Moving To Japan Sounds Amazing, But Expats Share These 30 Unexpected Downsides

Japan is often seen as a dream destination for its rich culture, delicious food, efficient public transport, and stunning natural beauty. But like any country, living there comes with its challenges, especially for foreigners.

#1

Image source: TootallTim1, Victoria Romulo

I’ve lived in Japan for 12 years (and counting).
Deep relationships are hard to come by. People don’t often ask inquisitive questions for the sake of protecting someone’s privacy. A big negative of that is most relationships are very surface-level. In addition to this, people usually don’t hangout at each other’s houses. All gatherings and meetings must be planned well in advance and things feel more like “events” rather than casual get togethers.

Ultimately the lack of deep connections where you really get to know people is hard. People are so good at putting on an outward face and covering up their true selves.

#2

Image source: Xamesito, Kristin Wilson

Not my story but a schoolfriend of mine who was obsessed with Japan all his life basically achieved his dream and moved over there, married a Japanese woman and got a job with bandai namco. After 10 years he practically fled the country (with his wife) and had almost nothing but bad things to say. He says it’s basically impossible to be truly accepted as a foreigner, the work culture is beyond insane, and the police and government have a frightening level of power. He highly recommends it as a holiday destination. But not to live.

#3

Image source: LandosMustache, Christian Chen

I work with Japanese businesses, and the thing that infuriates me the most:

Nobody will disagree with you in a meeting. Even if you’re wildly wrong and about to make a huge mistake. Even if it’ll wreck their business. Even if it’s an objectively terrible idea.

If you have a meeting coming up with 30 people in it, you need to have AT LEAST 30 1-on-1s ahead of time in order to get everyone’s true thoughts. And you cannot mention any other 1-on-1s: if you say “oh I met with Bob and he said XYZ”, then you’ve missed out on getting any kind of real opinion out of the person you’re meeting with. They will Shut. Down.

*Terrified* of disagreement.

#4

Image source: discoltk, Jon Tyson

Japan doesn’t protect a lot of basic civil rights very well. You can be discriminated against for disabilities in employment and even in healthcare choices. If you end up in a lawsuit, the court is extremely reluctant to make a judgement and will try to force an agreement even when the case should be clearly in favor of one side. If you’re charged with a crime you will be convicted. But, not all crimes are charged, so if you’re the victim of a crime and the police and prosecutor don’t want to take the case to court (for fear of being in the tiny percentage that aren’t convicted), the perpetrator will go free.

#5

Image source: eatsleepdiver, Jezael Melgoza

Japan can do things 3 ways: amazingly well, antiquated or absolutely weird/creepy.

#6

Image source: thebipeds, Curated Lifestyle

My buddy is Vietnamese and grew up in Southern California then moved to Japan for work.

He always felt SoCal was a little racist but it was nothing like Japan.

In Japan, Vietnamese are often uneducated immigrant workers, and are seen as the lowest class. My buddies Japanese wasn’t amazing, it was his third language. And he dressed like a California skater.

He would be refused service at restaurants, not allowed into stores, and called “boat trash”.

He eventually learned to dress in expensive suits and only speak English. Playing up his Americaness.

He still had an old woman ask, “who taught a dummy like you English.” 😅.

#7

Image source: anon, Getty Images

The constant subtle exclusion gets to you after a while. Been here 6 years and still get the wow your chopstick skills are amazing! comments. Like yeah Karen I’ve been eating three meals a day here I think I’ve figured out how to hold two sticks together by now.

#8

Image source: untiedgames, erika m

I lived in rural Japan for a year as an assistant language teacher.

A downside nobody talks about… How about not treating roads / sidewalks in winter? I didn’t have a car, and relied on getting around by bike and on foot. The first time it started melting and refreezing, it was a total s******w. Everything was covered in a half inch of ice. I fell a lot, despite being Minnesotan. When I was in Sapporo one time, I took a taxi and was making small talk with the driver about how the roads were so icy. He assured me it was totally safe, and immediately after that as he tried to stop at a red light he wildly fish-tailed back and forth due to the ice. We both laughed about it!

Seriously though- For a country with so many elderly folks who could easily break a bone in a fall, I don’t understand the logic behind this.

Bonus fun facts: In small towns, folks are much more likely to smile, wave, and say hi. Nearly everyone, including at work, was also very accepting of my forearm tattoo.

