So who's actually retired in Japan?

[Tokyo]

@hbd
Sorry I have not been responding to this thread more regularly. As a full time retiree, I can assure you that it’s not all play and no work. In between trying to keep fit (daily exercise and evening walks) and mentally alert (brain training and meditation for me, French study for her) we have been thinking a lot about post-retirement adjustments. While the younger readers are rightly obsessed with saving, my wife and I are now firstly, concerned with defending our nest eggs, and secondly, passing on as much as possible to our kids and as little as possible to our governments. For those reasons, we recently saw a financial planner (per hour fee/no commission-type) to get him to look over our portfolio from the perspective of retirees, and to find out how to minimize inheritance taxes. It was a mixed experience but definitely worthwhile for the new things we learned about inheritance. Perhaps I can elaborate more later after we have had more time to consider and implement the advice.

Here are examples of the few retired non Japanese I know well. Although a very limited sample, they highlight a pattern that I suspect to be common. Despite all three being longtime Japan residents from the 1980s who taught university full time, two returned home soon after retiring. Both were unmarried/unattached and neither were particularly proficient in Japanese despite their long tenure, although they could get around okay. The one who did remain is married to a local, and has children and grandchildren here. His Japanese language ability is also far superior to the others.

I am not privy to their financial situations but it appears that they are mostly relying on nenkin as their retirement income. They appear to live very modest lifestyles, with little evidence of travel, hobbies or new interests. I do not mean to judge them with that assessment, but the reality is that a Kyosai private university pension alone is not going to provide anyone with a jet set lifestyle - unless they only fly on LCCs. Their household income based on those pensions is only going to provide 100,000~250,000 monthly, depending upon the number of years of paying in, and assuming the wife who was a full time homemaker is also now getting kokumin nenkin. I hope they either have additional income sources, or a lot more saved than the retirement bonuses they received. The only other retired foreigner I know was a priest who remained after retirement but unfortunately he died not too many years later. I doubt that his experience would be a useful guide to most others.

Any other retired examples out there? Please introduce them/yourself.

[RetireJapan]

As an English teacher, I mainly know other English teachers. Most of the 'retired ones' continue teaching part-time (due to necessity) and some end up in dire financial straits once they are no longer able to do that (most universities only employ people up to mid-60s or 70). Some of the older ones didn't pay into nenkin etc. so are in even worse shape.

[Tokyo]

@RetireJapan
Yes, that reminds me of some poor guys I met at JALT. They were always fretting since their university’s compulsory retirement age arrived before their kids were due to graduate from university, and in a couple of cases, even before they were old enough to enter uni. Yikes!
Tip for a comfortable retirement: Try not to have kids after turning 50. (Advice does not apply to Mick Jagger and all the other readers who fly private jets to their own islands.)

[RetireJapan]

@RetireJapan
Yes, that reminds me of some poor guys I met at JALT. They were always fretting since their university’s compulsory retirement age arrived before their kids were due to graduate from university, and in a couple of cases, even before they were old enough to enter uni. Yikes!
Tip for a comfortable retirement: Try not to have kids after turning 50. (Advice does not apply to Mick Jagger and all the other readers who fly private jets to their own islands.)

For us, the savings/spending money boost we got when our children finished uni and moved out was quite hard to get our head around at first

[hbd]

An American friend in his early 70s who taught at a private university til about 7 years ago has told me he intends to spend the rest of his days here, largely because he can get around fairly easily without a car and the trains are sufficient even when he wants to get out of cities to enjoy the natural environment. He's in good health, so as one of millions of retirees living on for decades after age 65 he's aware that he will likely have difficulties finding home caregivers. He is nonetheless determined NOT to live in a Japanese nursing home, having seen the life that his mother-in-law and other in-laws led there "with so many rules and a rather depressing environment."

And two more friends (who also happen to be American males married to Japanese), both of whom will retire upon reaching 定年 in the next 3-4 years:

One of them has a Japanese spouse who does not find her own society conducive to friendly relations, compared to what she's experienced elsewhere. Apparently she "... wants to go somewhere where she can make friends (not just interact with polite people)." But they're also concerned to put their savings into buying a rest-of-life residence in a setting where they won't have to worry about it being destroyed by earthquakes and/or tsunami! They have no children, by the way.

