Moving on;
My japanese studies are at about ~N4-N3 level. My vocab is essentially there but my grammar is mostly N4 at the moment. I feel confident enough about bringing it up to par within those <5ish years though. Once I get to N2 I'll take the exam aswell (and for N1 respectively) as right now im just using old tests to verify but the actual Certificate is important as far as I understand.
Work wise, once I do move, my intention is to go into research. Part of the reason why im still taking a few years is getting my masters and PhD (+ working at a company on the side for that sweet sweet CV juice, yknow cause its good to have). I've looked into what that would look like in Japan and that boiled down to either Directly apply to a University or Research Department of a major company, or Look into the JSPS program for International Postdocs (as a starting point). Which seemed straight forward enough. I've also been looking into some connections of my University I could leverage, but I need to ask around more.
Visa Wise:
If I understood correctly this would still fall under the Highly Specialized Workers Visa. Due to my university falling under Highly Reputable and the (supposed) salary being high enough, I'd qualify for the short(er) path to PR. Under the assumption that I get to N1 until then yade yade yada.
Living-Expectation-Wise:
I've spent 2 (soon 3) short individual months there (so 3 visits of ~3weeks +- a few days each), mostly focused on just kinda of spending "normal" time there (we have a fairly lenient attendence policy at university so I was able to do this inbetween semesters fairly well). Made some, by now, very good friends and overall was neither over nor underwhelmed. Except for the Infrastructure, by god do I love the Trains. I was spending time mostly outside of the city, think Outskirts of Kobe. Residential areas and such (being intentionally vague here), sitting down in parks tostudy, walking around, going to mandai every now and then, somedays just staying at "home" and watching some variety tv after studying.
The parts that I can only guess on:
1. the bureaucracy. I'm not as worried as it can't be worse than my home (germany, Grüße gehen an den Tüv). Naturally the part with dealing with a european name (second name, umlaut in name and such) I can't know either, but supposedly a nickname/通称名 would cover this well enough, and whats life without some bureaucratic nusances.
2. Salary and living expenses: Salary's are lower for what I'd be doing, but this is fairly balanced out by the positions existing and the cost of living (especially for living space) being lower.
3. The Actual Reality / Interactions you have a resident: This I can't have any guess on. I've already made some odd experiences (got intentionally bumped into, another time a lady stared at me for a solid 2 minutes standing next to my table when at a café (no she wasnt a worker, just someone shocked at my existence)) but also good ones (This kind woman being way too excited about talking to me and my partner and honestly just sounding like a talkative grandma (she asked for wether this was the correct bus or not and went from there), random people I ran into, meeting people that I share hobbies with and obv the friends I've made there).
So this is everything, atleast I think so. Have i missed anything or overlooked anything? This is the plan I've been iterating on for the last ~year or so, with a more vague version in my head for longer. Any reality checks I need? well except for of course this still being probably more bloomy than real life, but that's to be expected.
Thank you so much for any input!
(note to mods: I posted this at first on an alt but reddits filters didnt like the lenght + no karma etc, so I deleted that and am posting it here instead. I hope that's okay!)
by Unreal_Panda