Really wanna live in Japan

[Nick050]

Heey all,

I really want to live in Japan, but I want to know if things gonna be okay.
I'm Dutch and right now my study is in the IT (Computer education) at level 3. After this year I can graduate and my plan was doing the Police education, getting lots of money and then buy a house there, but I dont know if thats gonna be a good idea.

So I was thinking and my next plan was:
After I graduated from level 3 I wanted to study for level 4 (the highest) and after that I can to go a higher school for more specific education and then study Asian Trade Management.

Im studying Japanese right now so thats shouldn't be a problem.

And I heard Japanese people spending there holidays here in the Netherlands. I already know some places but do people here know what time of the year they come, I would love to talk to some Japanese people.

Thank you for reading, any question's please post.

- Nick

PS. The school system in the Netherlands is really hard to explain. Because English people dont have this system, I tried my best to explain it, if it still doesnt make sense to you, I will try to explain better.

[larabell]

Originally Posted by Nick050

I really want to live in Japan, but I want to know if things gonna be okay...

If you're studying Japanese now, and assuming you achieve a working fluency by the time you graduate, your best bet would be to find a job in your home country working for a company that has a presence in Japan. Then you can probably get that company to send you over here on assignment. Further study in an Asian-related field, especially Marketing or Trade would seem to make that route even easier.

It's difficult (but not impossible) to get hired directly by a Japanese company. You'd have to speak Japanese like a native and, even then, many companies don't want to hassle with the visa requirements. That said, however, being in the IT industry (and I assume that means Information Technology -- as in computers) does increase your chances somewhat.

As for making a ton of money and buying a house -- that's possible but you'd better plan on paying cash because Japanese banks usually require a permanent visa before they will loan you money for a house.

[synthia]

Also, an actual house may be totally out of reach in the cities, where the IT work will be. You aren't going to be buying a house in Manhattan unless you are very rich, and the same is true of Tokyo. In the smaller cities, actual houses are much more common. In KitaKyushu, many of my students' families lived in houses. In Tokyo, I knew only two people with houses rather than apartments.

[larabell]

Again... that's going to depend on *where* in Tokyo. I'm only a brisk 45 minute walk outside the Yamanote loop and I'd say about a third of the locals I hang out with on occasion live in a house. In my area (and others, I assume) when someone moves out of an older house a developer will often buy the place, split the land in two or three smaller plots, and build thin vertical houses. One of my best karaoke buddies lives in one of these vertical houses and it's pretty nice -- if you're not averse to stairs (his place is very thin but 3 stories high).

If you're talking Roppongi again... sure, you'd have to be Dave Spector to afford one. But there are plenty of areas around Tokyo that are primarily single-family houses so someone must be able to afford them. Of course, the native Japanese can get loans which is almost impossible for an ex-pat living here on a non-permanent visa. So the OP would have to live here for at least 10 years -- and an unmarried, motivated IT worker could certainly amass a decent down payment in the course of 10 years. (Of course, the original post made it sound a bit more urgent, which I agree is probably not all that feasible.)

BTW, in my area, new homes (the thin kind) list for anywhere between 300K and 500K US dollars, depending on whether you get any land to speak of. I'm sure some places go for more. But the question is whether one can or cannot buy *a* house, not necessarily the largest one in town.

[Shouganai]

Originally Posted by Nick050

Heey all, I really want to live in Japan, but I want to know if things gonna be okay. I'm Dutch and right now my study is in the IT (Computer education) at level.

Nick, I recommend buying foreclosed property - its 5-50% cheaper than market prices depending on where you buy, and it makes a good investment. For instance, I bought a dormitory in west Saitama (Hanno), one hour from Ikebukuro, 7km from the station for Y2.8mil ($US32,000). Very cheap. I got a 5-bedroom dorm on 280m2 of land, at the head of a scenic valley, 800m from a canaoeable river, great for bike riding up valley, close to shops, bars, and just 1hr from Tokyo. Tokorazawa is half that distance - its a large centre too.
There is a huge number of foreclosed properties for sale, and they get as cheap as Y1mil in rural areas...if you can work from there. I bought mine on a tourist visa, but I did already have a bank account there, having lived there.