Life in Nagano City - Advices

Hello,

We move to Nagano City in January from france.
My wife is japanese and we have a daughter.

My japanese level is between N4 and N3. I will go to japanese school during one year to be fluent and have steady communication skills.
During this year i want also tech french to my daughter (1yo).
And then I wanna work in IT or others.

I think it's hard to find IT job in Nagano, so I'm open to learn new job but I don't know what....
So what type of job can be interessting ?

I will be happy to receive some advices, especially from people immigrate in countryside.

Welcome to nagano
First of all, you need to know how nagano city looks like.so First few days,you will invest
&Buy JR east shinshu 1 day pass=2680 yen
Nagaden rail pass 1 day=2070 yen
nagano city 1 day bus pass=1000 yen

Your invest on transport pass is worth while
You will familiar with nagano prefecture
Otherwise you will rent a car or self drive to see how nagano city looks like.

About job:Y0u need to fluent in japanese.
Then a lot of opportunity will come in hand

1)Why you choose/prefer nagano instead of other prefecture(japan has 47 prefectures)

2)where you want to stay in nagano prefectur
(13562 square km)

3)why you dont choose matsumoto, ueda, iida instead of nagano city ???

probably, your wife's parents live in Nagano. so, at present, you have no financial problems with a spouse status of Japanese national
what happens in Japan is that IT technologists don't know how to utilize their skills in tremendous fields and companies and people don't know how to solve their problems by IT technology. this mismatching occurs everywhere in Japan.
when you have really good skill in IT, you can help them and solve their problems.

just I can explain you, for example.
there is not much demand for French language teachers, but, if you can speak English very fluently. you can have ALT job in public or private schools. at the job, you will see many things about the school teaching systems. they are doing everything traditionally. they are very busy with non-teaching works, like paperwork, etc. you may find their problems and solve them by using your IT knowledges. then, you will become an essential person in that school or in school board in the city. once you can show your skills, many people may come to you with bringing their problems. you will be happy and you can afford by yourself with contribution to the region.

@Johan
I choose Nagano city because we will live in my step family house. Japanese style, everyone under the same roof. Big house and garden. So no financial problem at beginning, I can get one year to be fluent in japanese and had timewith my daughter. I want she speaks french.

@ken
You guessed well ! I will leave with in my step family house. I feel same thing as you about IT in countryside in Japan..

My wife will restart her job in public school, maybe I can get some opportunities about IT in school. But I can't work as a English teacher. My English is not perfect. Maybe for really young kids...

I was thinking to start part time job in baker.. I'm not graduate in pâtisserie but I can cook well and I'm interesting to start new challenge and get new experience. Idk...

Many people think Tokyo is the only place where people earn much money and live happy. Other places are poor, no job, no life. This is entirely misunderstanding. I will show you two data sets.

One is from Japanese government,
都道府県別の経済的豊かさ(可処分所得と基礎支出)
Economic wealth by prefecture (disposable income and basic expenditure)
https://www.mlit.go.jp/policy/shingikai/content/001389727.pdf

Please see the second table, (A-B-C) where the Tokyo is 47th (worst) while Nagano is 12th.

is “disposable income”, which is income - tax, pension、health insurance premium. B. is basic spending = food expenses + housing expenses + utility bills. C. is 通勤の機会費用 which is basically “time required to commute (hours)” x “average wage (/hour)”.

These data shows that Tokyo people earn more money but requires more basic expenditure (probably due to expensive real estate) and more commute time.

Of course these data are from Japanese government so we should notice this is not objective data, but that the government want to announce. In general Japanese government, like many other countries, need to avoid population concentration.

Another is “happiness index” from 23973 people.

https://diamond.jp/articles/-/306851?page=2

Nagano is 8th while Tokyo is 46th (second worst).

I don’t say Tokyo is the worst prefecture in Japan, but I think it’s not the best either. If you have real estate near your office, you need very few housing expenses and no “commute expenses” But for those who is new comer to Tokyo, life is not so easy I think.

Nagano is rather good place for new comer. Disposable income is 12th which means the average wage is not so bad. There should be substantial IT business. I am not sure about the food business, but you may find some hotel jobs there. There should be shortage of human resources in the tourism.

@frog1954

I'am agree with you.
Tokyo is the most easy town to get steady life asap but too stressful for me. Especially I wanna enjoy free time with my daughter and get fresh air from moutain.
Life quality is really important since I am 30yo but little bit worry about get job

"but you may find some hotel jobs there. There should be shortage of human resources in the tourism."
→ Thank you i will check about it.

And thank you so much for your interesting answer !

because most of foreigners here don't have any base place in Japan, they tend to gather in large city areas. but, if you think about your family primarily, it is a good choice to live near her parents place as the first living base. I am very sure that they support your family.
in general, good families in Japan keep very close contacts to their parents and relatives, even when they are independent financially. so that, their life styles may differ from the foreign ones. parents place is always the first shelter in emergency.

East and west, Nagano is the Best
North and south,There is no Doubt
Your base is nagano city. But you will visit kiso valley (magome,tsumago,narai)

HAKUBA
I strongly recommend you to travel hakuba , when you reside in nagano prefecture. you can buy hakuba shuttle 1 way=400 yen, 1day bus pass=800 yen, 2 day bus pass=1400 yen