The Monday Read: Mission Accomplished

Finishing a big job

spring in Japan is wonderful in some ways, but in others… not so wonderful

We finished the latest cohort of our flagship course, Your First Ten Million Yen, today. Had a wonderful group of participants and the new flipped format of the course was really enjoyable to teach. I can’t believe it is over.

(sign up for news about the next one here)

I need to start the next project, but before that…

RetireJapan TV

Today we’ll be talking to Philip Brasor, a Japan-based journalist and write who you might know from his blog Cat Foreheads and Rabbit Hutches, his articles on Japanese social issues and politics, or his film reviews.

I’ve been a huge fan for years now, so really looking forward to this! Join us live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn from 20:00 on Monday, March 18th.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We are growing quite strongly this year, and it is largely down to your help and support. We are currently at 4,354 subscribers, which is pretty incredible.

This week we published a video about me losing my job (twice!) in Japan.

Have you been through something that felt terrible at the time but was actually a good thing in hindsight?

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (34,025 posts so far). Excitingly, we now have over 2,000 registered members (2,118 currently). The forum rules are here. In essense, they are:

  1. Be nice
  2. Ask any question you like
  3. Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience

Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I read a couple of novels this week: The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters , and Swan Song, by Robert R. McCammon. The former has an interesting setting and an appealing protagonist, but didn’t strike me as anything special. Perfectly fine read, but I didn’t bother buying the sequels. The latter is an apocalypse novel that really reminds of the Stephen King’s The Stand so far (I’m about 15% of the way through)…

This week’s links

  1. Not sure if this story is utopian or dystopian: AI gives the news you need
  2. From time to time I remind myself that I am not very smart about money: The Dumber Side of Smart People
  3. Not sure why I watched this, but I enjoyed it and learned some things (YouTube): How to Cook the Perfect Steak | Chef Jean-Pierre
  4. Japan is an extremely safe place for me: Reported Crime in Japan Rises to Near Pre-Pandemic Level in 2023
  5. Would love to see positive change here: Opinion: Japan must reform its refugee and immigration system to avoid further tragedies
  6. Nice notes from Ben Carlson (A Wealth of Common Sense): 20 Lessons From 20 Years of Managing Money
  7. I need to do this! How I Learned to Concentrate
  8. Good, as long as it trickles down to smaller companies too: Major Japanese firms offering solid pay hikes for second year running
  9. However: Shunto: Why 4-5% Headline Wage Hike Really Means 2-3%
  10. A friend of mine did this: rented a jiko bukken on purpose and got a really cheap rent. Haunted Bargains: How You Can Uncover Japan’s Discounted Homes with a Dark Past
  11. As long as it is understandable English, multi-lingual options would be nice: Foreigners living in Japan face language barrier in filing taxes
  12. This is one of the worst I have seen: can’t prove the case so just keep her locked up for two years. Will she get meaningful compensation? What would two years of being tortured be worth to you? Japan court acquits Filipino woman of drug dealing, use; cites translation error
  13. This is an appalingly badly written and researched article: ‘I tried the Fire method to retire early – my advice is don’t bother’
  14. They quoted some idiot in this article: Japan’s bid to cancel residency of foreigners who dodge taxes stirs unease
  15. Quite timely for me: Retirement Planning in your 20s, 30s and 40s
  16. Seems to be getting slowly better in Sendai too: 55% of car drivers in Japan don’t stop for pedestrians at crosswalks: survey
  17. Interesting: How Much Change When BOJ Eventually Tweaks? Part 1

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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8 Responses

  1. “Would you give up your social life and embrace extreme frugality in exchange for an early retirement?” Could tell from this first line that #13 was going to be awful! Becoming FI is not all about extreme frugality at all. I mean, it can be if you want, but for most there is a sensible balance.

    1. Exactly! And last I heard, it’s optional. There’s no membership dues to pay, no tithes to give, no management fees, etc. It’s a concept that’s defined by each individual. I also notice people equate the concept with not working. That’s not the point for most that I can see. It’s to be financially independent.

      Seemed silly the drama of missing out on a stag event in Vegas. At this person’s age, the ability to overcome an unexpected financial event could be mitigated…unless stag events run are something like I see in The Hangover with Mike Tyson and tigers, etc.

  2. My worry about the revocation of permanent residence status is that behind it is an attitude that the Japanese government feels that “too many” of us are getting PR and as the number of people eligible for PR increases, they are looking for ways to deny it or revoke more, to slow down the increase of those of us who are permanent. I have previously heard rumours that PR may be refused to applicants for reasons like getting a parking ticket, because this proves that you are not a law-abiding citizen, with the rationale again being to make the filtering of applicants stricter as the long term resident demographic increases. I am afraid that those in the Ministry of Justice will look at the growing number of PR holders, and gradually increase the number of pretexts for revoking it. The result is all of us feeling more precarious, whatever the “if you haven’t broken the law you have nothing to be afraid of” brigade.

    For me, becoming permanent was huge, meaning I could breathe a sigh of relief, and feel like I could choose my job, not be chained to it, buy property if I wanted, speak up as a member of the society … many things. The unease of “what if they move the goalposts again?” is once again making life in Japan feel precarious and uncertain. I wonder if anyone else feels the same?

  3. Btw, my comment above referred both to applying for PR and being refused, as well as the current discussion about it being revoked. I don’t mean they might revoke your PR for getting a parking ticket. But thinking about everyday life, this feeling of precariousness can seep into everyday interactions. A couple of weeks ago, my legally parked car was hit by a taxi. 100% the taxi driver’s fault. But when the police contacted me, I did get treated with suspicion, even though I was 100% the victim. I think this feeling of precarity can creep into everything once revocation of PR starts to increase.

  4. I agree with Ben on the PR revocation issue. Evading taxes is a crime any resident can be guilty of thus punishments should be the same – no need to single out foreigners for special additional punishments. Also PR can be revoked for almost any reason anyway so it is pointless grandstanding that just promotes the myth that foreigners are gaming the system when it is manifestly untrue.

    1. Diane,

      Thanks for the links and all the potential armchair reading/traveling–I’ve only just started with it, but you are obviously a wonderful resource! Thanks!