The Monday Read: Life is Good

12 Responses

1. #7 The overpopulation of Japan is a problem. But short-term problems for long-term solutions.
   #11 Anyone who has been teaching here more than a year should open their own school. If they don’t, they only have themselves to blame.

2. That article on saving as an Empty Nester, really detailed and informative!! Thank you for sharing. (We are in that situation now, trying to find a way to cut expenses, pay off debts, save a bit more, invest, find a 2nd job or side hustle.) Also, I’m glad Sapporo isn’t going to try to host the Winter Olympics. It’s a burden.

3. “I’m curious how this was the best job Mitchell Brown could find”

   I mean the ALT market is pretty brutal. I had to do a Masters to enter Uni teaching to get a decent salary in the world of English education. However, that took time and resources. Although higher paying, it’s mostly one year contracts.

   I can easily see how someone would end up stuck in a gig post marriage/child.

   1. Sure, but Gaba at 1200 yen a lesson classed as a contractor with no guaranteed hours has got to be the worst of the worst. The last few years have seen teacher shortages and both ALT and eikaiwa jobs were pretty much a sellers market. Maybe he liked the flexibility?

      It should have been easy to find a better ALT or eikaiwa job, especially over the last couple of years.

      1. Hmmm are you familiar with how much salaries have degraded?

         https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/16zda1e/comment/k3e2rvh/

         I think the take here should be on how predictable this outcome was (on regard DTP the tax reform), and how the industry is currently racing to the bottom in terms of salary.

         1. I don’t understand how Gaba gets away with claiming its teachers are independent contractors, that is for sure.

            But for someone with a Japanese spouse and a child who has presumably been here for more than a year, I would expect them to have bettter options: https://www.ohayosensei.com/current-edition.html

            My wife’s school starts new teachers on 280,000 yen a month and has annual increases and a bonus from the 2nd year. If you are an experienced teacher with a spouse visa it should be fairly easy to find better options. Even finding your own students in person or online would allow you to make multiples of the Gaba rate.

4. On 6 in regards dual nationality would not agree with this for sure. For someone in Japan, can they just not give up their non Japanese bationality and keep their foreign passport… How can they even check it. Or they require you to submit documents here proving you have given up your foreign nationality?

   1. There are a number of ways the government can become aware of someone having two nationalities. The difference is what happens at that point.

      If you were born with two nationalities, the Japanese government currently turns a blind eye. If you acquired one voluntarily, they cancel your Japanese nationality unless you give up the other one.

      Lots more info on naturalising here: https://www.turning-japanese.info/p/intro.html

      1. Thanks! Ben for the info and link

5. The empty nester article was interesting and it is good to see an article that addresses the reality that many families can’t save (as much) for retirement while raising kids. A different take would be to look at families who have children later (becoming more the norm among college educated couples in many countries and I think the age is increasing in Japan too). In my case I’ll be around retirement age by the time our child graduates high school. Families who have kids later have hopefully had a chance to build a decent amount of savings and investments that will continue to grow even with smaller (or no) contributions while they are raising children.

   1. It is interesting. I had kids very early (acquired my stepkids in my 20s), so we had peak expenses in my thirties and they became independent by the time I was 40 or so (so we were able to put our saving/investing through the roof at that point).

      I guess the main message is that you can make various lifestyles work for you if you work around them: have kids early, save later, have kids late, save earlier.

      The only thing you can’t do is fail to save early then have kids late. You’d struggle to make that work I think 😉

   2. We started late with marriage and kids. For our first kid, I was 37, wife 31. And we had our second four years later. That one graduated uni the same month that I retired. My wife retired a few years later (a couple years before the compulsory time).

      We didn’t start with much in savings, but the positives were that we were both uni profs all the way thru, not in a big city (just a prefectural capital), cheap old house, and the kids went to local schools and then national uni.

      We’re not rich, but certainly comfortable. Two pensions, savings/investments (but separate health insurance bills for each of us)–I don’t work at all, but my wife tutors a little online (not necessary, but it’s her nature to stay busy). Some travel now and then (we’re flying to Yakushima next week), but nothing like extensive euro touring or cruises. Still two cars, as always.

      So we’re probably outliers, but starting late with only a little savings to start with still worked.