Job Discussion Forums

[jtea]

This is purely a curiosity thing but I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their reasons for either staying in or leaving Japan?

[Maitoshi]

Sure! My main reason for staying in Japan is that I have a Japanese wife and three children.

[nightsintodreams]

Easy life, well paid, enjoy studying Japanese, like living in Asia and I'm close to places I want to travel to, No violence or crime to worry about, leave my house in the morning at 8am and am home before 5pm so plenty of time to go gym/play games/study/watch crap on YouTube...or whatever else, living costs are cheaper than my home country so am able to save more than I ever could at home, can play my sport of choice at a local club, contrary to popular opinion I actually quite enjoy the nightlife here...

Probably some other things I can't remember right now.

[Pitarou]

Reasons for staying:

- My wife is Japanese. That's the only reason I came here. And, unfortunately, xenophobic new rules will make it hard for me to bring her back to the UK.

- It's still possible to get a fairly good job as an ALT.

- The food's great.

Reasons for leaving:

- Teaching English in Japan can be a good job, but it's a lousy career.

- Having worked in a Japanese junior high school, I wouldn't want to send my kids to one. Not enough teaching; too much exhausting makework and narrow-minded "character building" bullshit.

- Japan's demographic timebomb is exploding right about now.

- Learning Japanese is hard.

[Maitoshi]

[timothypfox]

I've decided to stay, but if I left, it would be because I got divorced this year to my Japanese wife.

Reasons for staying are relatively stress free working conditions compared to work at public schools in New York City. I work in a private grade school here. My efforts at learning how to play and perform tenor ukulele have been well appreciated here, and I always have these events to look forward to and take part in.

Although the shoe never quite fits, it is always very interesting to try it on sometimes. That is what truly keeps me here in Japan.

[rtm]

I really enjoyed living in Japan (for nearly 10 years) for all of the reasons mentioned above. I left because I wanted to do more with my career. I had taught in primary schools, junior high schools, high schools, eikaiwa, and lastly as an adjunct instructor at universities. I didn't like teaching school-age kids, and eikaiwa seemed limiting as a career (I knew I didn't want to start my own). I enjoyed university teaching, but didn't have an MA. I knew I didn't want to do a degree by distance. So, I left to go to grad school, and have since found other opportunities elsewhere, though I still spend a couple months a year in Japan, and really enjoy my time there.

[kzjohn]

Been here for a long time, kids are grown (and got good educations), retirement comes 34 paychecks from now. (33 after next week)

At my age, I wouldn't want to deal with health care/insurance in the states--or looking for work. Also, wife is still working, and is six years behind me on the retirement thing. So I may continue as a part-timer/contractor post-retirement, maybe a couple years (small uni, and an added reason is I do enjoy having an office).

The food's good, the air's clean, and while there are some negatives, I like living where there are really no guns, and where religion has little impact on politics.

[HLJHLJ]

[Pitarou]

[Maitoshi]

[jtea]

I've always wondered why more males stay in Japan for marriage than females...unless the females just don't hang around forums/internet all that much (either that or japanese females > japanese males) o_o

[mitsui]

If you can find a job where it is not a limited contract and the pay is decent, stay.

Otherwise, why bother, unless you have any children with a Japanese spouse?

At this point, I could go either way. It does seem that if you want to leave, do it before 40 or 45 as you could deal with age discrimination in your own country.

Going back does seem tough when you have to accept taking a pay cut, but later things could get better. I could see the first year being tough.
Waiting for the green card which takes 13 months. Wife cannot work and starts to complain.

My spouse could get work in translation or interpreting so that helps.

Starting over is not easy. I talked to one American who lived in Hawaii for five years before going back to Japan. He thought teaching in Japan was better. I guess he just did not want to teach at the high school level.

[2buckets]

mitsui wrote:

"Waiting for the green card which takes 13 months. Wife cannot work and starts to complain. "

Maybe the rules in US Consulate are different in Japan from the UAE, but my Chinese wife and daughter got their green cards, less than a month after returning from Abu Dhabi. We did all the paper work in Abu D., got a sealed package to give to immigration officers on arrival in US. They told us to expect the green card in the mail in a few weeks. This was a total surprise to us. But, sure enough, a few weeks later the cards came in the mail.

The only thing that I think might have expedited this was that we had a fully paid for house, but really not sure.

[rtm]