Love Japan and Want To Move There? 5 Reasons Why You Could Regret Your Decision

Packing your bags for Japan may not be the wisest choice.

Alvin T.
12 min readNov 26, 2021
Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Tower. Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash

Many people are in love with the idea of moving to Japan. It’s the second most popular country, after Canada, for people who want to move overseas.

I can certainly understand why. Culture, food, beautiful scenery, fashion. Japan has them all.

Some people, like Tamara Mitrofanova points out, even want to move to Japan because of anime!

I hope that’s not the reason you want to move to Japan. If you decide to suddenly pack your bags without understanding the pitfalls, it could end up costing you.

In 2016, I moved to Japan.

It was my dream come true. I had prepared many years for this. I had studied Japanese for 10 years, since university. I even studied for a semester in Kyushu.

I was excited to move to Japan, but then I started to discover 5 things I wish I had known before I had made the move.

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Alvin T.

Sociologist-thinker-marketer in Tokyo. Editor of Japonica. Follow to read about life in Japan, modern society, and poignant truths infused with irony.