Anybody here experiences with Immigrating to Japan ?

Youkai

Demon
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
2,551
Trophies
1
Age
36
Location
Germany , NRW
XP
2,439
Country
Germany
Hey there, as GBATemp is really big and has lots of members I was thinking it might be worth asking here if someone has any experiences with immigrating to Japan ?

I am "dreaming" to move to Japan for at least 10 years already since my first visit there (went every year except 20 and 21 ... still waiting if it will be possible this year) and I always kinda pushed it further away telling myself I want to save up at least X ammount of money (which kinda makes sense I'd say).
Now I got the money as I saved up a lot and got a similar amount from my dad who kinda killed himself with his Alcohol so yeah I have more then I wanted before moving.

My first plan now is to get a 1 -2 years student Visa to learn the language and then try to get a sponsor for a working visa, sadly some people told me I probably shouldn't have any hopes as the Japanese more or less only take foreigners with a College degree and you can only accept jobs that are inside your expertise so as I don't have a College degree I might not find a job at all.
I have ~7 years of experiences as an IT-Support (sadly not Programming) and if I understood correctly I am only allowed to get a job in the IT (which might be hard as I am not a programmer)
(a friend of mine who lives in Tokyo said it shouldn't be a problem at all... he is/was working for Visa and some insurance company before)

So yeah last option would be getting a startup visa and founding my own company but I read that all the forms for founding a company are 100% japanese only ... in theory they "only" require you to put about 40.000$ onto your Japanese bank account (I can do that) but you also need to show some business plan and whatsoever ... I don't really want to create a new company though and I wouldn't want all that hassle but yeah probably best chance?



Anyone here having any experiences ? also are there maybe organisations or whatever that I don't know of that could help you with getting jobs as a foreigner or helping you maybe connecting you with Japanese who want to create a new company so that you can just "invest" in the company and be written down as cofounder or semething like this ?
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
If you have not already I would check out Chris Broad's Youtube channels. He pretty much covers his entire life, processes, ups and downs with immigrating over into and living in Japan.

Also while it's not the biggest deal, if you are indeed German you will probably be treated far better over there, as the stereotypical mindset of foreigners to the Japanese culture is still very much a thing that varies from country to country. I think they have a much higher respect for Germans and most other EU folk. As a US person myself, I am not as hopeful on being respected lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CoolMe

simsimsim

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 16, 2018
Messages
367
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
1,236
Country
Canada
I know few people who have moved there (not immigrated, but working as expat), and the consensus is that living in Japan as a foreigner isn't nearly as rosy as they pictured. One of my friends actually developed depression and attempted to commit suicide there.

Basically what I got from this is that Japan is a nice country to visit as a tourist, but to live/work in? Not so much.
I've heard from my friends there that there's no shortage of weaboos who move to Japan based on nothing but their completely unrealistic and sometimes outright delusional view of Japan they gathered from anime/games and other pop media. In the best case scenarios, they will be paying a quite large sum of money and few years of their life/energy/efforts for a reality check.

If a person is struggling in his home country (trouble finding jobs, finding girlfriends, integrating into society etc), his problems won't magically go away, in fact, most of them will be drastically exacerbated in a xenophobic country like Japan.

So you better do your research really thoroughly beforehand. And ask yourself, what can Japan provide you that your current country can't?
 

Youkai

Demon
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
2,551
Trophies
1
Age
36
Location
Germany , NRW
XP
2,439
Country
Germany
Well I know Chris Broad (from his vids) and he went over similar to John as a Teacher ... here again I don't have a university degree also I am not a native English speaker, I know some schools would still take me but after helping out in a school for one month I doubt I am made for this

@simsimsim
Probably not a bad advice but yeah I do have a good job (working in a bank) and a girlfriend as well as lots of money and I also went to Japan many times including almost one year of working holiday so yeah I think I mostly know what I am doing ;)
but yeah we have a TV show in my country showing people moving to other countries and most of them just have silly dreams of having a better life without doing much for it. Also most of those move without an money and without any language skills at all.

I know for me it will be probably much harder and in the end I will probably (if I get a job) earn much less then I do now but knowing this I still want to do it, learn the language and stay in Japan.
I have nothing left in my country which would be holding me here also I have much more friends over there.

