Another 10 Reasons Not to Move to Japan

Hey, what's up guys? So I was planning to give you this type of content. But when I left a comment like this, turned out quite many people want to know even more about negative side of Japan. It kinda makes sense though. Because nowadays, so many great YouTubers already keep telling you a lot of positive things about Japan. Actually, I can give you more reasons to move to Japan than not to move to. But maybe that's not what you want and you already know how awesome Japan is. Anyway, I'm assuming I've got you guys' permission to make this video. And I really hope it's gonna help you somewhere. But let me make this clear before we get into that. Something I didn't mention in the previous video. A lot of things I'm gonna mention are mainly comparing with Canada. Simply because I used to live there and it's easier for me to compare than other countries. Japan has many problems and you might feel discouraged a lot. But before you just giving up, you might wanna try to figure it out. The thing is, you're gonna face some hardships in any country you move to. Before I went to move to Canada, she gave me this message. It's important to keep in mind that you always have a choice or alternative to make your life improve in any country. Anyway, without further ado, let's get into that. So I was really surprised in Canada because this happens all the time there. It's like if you don't like what you bought, you can just return it. Pretty much anything. But in Japan, pretty much anything you purchased cannot be returned or exchanged. For example, you bought some clothes like this. These reasons are not acceptable for most stores. Of course, it's not impossible to return and get a refund. But unless you satisfy all these conditions, you can't get a refund most of the time. In Japan, there is no legal obligation. So it's better to assume that all the stores don't want to accept. And you wanna be really careful before you buy them. The reason you can't return an item once you open that is they really care about appearance when it comes to selling products. That's why we have a lot of packaging and make it look like a high quality. Otherwise, they can't sell that. Having said that, if your purchase happened under like this, we have a law called cooling off, which if it's within 8 days of the contract or purchase, you can definitely ask for a refund. This applies to many cities, but especially Tokyo. As Olympics coming soon, that's totally understandable. Tokyo is actually number 10 on the world's highest average monthly rents by city. For those who don't know, Japan is already like this, overpopulated in the cities. But now, even more and more people are concentrating there. So the rent is likely to rise up more and more. Although there are many job opportunities in Tokyo, just like London or New York, it has been getting more and more expensive to live. And don't forget that renting apartment is already difficult in Japan as a foreigner. You don't need that in Tokyo or pretty much any big city. There is a great transportation everywhere. But maybe you do need a car. For example, in Gunma, which nearly 70% of the people have a car. Now, buying and owning a car isn't so expensive in Japan. I think pretty much the same in Canada. But as a foreigner, the biggest difficult part would be this. In my case, I actually converted my American driver's license to a Japanese one. What would you say is the most difficult part for you? At that time, it was the actual practical driving test. I failed it five times. But seeing that list of people who were on their 20th try, I think I got lucky. Why do you think that was so difficult? They're very strict. Three minor mistakes. If you do four, you're instantly out. And a minor mistake might be forgetting to look at a mirror or something. And there's really small things that they're looking for, like how long and pointing to each mirror. Before you even get in the car, you need to check the front and the back. How much language support, how much Japanese do you need to get a driver's license in Japan? I was lucky that my company, for the first trip to the driving center, they sent someone to help do language support. Because that's the hardest part, is getting into the system. Because you need to prove that you've had your driver's license in whatever country you were living in. They needed an official translation of your driver's license. I had to get a bank statement for the past three years I was living in the United States to prove that I've had my license. You need quite a bit of Japanese for that initial getting into the system before you can even take the tests. I think there was this guy from India in the line and he couldn't speak Japanese and they couldn't get him in the system because he didn't understand what was needed. No one spoke. Yeah, initially you need a lot of Japanese. If you do the written test, they have that in several different languages. They have Chinese, Korean, English. The written test, they have in a different language, but the practical, again, was completely in Japanese. For that, you need maybe not so much. You need to at least know, you know, At the end, they do tell you what you did wrong. And you'll need higher Japanese for that to understand what their critique is. As you already know, we have this program. It's inevitable we're gonna have more and more elderly people and fewer younger people. Actually, we are already seeing some programs about that. Now, I'm not saying they are bad people and xenophobic to all foreigners. Definitely not. There are many great elderly people in Japan. But compared to the younger generation, these are some of their characteristics I've noticed. They are much less likely to speak English and much more likely to be unfamiliar to foreigners. And that sometimes leads to scariness or even discrimination. The elderly person was too scared of talking to non-Japanese. Japan is one of the least religious countries. Technically, we have Shintoism and Buddhism, but most people don't know about it. This is more like just tradition or ceremony rather than practicing a religion seriously. But I think that's okay. We don't have to subscribe to the same religion as you to be friends, right? Actually, I didn't think people in Canada are so religious either. But the difference is, they at least have some basic knowledge or understanding about other religions. People in Japan have zero knowledge and know nothing about it. Sometimes, not just ignorant, but there's a negative stigma around Christianity, for example. Japan actually had been resistant for a long time in the history, banning that and even punishing anyone