Why Are You Leaving Japan?

TOKYO GUIDEBOOK takashifromjapan.com/tokyocompleteguide

The hardest part for me, I lived in Japan for 8 years, was that people are not open…they hide their true feelings and you never really know where you stand. Many things in Japan are wonderful, but since human relationships are the most important part of life I think foreigners struggle.

You can feel his pain. That's how I felt when I was there. To have dedicated massive amounts of time to learning the language, to love a country SO much and to love it's people too, but without reciprocation. You'll never be in the club, and always kept at a distance. Almost like there's no point in being enthusiastic or hopeful.

I just recently visited Japan for the first time, staying in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. Every day, westerners gravitated to my wife and I for conversation. Many of them have been living in Japan for 10+ years. The social isolation they feel was obvious.

idk why but the way Takashi ends his interviews so abruptly and walks away, it makes me laugh every time

Japan is incredible to visit, but not good to live in as a foreigner.

As a Japanese, Japan has a lot of closed-minded,dark and cold Japanese people, but Okinawa there are many people who are very friendly, not strict about time, and have their own pace, which is different from mainland Japan. Foreigners are recommended to come to Okinawa !!!!

I loved the sincerity and honest answers of the Korean engineer who was interviewed.

I'm half-japanese and I lived and worked in Japan for 5 years from 2005 to 2010... then I left Japan and went back to Philippines for good because of severe sadness that I felt in the last few months of my stay in Japan. It's so hard to meet someone that you can socialize with consistently.

I have lived here for 8 years, own a house, and have a Japanese wife. There's really two kinds of foreigners who live here: Ones who want to live their life like they did in their home country while still living in Japan, and ones who accept and understand Japanese culture, the do's and don'ts, and find their place within Japanese society. As a gaijin, you will ALWAYS be a gaijin no matter what. So if you can accept this, it honestly becomes very easy to live here. My advice for people who want to move to Japan and want to stay a long time would be one, whatever you do, at all costs, avoid working for a Japanese company as best you can. This is probably one of the hardest things for foreigners to do, as we all need money to survive and getting a job with a company is the easiest way to do that. Starting your own business or working for a close friend/spouses business is the best solution in my opinion. Japanese work culture is probably one of the worst things about Japan, so whatever you do, avoid working at a Japanese company, or if you can't don't stay at one for long and look for a way to support yourself. Second piece of advice would be to live in the countryside. Japanese cities are crowded, busy, and expensive, while the countryside is essentially the opposite. You will also find some of the friendliest and most welcoming people in all of Japan out in the countryside. Again, I've lived here for 8 years, and because I don't work for a Japanese company and I live in the countryside, I could never EVER see myself leaving. I love living here soo much and feel very very lucky to be able to happily live here.

4:35 when she said she doesn't like Japanese guys Takashii ended the interview instantly 😂😂🤣

Just came back from my Japan trip, and fantasizing about living in Japan. This video is a good reality check that traveling vs living are two very different things. Thank you for this video!

I really like how you let everybody speak out what’s on there minds. No interruptions, you are just being polite and creating a nice atmosphere 👍🏼

“What I would not miss? …being a foreigner 😅 “ I felt that.

“Why are you leaving?” “So I can lose this look of impending doom and fear in my eyes” That girl from Korea will do so much better when she goes back home, good luck to her and her new business.

When one of the guy was asked of this question” what do you not miss about japan”, and answered “being a foreigner”, it broke my heart. I’m a Japanese who lived in a foreign country for 7 years. And totally understand how it is to be seen as an outsider. btw, the country I stayed is Malaysia. I learnt their cultures, histories and languages before even moving there. Guess that wasn’t good enough

I could identify with what the Swedish guy said about never being accepted / being treated differently. I speak Japanese fluently (have now been speaking for 25 years) with a pretty natural accent. My wife is Japanese. I'm very familiar and comfortable with culture, customs, etc. I'm submissive, polite, and 空気読める. Nevertheless, I always felt I am considered always as 外人 first and foremost instead of being a human being named Justin. I lived there 2005-2009, so things may have changed a little, but I left Japan in 2009 at the height of severe anxiety for being treated as an alien so much every day. Japanese have a real difficulty in getting past the color of my skin and look of my face as non-Japanese. It's a very serious mental block for Japanese, sadly.

I know a lot of younger japanese people don't want to keep sticking with japan's indirect culture, but if nobody speaks up, nothing is going to change. I understand respecting your elders, but japanese culture takes it to like a feudal level.

Might be unfitting here, but I am an exactly opposite case, being "ethnically" Japanese, having japanese nationality and being born there, but I lived most of my life in Germany. When I am in Japan I often feel as if the Japanese expect me to be "normal", which I can't be (Different culture, customs and so on) so they get confused/weirded out and distance themselves from me. That is the case even though I speak Japanese fluently and without accent, so it isn't a problem of the language, but of things like my body language. I think Japanese people are very strict to fellow japanese and expect one to be 100% conforming to the norm. They do not realize why I cannot fulfill their expectations, and sadly I feel they are not forgiving whatsoever. Also, I never got along with the ambiguous, "never talking about what they think" mindset Japanese have. For the reason that you never know what they think (you are not allowed to speak out what you think) and only showing "friendliness" to hide your true opinion, I feel very uncomfortable around Japanese. I tend to avoid them even though I am technically "one of them", but I always felt isolated. I think it is a nice country if you can fit in the society, but for me, that is sadly not the case. I really like Japan as a visitor, but I just can not get along with the way the society is.

The Korean girl nailed it, if you don't have a clear goal, or a clear picture of what living in Japan actually is then you're gonna have your life drained. The advantage of foreigners is that they have a place to return, the locals don't have much of a choice, or they have a choice but I wouldn't recommend it.