#9

Image source: hekatonkhairez, Towfiqu barbhuiya

The salary. Even adjusted for cost of living it’s low. Best year of my life, and I learned a lot, but man was it a pain to budget at times.

#10

Image source: RoxoRoxo, Getty Images

Theres this lady on tiktok that does a video series about what its like being a foreigner in japan, shes a teacher and she had gotten a summer job at one point, apparently they made her apologize for leaving and tried to force her to stay and apparently some companies will try to sabotage your next job. also theres an issue with women living on the first floor of apartment buildings, idk if its regional or not but dryers are not something that she had access to so they hang dry their laundry and the landlord warned her about young men stealing panties from her little patio if she was living on the first floor.

#11

Image source: pang-zorgon, freepik

School kids spend all their time at school and don’t get to spend much time with their dads. My barber in Japan had a young son. Once he was telling me how his son was about to start school and he was having his last camping trip with him. I asked him why he couldn’t do that in school holidays. Apparently, kids go to school for 6 days of the week, and during the holidays they are expected to do school activities. He said his son would be tied up with school stuff until he graduated high school.

#12

Image source: livyori, Wesley Tingey

It is so futuristic in a way but also so behind to anything bureaucratic or anything relating to paperwork.No online system, no chance to go in person, just mail. And GOD FORBID you mail to the wrong person or even the department, they will mail back to do it again with the right addresses. It can be maddening.

#13

Image source: anevergreyforest, Nico Ga-ang

Something that does come up but I feel like most people don’t internalize is just how xenophobic Japanese natives are. As a culture they never really left behind the “We are beacons of civilization and everyone else are barbarians” mindset.

#14

Image source: Gingereej1t

We went on honeymoon a few years ago. When we went to Kyoto, we did a tour of the Geiko quarter with an American who’d lived there for years. Really nice guy, he gave some interesting insight into living in Japan as a foreigner.

Two things stood out: he gets told in a daily basis “you speak such good Japanese” which seems like a compliment until you realise it’s actually a way of Othering. The other thing was homosexuality is treated more as an offence against one’s family, in that “how will you provide the next generation?!?”. Apparently, there’s an element of sure, you can have s*x with other guys, but you better get married to a woman.

#15

Image source: NomenklaturaFTW, Getty Images

People think that Japanese people are so perfectly polite and respectful. Then they learn Japanese. I’ve been in far more confrontations with Japanese people than I have with Americans. Over the stupidest little s**t, mostly. Japanese people, on average, are quite conservative, and they hold themselves and others to extremely high standards.

#16

The big one.  If you weren’t born in Japan and are 100% Japanese, then you will NEVER be accepted.  Foreign worker…   OK.  Foreign military…   OK.  Foreign student…   OK.  Casual traveler…   OK.  You’ll mostly be treated cordially.  But even if you have lived there for decades, speak the language fluently, know all the social nuance, you still will never be accepted as one of their own.  EVER.

Image source: MajorAromatic6226

#17

Image source: pouchey2, 4045

Hanko stamps.

God forbid you ever forget to bring that thing with you when visiting a bank etc.

Japan is either amazingly advanced in the 2090s, or ridiculously outdated and stuck in the 1890s.

Flexibility is not a thing,.

#18

Image source: tunaman808

That in many aspects where the Japanese seem way ahead of other countries it’s because they are comically behind everyone else in some aspect.

Japan did not have the “credit card culture” North America and Europe have, so THAT’S the reason Japanese cell phones got “tap to pay” in the late 90s. Those phones were linked to something like a PayPal account that had to be manually topped-up, in cash, at a convenience store. So not as easy as it looked.

The lack of credit cards also often meant paying in cash. Japanese people wanting first class airline tickets thought nothing of gong to a bank, withdrawing $15,000 in cash, and taking it to the nearest JAL office to buy tickets in person, rather than online.

Faxing may still live on in Japan, and if it’s dead, it’s somewhat recent. It was also common for Japanese bosses to look at every fax that came in, so no making fun of your boss via fax.

I know their IT is generally way behind the US. A few years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see Windows 98 in offices still.

#19

Image source: uiemad, Toàn Nghĩa

Coming here when you aren’t young can leave you with few friend options outside of other foreigners.

