Top 5 Challenges I Faced as an Expat in Japan - TSD Life in Tokyo

Hello everyone!

It’s been a long time since I’ve shared anything on this blog and it has a lot to do with what was going on in my personal life as I was visiting India for about 6 months due to medical treatment.

However, I’m finally back in Japan and have decided to document my life and experiences here in a new series.TSD Life in Tokyo‘. And as I thought about what the first topic I would write about might be, the challenges I faced when I first moved to Japan seemed like a good starting point.

I moved to Japan with my husband almost 2 years ago, and I haven’t been here for most of this year. It certainly didn’t help that we moved here right before the pandemic hit the world, which, while it didn’t affect our move, it did affect our lives here in many ways, especially since we spent a lot of time indoors and didn’t have the opportunity to travel much within Japan.

But hey, traveling domestically is not one of the first challenges you might face if you are new to Japan. Although Japan is a fascinating country with unmissable tourist attractions and natural beauty, you may encounter many culture clashes and unpredictable situations that will make settling in this country a little difficult.

While I could probably spend a day talking about the challenges I faced when I first arrived in Japan, here are five main challenges that I think you might also face when you first move to Japan:

When I told my Chinese colleagues on Tiktok that I was moving to Tokyo, they warned me that I would face many language problems during my stay here. I had been to China before and had a hard time navigating the country without knowing the local language.

But about Tokyo I always had the impression that, being one of the largest cosmopolitan cities in the world, it will definitely have a majority English-speaking population… well, I was very wrong.

During our first month in Tokyo, we stayed in a hotel suite and wandered around only our hotel in Roppongi, which is a popular tourist destination among foreigners. Therefore, we did not encounter any difficulties when shopping or going to restaurants, as most of these places had one or two employees who spoke English.

The main struggle began when we moved into our apartment and started going out for leisure, shopping and activities of daily living. Very few supermarkets, cafes or shops had staff who spoke English and we mostly had to rely on Google Translate to get the job done. That’s when I realized that if one has to survive in this city, one needs to understand Japanese on some level.

Although I have been taking Japanese lessons on and off, I still cannot maintain a fluent conversation in the language. However, the good thing is that locals who cannot understand your language will try to help you in the best way possible through their bad English, gestures or by using a translation tool.

If you are also planning to move to Japan, I highly recommend learning Japanese through these free language apps and taking physical classes once you are here, so you can overcome this language barrier. Also, always have Google Translate handy when you’re out shopping or running errands.

When we moved to Japan, my husband’s company was kind enough to immediately put us in touch with an English-speaking agent who showed us two apartments in the first week of our move and we chose the one without a second thought (also because she firmly stated that we wouldn’t find a better apartment than that one).

But I was quite surprised at how small the rooms were compared to the spacious houses and apartments we were used to seeing and staying in India.

Apartments (known locally as ‘apato’ or ‘mansions’) in Japan are abbreviated as 1R/1LDK/1DK, where the ‘digit’ refers to the number of bedrooms in the apartment and the ‘alphabet’ refers to the type of room (e.g. L- living room, D- dining room, K- kitchen).

These apartments can vary in size from as little as 25 square meters. up to more than 100 square meters (which would have a crazy price). But finding an apartment that has modern interiors, is located in an expat-friendly area and is not exorbitantly priced could be a difficult task to achieve. That’s not all, the initial fees involved in booking an apartment can really burn a hole in your pocket as they would normally include booking fee + deposit + key money + service fee (and not forgetting a lot of paperwork).

Fortunately, there are many real estate agents like KEN Corp, Resident First, etc. who provide support in English and can help you find a house that meets your expectations.

Opening a bank account in Japan not only involved a lot of paperwork, but I also found the process to be quite skewed. As a foreigner, you are required to present documents such as a resident card, a Japanese health insurance card, and a business card or proof of employment to open an account at any of Japan’s major banks.

If this were not all, some banks also require that you have completed at least 6 months of stay in Japan before applying. And since I didn’t work full time, I had to wait six months to finally be able to open a bank account at Sony Bank, which is one of the few banks in Japan that accepts foreigners.

This definitely made things very difficult for me, as I was unable to make any online transactions or register for projects that specifically wanted me to have a Japanese bank card within the first six months of my stay.

Find job opportunities

I had decided to leave my full-time job at Tiktok before moving to Japan, and since our move was last minute (we moved within 3-4 weeks of receiving our visa), I didn’t have enough time to look for job opportunities before coming here.

What I wasn’t prepared for was that finding a job or even part-time job opportunities would be very difficult here, especially considering I had no knowledge of the Japanese language. While there are many open positions here for roles like English teachers and engineers that don’t require knowledge of Japanese, most other jobs have a strong requirement for native or near-native Japanese skills.

Since most of my work experience revolved around content and social media, I couldn’t apply for any positions because I had no knowledge of the local culture or language. This made my first few months here really difficult, as I often felt lost and dejected and didn’t know what step to take in my career.

When I finally got some motivation, I decided to pursue freelance writing and successfully landed writing jobs on websites like Weekend in Tokyo, Tokyo night owland more. While I’m glad that my blogging background and work experience have helped me find these opportunities, I would still recommend that you look for a suitable job or at least research the job market before moving, so that you don’t feel lost and bewildered once you’ve moved here.

Finding friends in a foreign country, where the local language is not even spoken, is a daunting task. It took me a long time to get used to the fact that I no longer had my friends and colleagues (who made me feel more comfortable) around me.

Feeling too shy to approach locals for fear of not being able to communicate with them, I reached out to some expat groups on Facebook so I could connect with like-minded people. But I think making friends is easier when you are a child, since once you are an adult you need people who share the same vibe and who do not disturb your inner peace.

It took me about a year to find some people I could trust, but they are definitely the closest people I have in my life right now and I’m glad I found them along the way.

So if you are also having a hard time making friends in this country, I would say give it some time: join a club or group of your liking and you will definitely meet like-minded people sooner or later.

Until then, be sure to stay in touch with your old friends. After all, if Covid has taught us one thing it’s that distance doesn’t matter when it comes to strong, healthy friendships, and how important it is to maintain them.