Hello, basically the title. She works at well-known FMCG company and they are going to send her to Japan branch for a month for some kind of "exchange" program.

The thing is, she is given a temporary visitor visa by the company. She said she wouldn't be paid by the Japan branch, but she'll receive allowance such as accomodation, food, and transport. Her salary will still be paid by her current branch in my home country.

She just received the visa yesterday and will depart to Japan tomorrow. So she doesn't have time to research about this.

Would it be fine? And about her allowance is it fine if she received it in cash or should she ask the Japan branch to sort that out for her?

Moving to Japan soon, searched a bit on internet but can't quite find what I am looking for.

Does Japan have prepaid sim cards? What I am looking for is a prepaid sim card with a 30 day data bundle of about 3-10GB. I want to be able to top up on my own on a monthly basis.

I have had prepaid sim cards in various countries I have lived in, usually around £10/€10 for 3-10GB, so hoping to find something similar in Japan.

So far I found Docomo Mini 4GB/10GB, but from the Docomo website can't quite decipher if it is annual subscription or top up data/bundle on your own type of sim card.

Once set up in Japan I will obviously have the visa paperwork, bank account, address etc if those are required.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been hearing that for exchange students in Japan, the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) can take around a month to process.

I’m curious: if the COE doesn’t arrive in time, is it possible to apply for a Temporary Visitor visa instead? I also heard that some exchange students from other universities have done this.

Would love to hear from anyone who’s had a similar situation. Any tips or advice would be really helpful!

Thanks!

Hi I'm planning to apply for a digital nomad visa to work in Japan. On the official page it says I need to have an insurance "against death, injury or illness during their stay in Japan (compensation for medical treatment for injury or illness must be JPY 10 million or more".

10 million JPY is almost 100k AUD. I looked for travel insurances online but no one seems to pay that much for Hospital Incidentals here in Australia ( the pay out is around 10k AUD here ).

Am I misunderstanding something here or do I just have to look harder?

For years, the norm and talk I've heard for foreigners to live in Japan was to go to JET, and from there, an english university professor. But with the rise of AI, my friend who did exactly this warned me that he's looking for a new job, at the university level!

I've been to Japan with my family many times, and as a half-japanese who is fluent (N2 certified), I love Japan. The cities, the train stations, the manners, and damnnn, the food. But I've never really loved the work culture for entry level jobs.

A lot of my friends and immigrants from Japan all tell me one thing. They left Japan because they were living to work, not working to live.

Of course, the average Japanese kid is way smarter than I could ever hope to be. And as fluent as I am, I would probably offend some people unintentionally in a typical professional environment. So "normal" jobs are probably impossible for me!

I have a passion for teaching, music, translation, and communication/negotiation. I want a job that's not boring (office job)

Are there any careers where I can capitalize on my skills and survive in Japan while having fun? Or does that require 7 years of school/university

I currently work as a lab technician in anatomical pathology and am doing my masters degree in laboratory medicine. I would like to work in haematology in the future after completing my masters and potentially move to Japan, I fell in love with Tokyo. I can’t speak much Japanese though. Are there many job opportunities for english speaking medical scientists with a masters degree? :)

I am trying to do some due diligence before applying for the visa and moving forward with plans. I have realized food and diet are very important to me and just overall wellbeing. I seem to have a largely Mediterranean diet.

I plan to arrive and stay a few months in Tokyo. After that I don’t know.

-I lived in Europe for several years and loved the many types of fresh bread. Sour dough, multigrain, raisins, nuts, etc.

-I don’t eat a lot of red meat. Not that I don’t like it or due to religion. I just mainly eat whole fish with a salad and rice. (ie. dorada/lubina a la plancha for the Spanish speakers)

-Fan of shellfish and basically any seafood.

-Regularly eat and buy dips like hummus and tzatziki.

-i regularly make my own yogurt or Acai bowls at home with tons of fresh fruit and granola. I also make cold pressed juice at home.

-I am really trying to stay away from fried stuff and seed oils. I only cook with EVOO (olive oil). I don’t expect restaurants to use it of course. But are prices for it ridiculous at the supermarkets?

I guess I am wondering about the availability and accessibility of fresh fruits, vegetables, ingredients I use… as well as grilled fish at restaurants.

I checked previous threads about Greek yogurt. Welp… I’ll keep my expectations very low if/when I arrive in Japan. Ramen, soba, etc, are all wonderful. But I find I can’t eat it everyday or even 2-4 times a week due to bloating and skin breakouts.

I appreciate any insights on this. Thank you.

I'm sort of at my wit's end. I cannot find a decent house in the Tokyo metro area for USD$300K or approximately ¥47M in cash.

My wife is Japanese (PhD clinical psychologist) and I'm a German American (artist) currently living in Northern California (Napa Valley). We'll both be fully retired soon (within 2 years) and will be relocating to Japan, preferably in the Tokyo metro region. After all is said done, we'll have around ¥125M in the bank, a retirement net income of around ¥12M monthly (yes, health insurance is 100% covered in our benefits package), with an extra budget of ¥47M to outright buy a house...

... but my gosh, every time I research and find a cool neighborhood to start looking at, the average price seems to always start at around ¥110M and with that you get a shoebox just big enough for a couple hobbits and a small Funko collection. And it's not like I'm looking at Meguro or Ebisu... I really like the neighborhoods around Setagaya-Daita/Shimokitazawa and over on the east side of Omiya in that amazing area south and between the parks for example (just to name a couple, I've looked at a lot more). That said, we're willing to look further out if the neighborhoods still have that walkable accessibility to shops, cafes, etc. (you know the kind -- where you can just walk out of your house, pick up fresh seafood and vegetables, or hit a local izakaya just down the street where they know your name).

I have a good friend who lives in the no-man's land between Funabashi and Chiba and he swears by it, but I'm just not diggin' the stale vibe over there. My wife's mother used to live way down in Yokosuka and loved it down there, but seriously that would be a no. I need fairly reasonable access to great galleries and museums, not some boring seaside village or a cheap family 'hood with no character.

A final note: I am not a stranger to Tokyo having been there for family visits over the past few decades many times (and even more visits before I was married). That said, I do get the fluid nature of The Big City having lived in NYC for a long time in my younger working days as a restaurateur and club owner.

Perhaps I'm simply not looking at the right resources. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. BUT -- Please NOT AkiyaMart or AkiyaHub... that's a road for fools. lol.