I have to admit though I would prefer finding a job in a European or American company that won't ask me to work 60 hour a week with only 10 days off every year ^^V
 

simsimsim

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 16, 2018
Messages
367
Trophies
0
Age
30
XP
1,236
Country
Canada
Well I know Chris Broad (from his vids) and he went over similar to John as a Teacher ... here again I don't have a university degree also I am not a native English speaker, I know some schools would still take me but after helping out in a school for one month I doubt I am made for this

@simsimsim
Probably not a bad advice but yeah I do have a good job (working in a bank) and a girlfriend as well as lots of money and I also went to Japan many times including almost one year of working holiday so yeah I think I mostly know what I am doing ;)
but yeah we have a TV show in my country showing people moving to other countries and most of them just have silly dreams of having a better life without doing much for it. Also most of those move without an money and without any language skills at all.

I know for me it will be probably much harder and in the end I will probably (if I get a job) earn much less then I do now but knowing this I still want to do it, learn the language and stay in Japan.
I have nothing left in my country which would be holding me here also I have much more friends over there.

I have to admit though I would prefer finding a job in a European or American company that won't ask me to work 60 hour a week with only 10 days off every year ^^V
that's good to know! Since you didn't really leave many personal details about your background or what you were looking for in Japan in your opening post , I could only provide a very general view based on what I heard from actual expats, and it does seem that you already have experience living there.

Then again, I don't think it has been made super clear what exactly you're looking for in Japan that you can't find elsewhere especially given what you are sacrificing (good job, money, girlfriend, and presumably currently living in a society that you're fully accustomed to and not constantly being treated as an outsider, which many people take for granted). You said you there's nothing left in your country but that clearly isn't the case (giving all the perks you just listed that many people in your country would probably be willing to kill for) and that you have many friends in Japan, but why can't you make friends where you are right now? And are those friends in Japan worth losing all the aforementioned benefits for?

Anyway, just want to be the devil's advocate here because it is just not clear to me what exactly are the benefits that you're pursuing that would warrant making such a major decision in your life and giving up on many great perks. I only wish I could have done this and a lot more to convince one of my friends who went there and with it probably ending up being one of the worst decisions in his life since the guy is so bitter and miserable now. Screw the saying "support your friends no matter what", because it's extremely harmful to support them when what they need is a reality check.
 

Youkai

Demon
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
2,551
Trophies
1
Age
36
Location
Germany , NRW
XP
2,439
Country
Germany
Well yeah I guess I didn't say much about why because in theory it doesn't really matter for the Question I asked ;)

My Father died recently because he was an alcoholic and because of my uncle the last thing my father told the me was "fuck off you leech" so yeah I told him I won't ever see or talk to him again if he doesn't appologize which he didn't till his dead ... so yeah I didn't even go to his Burial and my whole family thinks I am the bad guy even though I told them 10 years ago already to talk to my dad while he wasn't that bad with alcohol but they were all like "nah thats normal don't worry nothing wrong here" so yeah I am really pissed about those people, also I have like 3 friends in Germany thats it ... Neither do I drink alcohol which is something close to blasphemy in Germany nor do I smoke or go to parties also not even a drivers license as I never needed nor wanted it, not like we don't have to many cars on the streets already.

And well yeah I do have a rather good job but my job isn't my life also my GF even though she is scared knew when we got together 10 years ago that my plan was to move to Japan in the future and she said she would come with me ... now she is rather scared and unlike me she is on good terms with some parts of her family even though she had to go to a psycho doc because of them ...


Whenever I/we were in Japan the people felt so much nicer (even though we know there is a problem with discrimination, I even had one old guy spit in front of me saying "baka america jin" but he apologized when I said I was German) and even though their smiles are often fake it is so much better to look into fake smiles then seeing everyone around you super pissed all day long, I even got into trouble a few times greeting strangers or just smiling because people thought I was some crazy idiot here in Germany. (probably depends a lot in which area you are though)

And I love the whole culture so much and the country is so diverse and all those vending mashines and good train connections are so convenient.
Here in Germany we even have all shops closed on Sundays because the Church is still a big thing even though ~1/4 a million people leave each year.

