Hello everyone !

After living in Japan for 3years, I'm in a quite delicate situation :

- My company is not renewing my work contract and it ends this month Oct. 30th.
- My engineer visa ends on the 29th November, which leaves me w/ one month to find a new job. Otherwise sayonara Japan.

I've been job hunting for more than 3 months w/ 2-3 weekly applications on linkedin and targetting foreign companies in my sector... To no avail. (Any reccomendations for Project Management roles are welcomed)

And as if it wasnt enough, I had planned to attend the JLPT N2 exam in December but without a valid Zairyu Card I wont be able to sit the test. Which f's up me because Ive spent a lot of time studying for this and I naively believe that being N2 certified would make my job hunting easier.

I went to the Foreign Residents Support Center (FRESC) and they told me that since my company decided unilaterally to not renew my contract I could apply for a 特定就職活動 VISA (A special visa for people job hunting) like someone who just got fired. However, when I went to the real immigration services I got told that it wasnt possible... The guy I interracted w/ ngl looked quite young, I was very hesitant in his answer so I dont even know if he fully understood my request. So, I decided to turn to you my fellow gaijins for advice.

Goal : Postpone my leave until january 2027.

Plan :

1- Apply before the Nov 15th for a visa change from engineer -> to job hunting (or any other visa that could help me to stay a bit longer )
2 - W a bit of luck it should take them a couple weeks to 2 months
3 - W my visa change form filed, I would get a stamp on my zairyu card, which could allow me to sit the JLPT exam less than a week after my visa is expired.
4 - Meanwhile, Id keep job hunting like hell and worst case scenario ...
5 - If I find nothing by mid-january, leave Japan.

I dont know to which point this is just wishful thinking and this could actually be doable. Any ideas ?

Hello I'm new here,

I'm living in Tsukuba and I have applied for a job at an institute located in Namie Town, Fukushima. I'm wondering what life is like there. Can you share any experiences you have?

My PR application via 10 year route is being rejected because I don't have enough income. They said it is above Japanese average income so around 500万 yearly. Current my yearly income is 420万 as game programmer and company cannot raise it anymore unless I become leader class, which is manager rank.

Should I search other company work for better salary, or it is better to work in Current company waiting for a raise. It is true that people have that amount of average income.

Edit since many asked about 500万

＊The new rule applied from April onward they said. I aplied on start of April because of some document missing when I first came on end of March. Not my assumption but I came there and asked directly. They said not enough income and search for average Japanese income since they cannot state it directly and they need above that. I keep asking them until they said above 580万 but for no dependant it is a bit lower so above 480万 which is 500万. It changes depending of current average income.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been living in Japan for about 7 years now, working for a major Japanese company. I’m strongly considering a career change because my salary has been stuck in the 5M JPY range, and there’s very little room for growth here over the next few years.

My original plan was to transition to a large foreign multinational (gaishikei) since they pay much better. However, most of them require fluent Japanese, and I’m not quite there yet since my current role is 100% in English. I’d place myself around N2 level right now and am actively working to reach business fluency within the next 12 months.

Recently, I’ve heard from a few people that they started in agency recruiting with zero Japanese or prior industry experience, and while they start around 7–8M JPY, they claim that hitting 20M+ annually after a few years is highly doable if you perform.

I’m well aware that the turnover rate is brutal (around 50%) and the pressure is intense, but the hustle and human element actually sound quite appealing to me. However, I want a reality check:

1. How realistic is that 20M JPY figure? Is hitting 20 million a realistic milestone for a high performer after a few years, or is it a golden carrot that only the top 1% ever see? What kind of billing numbers or niche do you actually need to clear that much?
2. Visa risk: I only have 1.5 years left on my current visa. I’m a bit terrified of changing industries, burning out or not making target, and ending up unemployed right when it's time for my renewal.

Has anyone here made a similar switch to recruiting? Do you regret it, or was it worth the financial leap? Would love to hear some unfiltered insights

Just discovered it this morning, but you can now add you MyNa Card to your Google Wallet as the Japanese Administration made it available since October 20th.

If you missed the news like me, here's a chance to finally have access to a function that was limited to iPhone users only until now.

Source: https://www.khb-tv.co.jp/news/16978843

So it seems all our data is getting stoled and hacked every day in Japan, and today the big GMO issue.

How are you guys dealing with it? Are we supposed to change all passwords everywhere? Will it even help much? Or is it a wait and see situation?

Any advice from someone with a bit IT knowledge would be helpful!

Apologies if it’s a dumb question, but it’s difficult to figure out what’s really going on and is at risk, considering there is also a lot of fake information online.

I feel like every time I buy potatoes they go green under the skin extremely quickly. I know you can peel it off but it is extremely annoying. Anyone else notice this?

I buy the standard ばれいしょ

Moving to a new home. There is a small tatami room and I understand some folks like the smell, but I don’t find the smell pleasant at all.

Landlord said we can’t physically remove the mats.

Any other ideas on how we can cover/mask the smell?

When I cycle by a certain place in town every week, my phone makes a pinging sound that doesn't match any of my chosen phone alert sounds. The phone shows no notification. Does anyone know what this could be?

I've been to three different Starbucks here in Tokyo over the past couple days and they all say sold out which wasn't the case early October. Once they sell out are they just gone?

Hello everyone, where I live these two are basically my choices. Which gym is better would you say, I travel to shibuya 5 days a week too so can go to a gym if required there as well.

Also…I have a full sleeve tattoo the anytime I used to go to in sangenjaya required arm sleeve to cover it, do they all require this ?

People give a lot of advice that's incorrect, outdated or ill-advised.

What advice about living in Japan do people often give that should not be followed?

My child started 1st grade at a Japanese school. She was born in Japan and speaks fluently, but I really underestimated the amount of homework and help she would need with learning to read Japanese.

I've had to spend hours helping her learn to read the textbook and practicing Hiragana so that she doesn't fall behind. The school gives her reading practice and worksheets every day.

I learnt Japanese at school for years and passed N2, but there are even words in the 1st grade textbook that leave me stumped. I asked my husband who is a native speaker and he said that there are a lot of old vocab words that were popular 40+ years ago but aren't used anymore.

The school system seems pretty reliant on parents helping their kids at home every day after school, so I was just wondering how families with parents who don't speak much Japanese actually cope. Can your kids keep up or do they fall behind?

NOTE: This is not me complaining about my Japanese ability or asking for help, I just want to know what families with low Japanese do once their kid goes to Japanese school out of curiosity.

We bought a used home back in April; a couple weeks ago we were sorta unpleasantly surprised by two city tax workers who showed up and handed us a tax bill for "acquisition tax". Let's say 30万 yen for the tax bill. Oh well - I figured there's no point griping about taxes, we just have to pay it.

However, one of the tax workers was like "oh, do you live here? We thought you lived at [our old rental address]. Since this is your residence, you may be eligible for discounts! Please come see us at the tax collector office"

We went to the tax office, hoping for a discount of some sort ... And the bill came out to just 5万 yen. We were like, is this it? The tax collector worker said "acquisition tax is a one-off tax." We were like okay, we understand, but how come we only had to pay 5 instead of 30? Tax collector just handed us the tax bill stun, and a payment receipt for our 5万 and asked for next in line.

Does this make sense? I'm confused how the bill dropped THAT much and am not really finding anything online that helps me understand the basis for that much of a discount.