Home
Back

Dear visitor, if you know the answer to this question, please post it. Thank you!

Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/15 23:49
I've been thinking about moving for Japan since I graduated college a year ago. I'd like to start a family there too, but there are obviously some complications. Firstly, the Visa. I'm not guaranteed to get the Visa to live there, but if I did I'd obviously have some trouble living there. I don't know any Japanese whatsoever, except for hello. I'd just like to know which cities are guaranteed to at least have some English speakers, but be child friendly and not too expensive.
I have about $46,500 dollars I've saved up over the years for this though, and I'd be willing to live anywhere in Japan as long as it had the things above that I listed. And just to made it clear, I don't need the entire city to speak English, just enough people to where I won't have to worry to much about knowing much Japanese, and can live my daily live.

I'd appreciate any kind of help, so thanks to everyone and anyone who reacts to this and helps me out
by Emi / Amy (guest)  

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/16 09:06
I graduated college a year ago
Well at least with this 'English teaching' is one of the possible/easy option, to get you into Japan.
From then on, you do what you do to fulfill your 'dream'.
Or you could come here on Student Visa, at Japanese Language school.Then, tried looking for employment.

I don't know any Japanese whatsoever, except for hello.
Get yourself familiar with the language before you go, self study, watch drama/anime just to pickup some basic, and when you really moved there, you either pickup the language quickly or you don't depends on your desire. With nowadays technologies AI translation, it do help thing a bit.

just enough people to where I won't have to worry to much about knowing much Japanese, and can live my daily live.
Not when you want to raise a family, dealing with schools,healthcare,government agencies etc. Although Interpreter is available, it is not guarantee.

Last but not least, you basically have no whatsoever idea what you want, just dump it here and asking for general things, which can be easily found on internet. Comeback with more specific question other than I want to live in Japan, i want to be Japanese, I want to nani... nani.. Japan.
Here look at this link, specially for those who want/dream to move to Japan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/wiki/index/
by @.. (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/16 10:15
It's a bit difficult to answer your questions since we don't know much about you. You mentioned that you don't really know anything about the culture or even speak Japanese, so why would you want to move to a culture in which you have no experience in, don't speak the language and just drop everything you have to come here? (I assume you meant you have kids already and want to bring them to Japan, right?)

There are lots of factors in play and it's honestly not so easy to just decide "ok, I'm gonna go live in Japan now. I've got money so they can accept it." Having some money doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you still need a visa, either student or working visa, unless you were married to someone in Japan already to be able to live in Japan.

Have you ever been to Japan before? If not, I'd first make sure this is exactly what you want to do, because as someone who has lived in Japan before, it's NOT easy. School/Work life are extremely stressful compared to the USA and there is a reason for such a high mental health and suicide rate in Japan.

Just do some research before making the decision to do something that you may not know a lot about yet.
by Tom (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/16 11:31
The only"city" in Japan where you can easily live without knowing Japanese is on the US military bases. You can get a job there but it's not permanent.

If English is a requirement, have you considered Canada, Singapore, Belize, the US or other English-speaking countries?
by . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/16 12:34
If you want to live in Japan
- visit Japan first as an extended time tourist. Ie for several weeks
- decide if you want to work as English teacher or IT professional or be a student (Eg Japanese language )
- there is no city in Japan where you can easily live without Japanese. Japanese is the one (and only) language spoken in Japan. So if you want to live here you either: need to learn Japanese, find Japanese friends who can speak English and help you, find a Japanese employer that wants you so bad that they are happy to help, or have a Japanese gf/bf who resolves these things for you.
by LikeBike rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/17 03:46
So for all of you who need more information, here it is.
I'm currently dating someone who was born in Japan, but moved to the US around three years after he was born. I decided we should move to Japan, so he can live happily in his home town. But, he gave me the choice of choosing where in Japan we should live. And if I'm honest, I did try researching a bit about cites to move too, but it was all confusing for me. I do watch quite a bit of anime, so I guess I do have a slight understanding of the language, just not enough to speak with it. I mostly just posted this for city idea's though, and maybe some other necessary help with all of this.
by Emi or Amy rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/17 09:05
Yokohama.
by @.. (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/17 10:50
But have you ever even been to Japan before? Just making a decision of living somewhere and never having been there is kind of a big deal. If you haven't visited Japan, I would definitely just take a trip first and visit some different areas and see what you like.

