{"id":17259,"date":"2023-05-15T18:33:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T01:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17259"},"modified":"2023-06-20T14:59:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T21:59:49","slug":"my-sna-visible-minorities-46-visible-minorities-departing-japan-at-middle-age-may-15-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17259","title":{"rendered":"My SNA Visible Minorities 46: “Visible Minorities: Departing Japan at Middle Age” (May 15, 2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. My latest column offers a frank assessment of living your life out in Japan as an immigrant. It of course can be done, but most of you will find that even after decades swimming against the current in terms of legal status and social acceptance, you will get no commensurate reward after all your efforts. \u00a0In fact, I found that life opportunities dwindle as you age in Japan, and you get locked into a dreary, impoverished lifestyle like most other elderly here. If you think you can avoid this situation, power to you, but I suggest you make your decision to stay permanently or not by age 40. \u00a0Good luck. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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Visible Minorities: Departing Japan at Middle Age<\/strong>
\nMAY 15, 2023 by DEBITO ARUDOU in COLUMN<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2023\/05\/15\/visible-minorities-departing-japan-at-middle-age\/<\/a><\/p>\n

SNA (Tokyo) \u2014 As you have probably have heard, SNA President Michael Penn will be moving his operations overseas. He\u2019s leaving Japan. At his age, that\u2019s probably a good idea. I speak from experience.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I came to Japan during the \u201cBubble Years\u201d of the 1980s, when Japan was ascendant upon the world stage and buying everything in sight. Money orgiastically sloshed around the economy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Finding work was pretty easy. Lots of Japanese companies were trying to \u201cinternationalize\u201d by hiring token foreign staff who were looking for an international experience. Or, if being a corporate drone wasn\u2019t your thing, you could teach English for about US$100 an hour. It was one great big party. I came over, fell in love with the language and a girl, and decided to make a go of it here.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a pretty good go. I lived in Japan for 24 years, married and had kids, became tenured faculty at a university, bought land, built a house, and learned the language and culture well enough to write books in Japanese and take out Japanese citizenship. In terms of trying to assimilate into Japan, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot more I could have done. I was an ideal immigrant.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But then, like Michael, I too left Japan. That\u2019s both a pity and, in my case, an inevitability.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan should be trying harder to keep people like us. It really doesn\u2019t. The longer you\u2019re in Japan, the more your opportunities dwindle.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Opportunities Denied<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s first talk about the natural obstacles to people staying on, starting with how difficult it is to keep a visa.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless you marry (and stay married to) a Japanese, it\u2019s quite difficult for foreigners to control their own professional lives in Japan. Becoming a salaryman is one thing, where you can work until you drop, but promotion is tougher for foreigners, and they are the first ones laid off in any economic downturn. Moreover, the types of jobs you can take are mostly \u201cforeigner\u201d jobs in certain industries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So how about starting your own business in Japan? It can happen, and there are a few successful entrepreneurs. But I\u2019ve seen many, many more failures. Some were dragged down by onerous requirements such as expensive shareholder investment and being forced to hire Japanese staff. Others got tripped up either by mandarin rigmarole that is designed more for the bureaucrats\u2019 convenience than yours, or by pedantic officials who are out to get you, finding any mistake in your paperwork so they can reflexively revert to the \u201cculture of no.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re better off establishing a headquarters overseas and setting up a branch in Japan than registering a company in Japan proper. But if you do that, suspicion is triggered in the Immigration Bureau and you face even more visa rigmarole.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s all before we get to how Japan has toughened up its visa requirements over the years.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Compared to when I first arrived, it\u2019s harder to graduate from a three-month visa to a one-year; and so is getting a three-year and Permanent Residency, especially for people of color or from developing countries. The assumption is that people from poor countries are only in Japan for the money, not to positively contribute to Japanese society as a resident and taxpayer like everyone else.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In any case, the mandarins\u2019 overall attitude is that foreigners must prove themselves worthy of the honor of staying in Japan. Japan\u2019s graveyard of defunct visa statuses, discontinued because they had qualifications so ludicrous that few people applied, reflects that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The clearest indication that Japan really doesn\u2019t want us to stay is the lack of an official immigration policy, an official Ministry of Immigration, or other governmental organs at the national level to help foreigners become Japanese. Politicians have repeatedly said that they want foreigners to come work for awhile but not stay on. Take them at their word.