The other friend, who also has no kids, said that US society had become too volatile for him and his wife: "... Maybe I’m overreacting to recent events, but I’m feeling like there’s the possibility of a real breakdown in civil society in the States during my lifetime. I don’t think I’m ever going to live there again if I can avoid it."

C21st Australia is very far from perfect, but I'm grateful not to have to have to put domestic terrorism, militia and insurrections on a list of reasons not to go back and fade away there! Since the demise of Aum Shinri Kyo, I suppose that for now we can say the same about Japan. That's just as well as we have the earthquakes, tsunami and aging nuclear reactors to think about.

[SARS]

Lots of interesting comments on this thread, keep them coming!

Personally, I'm more worried about what I do daily rather than the financial aspect of retirement. I've concluded that since mandatory retirement is 65 for many companies, I need to set up a side business well in advance of retirement so that I have something that occupies me in a productive sense.

[hbd]

It may be lovely now in places like Sendai, but in Greater Tokyo the heat island effect has already begun. Pretty debilitating unless one happens to live near the Bay, and just too hot for most of us to pay attention to forums on our hot little machines, I suspect.

A side business? A productive sense? Do you mean producing income? Or producing benefits for some slice of 'society'?

If the question of what to do each day is troubling, I recommend some music. Active music, aka 'making music', daily. Who cares whether you've never done it before. If you once did it, go back to it. The more you do it, the more you'll want to do it. It's not dependent on your second (or even first) language ability, nor on your cognitive functionality. I've known people with fairly advanced dementia who could still play or sing beautifully. Playing (or learning to play) with others can be wonderful, while playing alone can be wondrous. Choose an instrument carefully if there's severe arthritis or the like in your family and you think you're going to suffer from it. And choose your tunes in accordance with whoever you might want to play or sing for (your partner, your family, your pets, your drinking mates in the park ... ) And yes, choose your retirement site and living space so that you can play without being evicted!

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

what I do daily

The possibility of running out of things to do and being bored is addressed, albeit briefly and tangientially, in the early retirement blog recommended on this forum a couple of days ago.
https://zz597.blogspot.com/2021/06/blog-post_8.html

That blog makes interesting reading.

[hbd]

My soapbox speech for the cause of making music drew no responses at all, so perhaps we soon-to-be retired in Japan don't really care for music (do わ?)

Be that as it may, here's a point to consider: What's coming up may be the most important time of your adult life. Too many of us have passed our working lives as drones, going through the motions of jobs that bore little intrinsic interest and perhaps little merit. We were in it for the money, after all. If not for the income and what that did to facilitate a tolerable life for us and our loved ones, who would or could have put up with the tedium of it all? In retirement, however, you will be off the leash. Translate Japanese poetry. Work on your Japanese, your Italian, your Hebrew or whatever. Build your knowledge and refine your thinking. Write. Volunteer to help relieve suffering among the less fortunate. Turn (back) to religion. Renew your sexual energies, with or without medical enhancements. Or simply free yourself from the tyranny of all that slapstick at long last! Do all or none of the above, but be sure to die with zero (following to the letter the advice of a good book recently mentioned by Ben). And assess whether your situation here in Japan will enable you to make choices. Finally, don't put any of this off - procrastination in retirement is a deadly sin. (Halleluヤ)

[TJKansai]

The other friend, who also has no kids, said that US society had become too volatile for him and his wife: "... Maybe I’m overreacting to recent events, but I’m feeling like there’s the possibility of a real breakdown in civil society in the States during my lifetime. I don’t think I’m ever going to live there again if I can avoid it."

C21st Australia is very far from perfect, but I'm grateful not to have to have to put domestic terrorism, militia and insurrections on a list of reasons not to go back and fade away there!

I too have real doubts about living in the USA for long-term retirement. I grew up spending time in major American cities, and though I watched my back, I wasn't worried about getting shot. These days guns are a huge issue. It seems like an insurmountable problem, and the common response is to buy more. Add into the mix the ever-present racism (now against Asians it seems), and it's more fuel to the fire. Oh, and then there are the drugs. Weed I think we can live with, but meth, oxy, heroin etc...?

Another major negative is health care, and though medicare is good enough for most, there are plenty of ways you can still go bankrupt.

Cost (of housing in particular) is still another reason Japan wins. Inflation in Australia and the US over the past 30 years have led to most things being much more expensive. Of course if you live in the sticks and eat at home, life can still be affordable.