People 30+ already have little time for their close friend group and aren’t really looking to add new faces to the group. On top of that, most foreigners don’t stick around long, so Japanese people are hesitant to invest time into building any sort of meaningful friendship with you. So you try to make friends with other foreigners but lo and behold what those Japanese people were afraid of was right and your foreigner friends leave one by one.

If you are not an extremely outgoing person, you can find yourself fairly isolated rather quickly.

#20

Image source: InevitableProud3045, Haoli Chen

I’ve lived in japan for four years, working in a japanese company. Two answers:
1. Timezone is terrible. In summer, it’s light before 4 am and gets dark at 6 pm. The whole country should move the clocks an hour back.

2. Reverse culture shock. When i go back to the UK, I sometimes catch myself thinking my friends and family are self-centered, loud, and can’t “read the air”. By british standards they are absolutely none of these things, but japan’s emphasis on harmony and indirect communication has started rubbing off on me. Worried this could get worse the longer I stay.

#21

Image source: Lebenmonch, Annie Spratt

There’s a ton of inconveniences that are still in place because of a Scooby Doo villain level attack 30 years ago. Some of them are well known (lack of trash cans), but the most annoying one for me is the lack of ventilation in bathrooms. If you sweat any more than a Japanese person, you will ALWAYS come out of the bathroom looking like you just fought a mythical creature.

#22

Image source: Lifeisagreatteacher, Getty Images

I don’t live there, but travelled there on business over the years. I’m male, but the way women are treated as way below men astounded me. It is an extremely sexist society.

As just one example, I was on an elevator with a Japanese male and three Japanese women. When it opened on the main floor, the Japanese male raced off and I stood waiting for the three women, they were so happy and thankful, they probably never had that happen before.

#23

Image source: Charming3-Angel, James Reyes

The dating scene here is rough if you’re a foreign woman. Lots of guys either fetishize you or are intimidated by you. After 3 years I’ve pretty much given up and focused on my career instead.

#24

Image source: BionicGimpster, Dario Brönnimann

I lived in Tokyo for a year. While I was learning Japanese, English is my primary language and I needed a translator for many business interactions.

While my employees mostly spoke English to some degree- very few others do. Taxi drivers, train conductors, some hotel receptionists spoke very little English. I used to have colleagues write out the address to hand to the taxi driver, or hotel reception.

I eventually learned enough Japanese to be polite, but never fluent. I was very happy when my next assignment took me to Singapore- where almost everyone speak English well.

I learned a great deal about how non English speakers must feel trying to navigate the US, where everything, every sign, is only English.

#25

Image source: DeviceMedical6404, Satoshi Hirayama

Getting ghosted by an entire culture when you mess up one tiny social rule.

#26

Image source: Dahns, Marcus Lenk

You need to use transparent trash bags and you need to take them out at 6am. You’re not allowed to take them out the evening before. You’re not allowed to use trash can but disgusting transparent bags. And if you mess that up you’ll need to have the trash bag inside your house waiting for you to get up early

And the schedule is all over the place

Disclaimer : Not all Japan is the same, but it is a known issue.

#27

Image source: Specialist-Neat-9502, Getty Images

The underlying racism. If you speak Japanese as a foreign, that’s great. If you’re mixed race, part of which is Japanese, and speak Japanese that is not cool for some. The Japanese word for someone of mixed Japanese heritage is “half”. Also, the underlying misogyny is pretty outrageous.

#28

Image source: GalletaGirl, Yan Krukau

How judgmental people are. Judging how people dress/how they talk/what they look like. Idc personally but man it’s so lame how much grown adults can’t get out of a high school bully mindset .

#29

Image source: tehgurgefurger, Jakub Żerdzicki

Most landlords won’t rent to foreigners. Most banks won’t give you a credit card. Police can kidnap you for two weeks without having any proven charge and won’t let you contact anyone. Yen has dropped and salaries are stagnant. Glass ceiling for foreigners getting promotions to upper levels.

#30

Image source: -spitz-, Richard Catabay

Medical care here sucks. Long a*s wait and doctors only see you for a little, barely diagnose you, and just give generic or placebo medicine. God forbid you have a serious illness. Feels like you’re a burden to society and looked down upon. Seriously sick or need to see a doctor on the weekend? Too bad, they don’t work on weekends, suck it up or just roll over and die.