So who's actually retired in Japan?

[SARS]

On this board?

Lots of good advice on how to retire in Japan, finances, property etc. but how about the non-material, how do people find these?

For example, lack of family close by, transient international community, age-related health issues (e.g. cognitive decline), and dealing with all of these things in a country where the spoken language isn't your first language.

I'm interested to hear retired peoples experiences.

For me the problem with retiring in Japan isn't financial, it's more a case of do I actually want to be here when I'm 80yr old and falling apart.

[goodandbadjapan]

Very good topic! I am not yet retired and hope I still have a few decades before the health worries really kick in, but my wife and I have no kids and so the late stages of life do worry me a bit. There is really nobody here who could take care of us in our dotage. If I were left alone and still had remaining family in the UK I suppose I could move back there. It would be nice if there could be a nice supportive group of non-transient oldies in Japan to help each other by the time we reach that age. Maybe this board will be the start of such a thing!

[Beaglehound]

Very good topic! I am not yet retired and hope I still have a few decades before the health worries really kick in, but my wife and I have no kids and so the late stages of life do worry me a bit. There is really nobody here who could take care of us in our dotage. If I were left alone and still had remaining family in the UK I suppose I could move back there. It would be nice if there could be a nice supportive group of non-transient oldies in Japan to help each other by the time we reach that age. Maybe this board will be the start of such a thing!

Same situation, and yes it is a bit of a worry, there is a nice high bridge nearby if it comes to it As a Scottish guy married to a Japanese female of the same age, the odds of me outlasting her are low though. I like the idea of a support group of non-transient oldies.

[goodandbadjapan]

Very good topic! I am not yet retired and hope I still have a few decades before the health worries really kick in, but my wife and I have no kids and so the late stages of life do worry me a bit. There is really nobody here who could take care of us in our dotage. If I were left alone and still had remaining family in the UK I suppose I could move back there. It would be nice if there could be a nice supportive group of non-transient oldies in Japan to help each other by the time we reach that age. Maybe this board will be the start of such a thing!

Same situation, and yes it is a bit of a worry, there is a nice high bridge nearby if it comes to it As a Scottish guy married to a Japanese female of the same age, the odds of me outlasting her are low though. I like the idea of a support group of non-transient oldies.

My, my - exactly same situation! Even nationality.

[RetireJapan]

Great topic. Of course we don't know what the future looks like.

I will be retiring from full-time employment soon, but run a couple of businesses with my wife so we'll likely work a bit longer. Even if we retire completely, I hopefully have a few decades before cognitive decline sets in. Maybe they'll have cured it by then

Personally I'm comfortable and have family here, and don't really in the UK any more. Being in hospital was a kind of dry run to being in a Japanese institution, and it was fine. My Japanese is good enough to get by day to day.

I think Japan is a much better place to be old than the UK is. I could imagine living in other countries, but have even fewer ties there. Unless things change drastically here I imagine we will keep a base in Sendai at least.

My wife is a bit older, so with me being an overweight and English man, and her being a fit Japanese woman, with any luck we'll be on similar schedules

[beanhead]

Interesting (and scary!) topic.
My calculations optimistically have me living to 90
I think this is an unlikely scenario, however...

We sometimes discuss moving somewhere warm to retire, but the question comes up about starting life in a new place at that age. We have a good bunch of friends in the area we live, so growing old with them is not such a terrible plan.
I can speak good enough Japanese to get by. Someone made the very good point about as we get older, we may lose that capability, which will make life more of a challenge. Not such a pleasant thought!

[captainspoke]

We're retired--me for four years now, wife for about a month.

On my side, family would not be much more support than they are now, even if I were somewhere in the US. I have three sibs, and I'm number three. My brother is oldest, 74(?), and he's always been afraid of flying. Older sis is doing well, younger sis less so (longtime smoker who still hasn't given it up, in spite of COPD/some ER visits/inhaler, and even COVID this past january). They're in three different states--colorado, illinois, ohio--none where we grew up. Unless I moved to the same town/city one of them was in, they would be little help. And I'd be a stranger in a strange land, and my wife much, much more so. And of course medical care is so wonderful in the US... I'm ineligible for medicare (inadequate work history there), and while there's a buy in possible (I'm told), it'd be as much as I pay here, for lesser service. And then my wife...? ((And do you know that an ambulance ride can cost a couple thousand dollars in the US?))

We'd be closer, maybe, to one kid (now in grad school there), but then half a world away from the other (here), who is married and has two kids.

I do have some friends here--a couple retired colleagues, and another person or two. My wife's family is here, tho small--her mother is 91, her sis is local. Her social life is here, too.

My parents kind of bookend anyone's possibilities. My mother died young--54, in a hospital bed--and my dad died a day short of his 97th birthday (at home, in bed). Yeah, I hope I've got his genes...

But my dad kind of illustrated something I might call the "green mile" curse (if you know the movie). He outlived everyone, or to put it differently, everyone he ever really knew died away from him. He outlived his first wife of over 25 years, and his second wife, slightly longer than that. He outlived the people in both social circles. And he married again (a woman a year junior to me, out of his church, who I think kind of glommed onto him for his pension). He was a human time machine--born in 1918 (the flu, he never knew one sis), was a WWII POW (germany), raised a family, and survived two wives, and all that went on there.

The point? May you live long (and prosper), but, well, maybe not too long.

[TJKansai]

I am still a few years away from retirement, and with one son just 17 we probably need to stick around a little while to help him manage uni (hopefully).

Eventually we'd like to live overseas, in various countries, while keeping Japan as a base. Portugal, Spain, Chile etc are all on my list. I use to speak Spanish pretty well and I am sure it would come back. My wife likes Hawaii, but I think it is too pricy and isolated.

My parents passed away almost 20 years ago, but most of my relatives make it to their late 80s or 90s. My in-laws are healthy and in the mid-70s, not sure if we'll have to care for them or not.

[SARS]

Thanks for all the interesting replies so far, it's reassuring that I'm not alone with concerns about the practicality of retiring in Japan.

As mentioned above, one of the main concerns is the chance of being stranded in a country alone and along with cognitive decline, losing the ability to communicate (in Japanese). This is a real issue that people should factor in. For example, a family friend in the UK has started to become forgetful in his 80's. I have no doubt that were he living in Japan that he would already have forgotten any acquired language abilities. That's a bad position to be in if you're all alone.

I agree with another poster's comment that having Japan as a base and living overseas is attractive. However, same issues arise. Furthermore, at a certain age long-distance travel becomes difficult. My father is in his 80's and he came to Japan for a trip a couple of years ago. However, I flew him business class - yes he probably could have handled a one-off trip in economy, but it's not something most mid-80-year olds want to do regularly. My father is also very fit and strong relative to his peers, I'm not sure how someone in poor health would have handled such a long trip.

Like others on this board I'm sure, I find living in Japan has many attractions. On the other hand it's a relative isolated existence to be frank, even if you're married with children.

[RetireJapan]

As mentioned above, one of the main concerns is the chance of being stranded in a country alone and along with cognitive decline, losing the ability to communicate (in Japanese).

This has never been a concern, and I just jumped online to do some research to ridicule the idea.

And now I am somewhat concerned. Dammit.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/dementia- ... e-dementia

Slightly balanced by the fact that people who use two or more languages regularly seem to be less prone to dementia.