Why moving to Japan is not right for us

I feel like everyone who goes to Japan considers moving there. We have been guilty of this many times; especially when akiya first started popping up as super affordable options that seemed too good to be true. When we seriously looked into completely changing our lives and moving, we started doing real research to see if it was right for us, and it turns out it wasn’t. Once we took off the rose-colored glasses, there were too many factors that made us realize Japan is not the right fit for us.

The Work Culture

We all know the horror stories about the long hours and people passing out from exhaustion or even dying on the job. Yes we know that not everywhere is that intense but the general expectation of performatively working hard, staying until after your boss leaves, and nomikai raises red flags.

Additionally, we are a young family and have a toddler. Right now nothing is more important than spending time with her. Knowing that moving will most likely require us to sacrifice time with her was enough to realize that working in Japan was not the right fit for us. 

Our Career Paths

In the same vein as the work culture, our career paths are not very compatible. Jacob is a paramedic with an emergency medical care degree and while they do have paramedics in Japan it would require complete fluency and becoming educated and certified in their country. He has also climbed the ladder in his current department so moving would mean completely starting over both in school and in his career.

The other option would be to teach English. Both of us are not interested in teaching English at all. Maybe when we were younger and fresh out of college but the pay (¥4,020,000 or $25216.65 a year) is not a financially viable option for us as we are now. 

Our Daughter

Our biggest consideration is our daughter. She is young, and moving would mean she doesn’t get to spend time with her grandparents and aunts and uncles. We want her to have strong relationships with them, just like we did growing up, and living halfway across the world would make that incredibly difficult.

General Culture

We understand that in Japan, we will never be fully accepted as outsiders. While we are okay with that and understand it, we don’t want that for our daughter. It is important to feel like you belong in your community, and with the possibility of her always being treated as an outsider, we knew it wasn’t right for us. If we were to move, we would want her to be old enough to choose where she lives.

Ultimately, choosing not to move to Japan comes down to the fact that the lifestyle we want and the culture in Japan are not compatible for us living there full time. We will always return and appreciate what Japan has to offer, but until we are in a different stage of life, we will remain visitors.

また後で!

Jacob and Katlyn