Job Discussion Forums

[Rooster_2006]

Sorry if this has been covered already.

After almost 4.5 years in Korea, one thing is really starting to get to me -- permanent residency is impossible. Like, literally impossible, unless you marry a Korean, or unless you have Korean blood.

So even though Japan's 10-year permanent residency may seem like a long time to some, it's better than Korea where PR simply does not exist unless you marry a local.

I guess I'm just wondering if this 10-year PR claim is real, or if it's just smoke and mirrors. Has anyone on this board received PR just by living in Japan for a long time (without marrying a Japanese person)?

I've lived in Asia for over seven years and have decided I'd like to make Asia my permanent home, but Korea makes it extremely difficult by forcing you to renew an employer-owned visa every single year. And if you stop working (i.e. retirement) you can no longer live in Korea. I'm hoping that Japan's 10-years-to-PR claim is true, but will be skeptical until I hear from a few people who've actually gotten it, because Korea makes similar claims, yet I've never met a Korean PR holder who wasn't ethnically Korean.

I'm considering trying out Japan, but it doesn't seem like there's even a point in trying it out for a year unless I know that if I love it, I can continue to stay.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Don't come to Japan thinking that if you like it for one year, you will therefore like it for the next fifty or whatever- especially if you are showing up not able to function in Japanese. (You mention something about wanting to retire in Asia- do you know how expensive that would be in this country for a single foreign person who had been an English language teacher- assuming, that is, that that's what you do ?)

Have you tried posting this on the Korean discussion board to ask people there if anyone has PR and how they got it?

Honestly, I've never met anyone from one of the major English speaking countries with PR in Japan who wasn't married to a Japanese person, either. Marriage is normally the major reason that keeps someone in this country.

[G Cthulhu]

[Glenski]

Why are you so hung up on getting PR?

Work visas here are much better than in Korea. Here, your employer doesn't own them. You can transfer sponsorship if you quit or are fired/laid off. And, they are renewable.

After the first year, you can change from an employer-sponsored one to one where essentially you self-sponsor by having a string of PT employers.

PR is not needed, although yes, you can get it, and people do. Look here.
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/english/tetuduki/index.html

[Rooster_2006]

The reasons I get so hung up on PR:
- If you don't have PR, you can't work in any sector you want.
- If you don't have PR, you can be deported at any time without going through a standard trial -- this includes things that weren't your own fault.
- If you don't have PR, you have to leave the country when you stop working.
- If you don't have PR, it's dangerous to invest any money in the country (especially in real estate) because you could just be deported and banned and become unable to access it.
- If you don't have PR, you could spend decades adjusting to Japanese society, finally find your niche, and then one day get deported and ripped out of your niche.

So when I ask about PR even though I've never lived in Japan, think of it as being similar to someone inquiring about long-term career prospects for a job they haven't started yet. Sure they haven't even tried the career yet, but there's no point in even shaking things up and entering the job if there's no room for advancement. See what I mean?

If PR simply doesn't exist in Japan (same as Korea), then I'll probably move to Hong Kong instead, where there's seven-year PR with a relatively high chance of actually receiving it. Or maybe just stay in Korea and pray that they reform their system.

Essentially, I don't want to make an international move from one country whose language I already speak well (Korea) to one where I don't speak the language well (Japan), unless Japan really has a significantly better package to offer.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Nabby Adams]

100% certain you can get PR. I know sevral who did it without being married.
I do understand your feelings too. I also want a "home" and not just a country to work in. But Japan would be an expensive place to live in retirement, though an important question are;

Would a foreigner on a PR be entitled to the almost free health care in his old age?
Is there any claim to social security? For those whose work doesn't provide a pension or dont have enough years payments.
Japan is about twice the cost of cheaper SE Asian countries, do you have enough cash to make it worthwhile being here in old age?

But I find Japan a very nice country to live in and would recommend it.

[Rooster_2006]

Thanks for the helpful input, Gambate and Nabby.

[Apsara]

I know a British couple who have PR after living here for 10 years, and a Mexican guy who is not married to a Japanese (he has a Japanese boyfriend, but I doubt that helps much with PR) who also got PR after living here for 10 years.

I always think it is very premature to think about PR when you haven't spent much time in Japan- how do you know you will like it enough to want to stay that long? I like living here, but I very much hope to retire somewhere else.

[Rooster_2006]

[markle]

[G Cthulhu]

[G Cthulhu]

[Brooks]

I know an American with a Taiwanese wife. They both have PR and they have lived in Japan for some time.

I would caution you that Japan is not a land of milk and honey.
It is getting harder and harder to find a decent job.
And, in the future, taxes will go up.

[Rooster_2006]

Ah, excellent, that's good to hear, Brooks.

For those of you who are wondering why I'm asking about this so early in the game, it's because it's the smart thing to do.

PR and marriage are kind of similar -- optimally, they're both supposed to last forever.

Would you wait to ask a woman if she wanted to have kids until you'd been dating for a few years? What if she didn't want kids, and you did? Then you'd have just wasted a few years of your life on a dead-end relationship.

My biggest mistake with Korea was not finding out if they had PR earlier. I did some preliminary research and thought Korea did, but then found out (after having lived in Korea for about three years) that it was basically not available to anyone -- unless you're either married, or have $500,000 and run a business for three years (and I don't want to do either of these things). So I got burned with Korea, and I didn't want to get burned again, so that's why I posted this thread.

Similarly, I didn't want to move to Japan, live there for a few years, end up loving it, and then be told that PR will never be an option for me. So I'm really glad that I did this research on this board, and that most of the replies were helpful.

Actually, I've met four foreign PR holders in Japan, but wasn't sure if they were flukes or not, and just wanted to make sure other people knew about such folks, too, to make sure I wasn't mistaken. One was a western man I met in Fukuoka, and two were Koreans (who had immigrated to Japan years after the occupation had ended). One was a Korean woman who'd been married to a Japanese man for 16 years (though she doesn't really count since every civilized country has PR through marriage).

Anyways, thanks (most of you) for the helpful replies.

And remember, asking important questions (like about PR) early on is a good practice. To assume makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me."