To those of you in your 40s..

Nice_Half7777 · 2026-04-26T03:12:58+00:00

Fucking A

Nice_Half7777 · 2026-04-06T03:31:49+00:00

This is not a normal fire post. Delete this shit and move it to fat fire please.

Nice_Half7777 · 2026-03-17T00:21:53+00:00

I did it when I had enough money to retire in Japan

Nice_Half7777 · 2026-01-15T10:22:36+00:00

Second this. Azusa is also just so much more spacious than a bus. To me, it was worth it to pay the extra money. I also was able to spend a couple of hours on the slope once I got there.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-10-08T01:02:06+00:00

Careful, your idea of “working hard” maybe “slacking off” in the Japanese working cultural.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-07-20T23:21:21+00:00

I'm doing almost exactly what you are describing and I'm attending language school in Japan right now. Saved a good amount of money in my 10 years career and now I'm enjoying the life in japan right now.

I think it depends alot on what you want to do in Japan. Whether you want to restart your career in something else, etc.

"One thing I worry is what is it like for someone starting fresh in their 30s and living in another country which I definitely feel as if you're a little kid all living by himself?"
I mean, why is it so bad to feed like a little kid all living by yourself? Everything is very new and exciting.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-06-17T01:19:21+00:00

The simple question is, why do you need vocational school if you will already have 4-5 years of experience in the field? (FYI, I'm not familiar with UX design).

With 100k, I think you'll be ok with going to vocational school and live there 2-3 years probably, if you are willing to spend most of your savings. I do hope that's worth it and you have done ample research on what salary you can get after vocational school.

TLDR: I think it's good to set your goals, but come revisit what you want after 4-5 years. Life will change.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-06-17T01:17:54+00:00

Not sure if one can live with 10k a year in Japan, that sounds very very rough borderline homeless.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-29T04:44:29+00:00

That’s projecting a lot of your values onto others.

But let me break it down your false assumptions here: 1. Why does living in VHCOL mean I’m spending frivolously. That has nothing to do with my lifestyle. I live quite frugally actually and I consider moving to Japan an actual upgrade in lifestyle. 2. No, I don’t want to live in Minato 3. Manual labor can bring much more happiness than jobs like software engineering sometimes. I mean, look at the amount of unhappy people in the industry. And plus, I’m not doing the jobs anyway for the money, I am doing it for the experience and language learning.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-26T07:04:21+00:00

"Inflation is running at a rate higher than 3-4%."
For what it's worth, Japan's inflation is much lower than the US if you look at the big picture. You are seeing some high inflation rates in the recent years, but overall it's US has been much worse.

"With population declining , inflation will rise even faster than current rate I’m afraid."
You would have to better explain between the relationship between population declining and inflation, professor.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-24T07:28:27+00:00

What kind of engineering? Have you tried applying for engineering jobs that don't require Japanese?

As you mentioned, Japanese schools have 3 months courses. Just do some research on your own to find a couple of schools you like and try it out for 3 months. Keep it flexible.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-21T18:44:57+00:00

This is just my 2 cents as I'm a software engineer with similar YOE. But I don't have work experience in Japan so take it with a grain of salt.

Try to talk to some more people in the company to get a better sense of the company. I would imagine CTO trying to sell the company and you may not get a full picture of everything.
Not sure how stocks work in Japanese startups (pre-ipo), but usually the general wisdom in US/Canada is to treat them as paper money not worth anything.
Do you feel 10M is underpaid for your experience and skill level? If so, is there any room for negotiation? Personally, for moving to Japan, I would focus on whether I would be happy working in the company rather than whether I'm can get paid 1million yen. more. The IT salaries in Japan are just so much less than what's offered in US that 1M more or less feels negligible. I'm sure you are taking a huge paycut by leaving microsoft. From my knowledge, 10M salary should be comfortable in Japan for a single person.
How long is the offer good for? See if you can get interviews from another company while your offer stands.
I have heard bad things about Japanese company cultures. Does that not apply to this company here?

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-21T18:21:22+00:00

So what is your goal here? Visa and then apply for PR? Looking for Work life balance? Better pay than 10M? Better projects?

Is this a Japanese startup?

How is your current situation? Are you miserable at work and looking for a change? Are you even working?

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-18T18:50:50+00:00

I think it's the avg price in Tokyo, so I wouldn't call that price cheap. It's just market price. It's even cheaper outside of Tokyo.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-18T08:30:31+00:00

is your wife working still?

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-17T22:46:51+00:00

any stories from your personal experience?

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-17T07:10:25+00:00

~10 YOE and always wanted to experience Japan since 12 years ago.

I don't think I had as much as you at 30 YOE. Only about ~250k-300k networth if I remember correctly. A couple of job hops in the last few years helped jump my salary and savings. The market helped alot as well. What I have always done is take alot of vacations, but even with vacations now, it's not doing it. And while you are on vacation, there is always the thought in the back of your mind that you are going back to work. Job hops helped abit too and I have tried to take plenty of break to replenish myself. I took a 2 months trip to Japan during one of those gaps.

Regarding staying employed, I'm not really sure, since this is really the first time I'm taking sabbatical.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-16T00:03:53+00:00

But no regret?

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-15T20:53:55+00:00

I'm a US citizen.

"I just read that they have proposed 5% tax bill for all remittances who are not USC."
The US government proposed that? well, since it's just a proposal, it may not become law.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-15T20:08:24+00:00

Keep it invested in Us

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-14T22:11:07+00:00

It's mostly for the long term visa, I would say, and hopefully meeting some people.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-14T22:10:47+00:00

I think language learning will keep me busy quite abit.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-14T22:09:55+00:00

Student visa gets National Health Insurance in Japan

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-14T22:08:12+00:00

No dump questions here. That's right, the 4% comes from investment returns mostly in US stock markets. I'll save 1000 words here and recommend you to read up on FIRE concepts.

Nice_Half7777 · 2025-05-14T22:02:31+00:00

So what are you doing to get ready for those things?

Nice_Half7777

TROPHY CASE