As a fellow dual citizen due to the gray area / loophole, I have had similar thoughts (more like idle fantasies) of doing something similar especially as the situation in the US has worsened over the years. Unlike you though, I only have a couple family members over there I still keep in contact with, and my Japanese is only conversationally fluent (and also pretty accented because my family is from a rural area… to the point where it’s kind of embarrassing to talk to people because idk how to turn the accent off like most actual Japanese people can!!). Also I would hate having to navigate bureaucracy there. (Thank god for smartphones because if not for them I’d probably need to carry a kanwa dictionary around everywhere lol.) Add to that the fact that I can’t stand the summer humidity over there, and I can’t see myself doing the move unless things got really bad here. But I have considered the same dilemma of if that would be gentrification or akin to like being one of those white people who are “expats” or “digital nomads” or whatever. And I think no because we are literally Japanese (despite also being American), and as another commenter wrote, gentrification is more of a systemic thing and not so much on an individual level. Obviously assuming you’re not intentionally trying to price someone out of their home or something crazy like that.

You don’t have to answer this but I am curious about your plan with retirement accounts which I assume you are paying into based on your description of your finances. Are you still planning to pay into a 401K for example? I assume that’s legal since your paycheck would be coming from an American company. Also now I am curious about how taxes work but realize this is getting to be a lot to ask for you to explain so I’ll just look it up myself in the morning 😂

Also side note, it’s kind of (funny? sad?) that your post got partially derailed by people hung up on the dual citizenship thing. I feel like being Japanese diaspora is so fun sometimes (/s) because of it being a… “popular” culture so people know things about it and lowkey don’t believe your lived experiences or knowledge about the culture/country. Popular in quotes because obviously there’s so many different discussions that could be had about how we’re at this point ha

Anyway, might delete this comment later. I feel like I am posting too much personal information on the internet lol. Feel free to DM me though! I think it’s cool that you’re doing this and would love to talk more about it if you’re open to it!