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, You Persisted<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s say you have satisfied all these requirements and gained Permanent Residency or even Japanese citizenship. What do you get for after all that effort? Not enough.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You start realizing this when you hit middle age in Japan. Around 40 I could see where I had been and where I was heading, and it looked pretty bleak.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is because I was seeing how old people actually lived in Japan. Yes, there are great networks for them to be active both physically and mentally, including mountain climbing, gateball, mahjong, or go boardgames. Japan\u2019s medical system is very good, especially compared to, for example, the hellscape that is US healthcare. Of course there\u2019s good food and drink to be had everywhere.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That might be satisfactory if you\u2019re a Japanese old fart. As a foreign old fart, you\u2019re stuck in treadmill conversations with people who have mostly lived for work and often don\u2019t have many interests beyond it. If they are educated, they\u2019ll often see you as a cultural curiosity to be studied, or as a basis of comparison to sharpen their predispositions informed by the \u201cwe Japanese\u201d superiority complexes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you can psychologically handle a life where your friends are mostly insular and conservative, enjoy. If not, you\u2019re going to be lonely.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chances are you\u2019re also going to be poor. The average payout for the Japanese pension, according to Reuters in 2019<\/a>, is about 150,000 yen per month. That might cover rent and leave enough for a comfortable lifestyle in many of Japan\u2019s dying countryside towns, but not in the major cities.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This should not have come as any surprise. Even during the Bubble Years Japan\u2019s elderly were poor, and were being sent overseas to \u201csilver zone\u201d enclaves so their yen could go farther with the exchange rates.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But now that the value of the yen is dropping, that has all slipped away. Forget traveling much, especially overseas, unless you have additional savings or means of your own. It\u2019s highly likely you\u2019ll find yourself stuck in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This situation will not improve, because Japan has ignored its demographic issues for decades. All the way back in 2000, both the United Nations and the Japanese government agreed that Japan\u2019s aging society would soon become top-heavy with geriatrics with not enough young taxpayers paying into the pension.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposed solution\u2013then, as now\u2013was immigration. Foreigners were going to save Japan. But, again, the Japanese government assiduously declined to take us.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Policymakers clung to homogeneous-society narratives and stopgap measures like the exploitative \u201ctrainee\u201d visa system, and watched pension contributions per capita dwindle. What is their solution now that the warnings from nearly a quarter-century ago proved accurate? Raise the retirement age to the late 60s and pay out less pension. We\u2019ll probably see Japan\u2019s retirement age raised to 70 before too long.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time you want to retire, you\u2019ll get a pittance, or might not be expected to retire at all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twilight Years in Japan<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve done better future planning than the Japanese government did, and you can live your middle and late age comfortably anywhere you wish. Why not spend your later middle age and twilight years in Japan?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because, as I said above, the longer you\u2019re in Japan the more your opportunities dwindle.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with dealing with the inevitable \u201cmidlife crisis.\u201d It\u2019s highly likely your current job has become boring or gone sour. Often the younger workers aren\u2019t happy with having a foreign senpai above them, and won\u2019t treat you with the dignity and respect that was required of you when you were lower on the totem pole. Changing a job in Japan is culturally frowned upon. You\u2019ll lose both salary and seniority. You\u2019ll probably have to take what you can get, like everyone else.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually all that\u2019s left is the \u201cmake-work\u201d jobs for seniors. Can you imagine wearing a uniform and flagging people past traffic cones? Sure, it\u2019s nice to supplement your income and get out of the house, but it\u2019s probably going to be boring at best, humiliating and a soft target for bullying at worst. Again, people aren\u2019t going to forget that you\u2019re a foreigner.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact is that geriatrics in Japan are expected to be impoverished, housebound, and satisfied with monotonous days full of television, drinking, and gateball. Sure, you might have your \u201cforever home,\u201d but you\u2019re expected to die in it. You won\u2019t get much money if you try to resell your house or other equity and expect to live on the proceeds, as only the land is worth anything. You can\u2019t, for example, buy an RV and live the nomadic life of retirees on pensions in Western societies. You can only live like you\u2019re expected to live.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, I couldn\u2019t take this encroaching monotony. Around the time I turned 45, I realized that the main reason I had loved life in Japan was the adventures\u2013the curious and weird things that happened around me daily. But the more familiar I became with Japan, the adventures largely evaporated.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After more than twenty years in Japan, every day became Groundhog Day. I could sleepwalk through most conversations. I had to find diversions to alleviate the boredom; they no longer found me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact is, unless a brick had fallen from the sky and brained me, I could predict what was going to happen from the morning when I woke up to the moment I went to bed. So I decided to leave.