In no time I got more friends in Japan as a foreigner who was mostly staying as a tourist the I have got in my own Country ... I traveled most of Japan (except for hokkaido) and hat lots of talks with strangers even though my Japanese is really bad, like once some guy took me on his motorbike to the next town and another opened up his shop on his day off because I told him it is hard for me to find food as I don't eat fish or meat so he was like "come with me" then opened up his shop only for me and made me a free pizza, doubt anyone in Germany would even consider something like this. I could give hundreds of examples and even my Gf who had strong depressions said she felt so much better whenever we were in Japan.




So yeah I just registred with GoGoNihon or lets say they noted down that I wanna go in April 2024 as registration for 24 only starts next year but I already got some informations and they said they will contact me next year to complete everything so that I can for 1-2 years on a Student visa .... then the question is "do I find a job sponsoring me a Working Visa?" or "do I need to open up my own company to stay?" or worst case "do I go back home as if nothing ever happened?" .. hopefully not the last.
my GF will stay back in Germany till I know if I can remain or not and if I am able to stay she will come to Japan as well, if not we still have our flat which I can just go back ... probably.
 

aoikurayami

dysfunctionally intimidating
Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2022
Messages
153
Trophies
0
Location
Transylvania
XP
386
Country
Romania
Why are ppl so obsessed with Japan anyways.?

Cause of the vg animu and manga ?

I dislike how ppl idealize things like that... That's like deciding a place is "the best place ever" after visiting once.
(Sure my ava is from a japanese show,but that's a personality thing...)
(Let's not talk how anime characters emselv are idealized versions of what japanese believe germans look like, it seems.)

* High Suicide rate
* Dragonic law system (*sob* Hideki Taniuchi) (It's so ridiclous, PW Games parody it.. justsaying)
* Fake smiles with derpi everywhere
* individual is suffocated in the high population density
* Extreme Racism, especially to colored ppl
* Evaporation d.t. burnout
* Similar "fault in worker" welfare benefit system as germany (i.e. if you get fired: O.k. If you quit yourself: Oppsie, no munny, zenny 4 you)
* strange h deprecated gender role expectations (marriage ? relationship ? whatsthat?)


Norway, Sweden seem far more interesting, for the right reasons.

And just "being socially inept" and wanting to live in a cybercafe, is a strange idea.

Learning hiragana, katakana, maybe even kanji, amassing funds, moving, etc. etc.
With that effort, you could probably relocate to 3+ other countries.

Bottomline:
"Don't get too close to the sun, or you'll burn yourself"

people felt so much nicer
I mean.. that is a nice sentiment.
But on shortterm everyone -even me- seems nice..

The true personality often takes months n years to be apparant...
Don't forget that japanese a masters of "appearing positive"


PS:
I think you probably already know about it, but "AbroadInJapan" nicely outlines what this whole "going2japan" exp could develop.
He is a teacher there tho.
So keep in mind that a "solid reason" is the least you should have to offer.

PP: I have no desire to visit.
The few developers, composers and other japanese ppl I've been in contact with were enuff for me...
 
Last edited by aoikurayami,
  • Like
Reactions: felix.200

Flame

Me > You
Global Moderator
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
7,201
Trophies
3
XP
18,339
I'm learning Japanese. It's takes a lot of time out of my day and a lot of work. Studying for many years. Sacrificing my social life for study But my dream is to marry a hot Japanese wife.

me too Tomodachi. expect mine is to repopulate all of Japan to a decent birth rate.

:^)
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Dr_Faustus

Feameter

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 3, 2022
Messages
4
Trophies
0
Age
38
Location
Worthington, Ohio
XP
35
Country
United States
If you really want to not just come and see how they live and immigrate, the best way is to find a company that does this or get a work visa there. It takes too much to go to a rather conservative country like Japan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: felix.200

wownmnpare

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2014
Messages
576
Trophies
0
XP
1,347
Country
United States
You do realize the cost of living is very high? And the work ethics there is very different compare to what your we're seeing on the tv and shits. Also people in japan are low key racist.
 
  • Like
Reactions: felix.200

SG854

Hail Mary
Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
5,215
Trophies
1
Location
N/A
XP
8,104
Country
Congo, Republic of the
You do realize the cost of living is very high? And the work ethics there is very different compare to what your we're seeing on the tv and shits. Also people in japan are low key racist.
Japan should have golden coins laid out everywhere and boxes with question marks on them. His financial troubles will be fine.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over