In 2016, my husband moved to Japan with minimum preparation to live with me and these things mentioned in this article are the things we thought really really important to know for foreigners who would like to move to Japan!!
Pay off all the debts you have
If you have any kind of debts like student loans credit card debts, you should pay them all off before moving to Japan.
My husband has a student loan which I didn’t even know until he settled in Japan and it turned out we have to repay them with 5% interest per year while he would not have to pay any interest if he pay them off in his country…
In addition to interests, you have to pay processing fee for overseas money transfers.
Get a drivers’ license at least 3 months earlier
If you want to drive a car in Japan, I highly recommend to get a driver’s’ license at least 3 months before coming to Japan because if you hold your country’s driver’s’ license for more than 3 months in your country, you can convert your driver’s license to a Japanese driver’s license (though you will need to pass required process / tests).
If you try to get a Japanese license in Japan, you should know there is a very few drivers’ schools teaching in foreign language including English and the cost will be more than US$2,000. So make sure you hold your driver’s license for more than 3 months in your country and it’s valid.
Obtain bachelor of degree
Japan is still an education- background-oriented society. If you have bachelor of degree in any field, it will be much easier to get a job in Japan.
Make sure you get some copies of transcripts of record and certificate of graduation of your university.
Japanese companies often ask to submit them and I’m sure the cost will be much higher if you want to get them from overseas, so I recommend to prepare them before moving to Japan.
However, you should also know that if you don’t have specialized knowledge such as programming, engineering, designing etc., 80-90% of job opportunities for foreigners are language teachers or translators.
Study Japanese
If you can communicate with Japanese in Japanese, your life in Japan will definitely be easier.
Especially in Tokyo area, people have cold and dry relationships with others (which have both good and bad points). Most of people are nice here but they don’t talk to you proactively. It will be much easier to build a relationship with Japanese. Don’t be shy to talk to people because most likely they are shy too!
Ending
Are you ready to move to Japan? I understand it is so scary to do something new in a new place, especially where people talk in different language from your mother tongue.
Hope this article helps you to get ready for your new life stage!