In terms of speaking English, most people in Japan don't really speak a lot of English.Sure, you can run into someone once in a while who can speak some, but in most cases, it's super basic and sometimes difficult to communicate. Just keep that in mind when moving as well.
by Tom (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/17 11:38
「I'd just like to know which cities are guaranteed to at least have some English speakers, but be child friendly and not too expensive... I don't need the entire city to speak English, just enough people to where I won't have to worry to much about knowing much Japanese」

For places to live in Japan, there's not really an overlap between places that aren't expensive and places where Enough people speak English that you won't run into any problems if you don't speak Japanese. As others have mentioned, Japanese is the one and only language that the vast majority of the population speaks in Japan, and also the only language for most signs, notices, rent contracts, utility bills, etc.

There are a few parts of Tokyo where English is -slightly- more commonly used (Azabu, Roppongi, Akasaka) because of a slightly larger foreign resident population, but rent and other living costs tend to be very expensive, as many of those foreign residents are in Japan doing government or high-level corporate work.

「I'd like to start a family there too」

The language/expense issue is going to be even bigger here. Generally speaking, Japanese schools don't operate in English, so you'll need Japanese proficiency for enrollment procedures and teacher/parent communication. Schools that are run in English (i.e. international schools) are very expensive.

This isn't to say that you need to be fully fluent in Japanese before arriving. But if you're looking for a place where you can live cheaply and without speaking the language long-term without it being a problem, you're probably not going to find it. That's why most long-term foreign residents of Japan try to linguistically assimilate to the extent they can, rather than relying on the people around them being able to speak English.

「I'm currently dating someone who was born in Japan, but moved to the US around three years after he was born. I decided we should move to Japan, so he can live happily in his home town. But, he gave me the choice of choosing where in Japan we should live. 」

Again, not to rain on your parade, but you might want to have your boyfriend take a more active role in deciding where you'll be living. You mention that you graduated college a year ago, so I'm assuming you're around 23 years old, and that your boyfriend is around the same age. If he moved to the Us when he was 3 that means it's been 20 years since he lived in Japan. That's a long time, during which aspects of life in Japan may have changed from how he remembers them, and he as a person has undoubtedly changed too. In other words, just because he liked living in Japan as a three-year-old to decades ago doesn't mean he's going to like living there now as an adult, or that he'll be equally happy regardless of where in Japan he's living.

「I mostly just posted this for city idea's though, and maybe some other necessary help with all of this.」

Nothing wrong with getting some early feedback. If you're looking for some advice, I'd say:
● Start studying the Japanese language.
Unless you're living on a U.S. military base and never going out into the civilian town, you absolutely will have to use Japanese if you're living in Japan. If you don't speak the language, you'll have a lot more problems and stress, and it's just as important to see if you enjoy speaking the language, since it's something you'll need to do.

Specifically, I'd recommend taking a class or lessons, as opposed to just doing self-study. Self-study is good in a lot of ways, but it gives you an out of skipping things you don't like about the language or find especially difficult, which aren't options when actually using it to communicate.

● Read up on Japan's cities and regions
Asking "Where's a good place to live in Japan?" is a lot like asking "Where's a good place to live in the U.S.?" The answer depends on what kind of lifestyle you want. L.A., Boston, Alaska, and Hawaii are all nice in their own ways, and so are Tokyo, Kyoto, Hokkaido, and Okinawa. But it's entirely possible to love one and hate another, so a necessary step in narrowing down the field is figuring out what kind of things you want to do in Japan.
by . . . . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/17 15:18
If your long-term partner is a native speaker of Japanese there is zero reason you can't reach a high level in a relatively short amount of time. Look up some serious self-study guides and follow one at the fastest pace you can manage. Get your boyfriend to help you practice what you are learning and when you are ready (shouldn't take long if you are putting the effort in) switch a certain amount of your daily communication to Japanese only. Even an 30 minutes a day will ensure rapid progress if you are studying by yourself too. It might not be the best method of communication for you because it sounds like he is a fluent English speaker but if you are both serious about starting a life in Japan, raising Japanese children, etc. then it is worth it.

There are people out there who are passing the highest level of the JLPT in a few years or less now just by self-studying with no Japanese partner. You can definitely reach a level where you can live in Japan comfortably in a short amount of time but it requires work. If you plan to live there, don't just sit around trying to find somewhere in Japan where people speak English. Be proactive and learn Japanese instead.
by > (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Moving to Japan (Permanently?) 2023/11/18 10:14
your critical faults are that you always thinking from your side only. (your such way is not welcome for most Japanese people.)
you have to think that you get into their world. you need to follow their way. it means you need to give up your way sometime or frequently.

your partner is also questionable. if he has been growing up in USA, his thinking way is that of USA. he will be suffered very much in Japan, probably worse than you.
by ken (guest) rate this post as useful

reply to this thread