What is it like?

[u/Lina0116]

So, I'm a producer and project manager for advertisement and e-commerce. Been in this industry for almost 10 years. I do have a BA.

Been living all over the world for the past 13 years, and relatively recently I settled in the Netherlands. This past year my industry hasn't been doing great and have meen having a hard time in general when suddenly the travel bug hit me again. The same one that had made me move and live in different countries; and for some reason this time it got it's sights in Japan.

So, lately I've been thinking about life, my career, what I want to do... I don't even know where I'm going or if I should keep on doing whar I'm doing so I wanted to learn of other people's perspectives.

What got you into Japan? What was the thing that made you say "this is the place I want to be at"? Did you move with the career you already have or did you flipped your life completely to do something completely new? I've seen some people say that they left everything and moved to Japan without a concrete plan or to start from scratch but I'm sceptical about that, I don't really think that's possible, unless specific conditions are met? Maybe I'm wrong?

How did you do that? How hard was it? Did you already speak Japanese or did you learn it there?

I'm married, my husband is a barista, so what I was thinking is that probably I would have to find a job and get him on a spousal visa? Maybe not and it would be easier for him to get a job? Maybe there are other ways? We're both European, btw, I know a lot of the times nationality matters to make things easier or harder.

I would really like to try living there at least a year, really immerse myself in general. See what it's really like. I like being able to say that I lived in X or Y country, especially when I bump into people from those places in another country. I love the experience of being somewhere else.

Anything you can tell me about your experiences and what you know would be amazing!

Just a note before anyone comes at me (because I've seen it happen a lot whenever someone says that they want to move to another country) I am not actively trying to move at this precise moment, I'm currently not taking any steps towards it or started any processes yet. It's something that came to mind, I started pondering it and thought maybe... therefore I decided to ask those who have been able to do it. I don't like just jumping at something without an actual plan behind it, otherwise it's just a recipe for disaster.

[u/dalkyr82]

Before you dive too deep into the "should I move to Japan?" rabbit hole, you should probably take a step back and ask a more important question: "Can I move to Japan?"

You don't want to fix your sights on making the move, getting your hopes up, and making it a life goal only for the whole thing to come tumbling down due to things like job availability or language requirements.

And "language requirements" is going to be a big thing in your particular field. English (and other language) penetration is very low in Japan. The vast majority of Japanese people unsurprisingly speak exclusively Japanese. That means that working in Japan-targeted advertising requires high levels of Japanese fluency. It would also require extensive experience with Japanese advertising styles, which are... Unique.

It's a hard industry for foreigners to break into.

If your main goal is just to live in the country for a short while your best bet is the Working Holiday visa, assuming you're A) 30 or younger and B) from a country that has a WHV agreement with Japan.