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What Happens If You Leave Japan?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Leaving Japan is also made into something difficult. You\u2019re constantly reminded that if you ever depart for good, you\u2019ll lose everything and have to start from zero, especially professionally.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A very sad discovery is that your Japan experiences don\u2019t count for much in other countries, given that now China is the Asian regional power. Even if Japan had retained its luster, there were always people overseas with Japanese roots competing for your Japan-specialist job, and got it by arguing bald-facedly that foreigners can\u2019t know as much as Japanese with \u201creal Japanese blood.\u201d The Japanese Only attitudes you see in Japan\u2019s hiring practices are exported worldwide.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have a family in tow, it\u2019s even tougher to leave. They\u2019re especially scared by the Japanese media constantly rattling on about how dangerous life is overseas. If your kids are still in the Japanese school system, they\u2019ll begrudge being uprooted too. They know that if they ever return to Japan, they\u2019ll never be considered \u201cJapanese\u201d enough because they haven\u2019t passed through the Japanese education system.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming to Japan was always a carefully baited hook\u2013if you get past all the obstacles, you\u2019ll find yourself trapped in a society where you\u2019re not allowed to truly belong, yet are constantly expected to try.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet some people do leave, sometimes permanently, sometimes not.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

People like Japan specialists Alex Kerr and Donald Keene regularly split their time between Japan and overseas. Authors Haruki Murakami lives permanently in Honolulu and Marie \u201cspark joy\u201d Kondo lives in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even famed Tale of Genji translator Edward G. Seidensticker departed Japan back in 1962, signing off with, \u201cThe Japanese are just like other people. They work hard to support their\u2013but no. They are not like other people. They are infinitely more clannish, insular, parochial, and one owes it to one\u2019s sense of self-respect to retain a feeling of outrage at the insularity. To have this sense of outrage go dull is to lose one\u2019s will to communicate and that, I think, is death. So I am going home.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Eventually Seidensticker went back on these words, living his life on both sides of the Pacific, dying in Tokyo in 2007 at age 86.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I too spend extended periods in Japan and am much happier (and prosperous) by having a foot in two countries. I can pick and choose the best of both societies when I want, and I think I\u2019ve earned that option.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But I had to make a choice: I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do that with Japan as my home base. Having a \u201ctotalization agreement\u201d for both my pension systems helps too. I\u2019m having to catch up with my pension contributions in my new tax home, but fortunately the opportunities are here for me to do so.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re thinking about staying in Japan permanently, I suggest you make the final decision by age 40. After that, you\u2019ll be stuck in a rut in Japan. Then if you change your mind, you\u2019re probably not going to make an easy transition back to your home country, as your friends and family themselves retire and die off. Fair warning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Godspeed, Michael Penn. May you and SNA prosper more in another society than Japan would let you.<\/em><\/strong> ENDS<\/p>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest column offers a frank assessment of living your life out in Japan as an immigrant. It of course can be done, but most of you will find that even after decades swimming against the current in terms of legal status and social acceptance, you will get no commensurate reward after all your efforts. \u00a0In fact, I found that life opportunities dwindle as you age in Japan, and you get locked into a dreary, impoverished lifestyle like most other elderly here. If you think you can avoid this situation, power to you, but I suggest you make your decision to stay permanently or not by age 40. \u00a0Good luck:<\/p>\n

Excerpt: I lived in Japan for 24 years, married and had kids, became tenured faculty at a university, bought land, built a house, and learned the language and culture well enough to write books in Japanese and take out Japanese citizenship. In terms of trying to assimilate into Japan, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a lot more I could have done. I was an ideal immigrant. But then, like Michael Penn at the Shingetsu News Agency, I too left Japan. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s both a pity and, in my case, an inevitability. Japan should be trying harder to keep people like us. It really doesn\u2019t. The longer you\u2019re in Japan, the more your opportunities dwindle. Let\u2019s first talk about the natural obstacles to people staying on, starting with how difficult it is to keep a visa…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,18,43,36,22,44,34,12,4,16,56,46,11,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-discussions","category-exclusionism","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-labor-issues","category-nj-legacies","category-practical-advice","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17259"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17265,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17259\/revisions\/17265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}