believing in Christianity. Of course, that was a long long time ago. But some people still have a negative image even nowadays. Some people think it's dangerous or suspicious, and they're afraid of being involved in it. But I think Christianity and other religions are more likely to be dangerous or suspicious. That's why they have that image. There are still many people who think it's a religious issue or something like that. And also, we don't have many churches or facilities for Christian people compared to Canada or South Korea, for example. But again, the biggest issue is, they don't have any understanding about your religion. So the more religious you are, the more likely to be frustrated you are. For example, Western foreigners from English-speaking countries, most of them do an English teaching job. On the upside, it's quite easy to get a job. All you need is a college degree. You don't need much experience or Japanese skills to have the job. And the pay is not so bad. On the downside, however, maybe you're not gonna have many other options. Unless you speak really good Japanese, maybe you can't choose other jobs like this. Nowadays, there are so many types of English teaching jobs. But based on the feedback I've got, things like these are quite common. You are not allowed to speak any Japanese in school, which is understandable. But this means you can't practice to speak Japanese at least on the job. Especially in public school, their motivation is quite low. Because in the society, we don't need any English actually. Most people are Japanese and speak Japanese language. Making mistake means you are improving the skill. We all know that. But quite many students have a strong fear of making mistakes. So you might have a really hard time of teaching or even just communicating with them. Anyway, whether you're gonna be an English teacher or not, I hope you are able to speak some basic Japanese at least before coming here. And continue to improve your Japanese skills. That's gonna give you more job opportunities in Japan. Yes, dating can be really hard here. But just like any country, there are many types of people in Japan. So it's not impossible you're gonna find a good match. But when it comes to Tinder, maybe you wanna be careful a little bit. Many of my foreign friends have used that. And seems like these people are quite common on Tinder. Although they don't let you practice your Japanese. So you're gonna be just a free English teacher basically. They have a strong racial preference for non-Asians. Just to get a foreign partner and want to show off. Either way, they have some kind of expectations about your foreignness. And maybe stereotyping would be too annoying. Dating process is also quite different from Canada. Like when first kiss happens. So this is often common in Canada according to my Canadian friends. But in Japan, it's gonna be the last in many times. Of course, unless they are slut or playboy. And in Japan, parents are often involved. Because a lot of Japanese are still living with their parents. So having sex in your partner's place can be quite difficult. Maybe that's why we have so many love hotels. It's not even justice actually. But completely injustice. We can easily tell that. They are probably forcing the suspect to admit the crime. Or some kind of harsh interrogation is going on. Now anyone coming to Japan really needs to be careful about this. Not just foreignness moving here. But also tourist foreignness. He was in jail for more than 40 days after being arrested. For trying to find children taken away by the Japanese murder. This American guy was also in jail. He actually ended up there almost a year. Having said that, we shouldn't just assume the Japanese police is only strict to foreignness. But when I interviewed this former police officer. He said that depending on the location where the crime rate among foreigners is relatively higher. They might be targeting foreigners. Which totally makes sense. Now he didn't specify the place. But I have a pretty good guess based on living here and what I often hear. As far as in Tokyo, I often hear foreigners' crime or trouble in these areas. So you can assume that probably the police is quite strict there. But in the end, any place in Japan you really wanna avoid getting in trouble. And even arrested by the police. It's just so complicated like the table manner or business manner. To be honest, even for a Japanese person, sometimes I'm not sure what's the right way. Just too many rules. For example, do you know where the most senior person should be in elevator? It's actually this. Do you know how much deep you should burp depending on the person? Even though you can find so many videos and information on the internet. And learn about that in advance. There would be still too many things you don't know. And almost impossible to execute all of them correctly. Now maybe younger people nowadays don't really care about your manner. But many elderly people still do. Japan has hierarchy system and relationship between senior and junior is quite strict. Especially at a company. So some people still expect you to have the correct Japanese manner. Now here's how I see. Making mistake is totally okay. As long as you learn from the mistake and keep improving. But the bigger problem is, they don't tell you that and you don't notice. Because in Japan, you're supposed to notice without words by reading the air. Our society really values this. And you can see that everywhere. When you're talking with someone and you have to go now, you can just say, Sorry, I gotta go. That's it. So simple. But in Japan, people often don't say that. And rather send you some signal or gesture. Now that may be quite obvious sometimes. But sometimes really subtle and quite difficult to catch that. In such a high-context culture, you need a lot of guessing and reading between the lines. But the thing is, this is only possible after spending a lot of time and actually interacting with many Japanese people. Because quite often, you can only guess based on the past experience and creating some common ground. So at least for the first few years, maybe this gonna bother you a lot. And you might feel awkward all the time. So here you have it. These are another 10 reasons not to move to Japan. Let me know what you think in the comment below. Again, I actually have way more reasons to move to Japan. And in the end, I really like living here. At least for me, the best country ever. Japan is definitely not a perfect country. But I think it's important to be positive and keep in mind that there are many positive things as well as negative ones. So let's just make the most of it and enjoy it.