Welcome to the RetireJapan forum

[f2mc]

Evening all, just joined after a few weeks of reading this forum. Thanks to the collective knowledge here I've got myself going with a Rakuten Securities account for my Nisa and a Junior Nisa for the little.

Thanks for having me and in advance for your patience!

[Andy.]

Hi everyone,

Just registered to use the forum, but I've been using the website for a couple of months now. Would like to say a massive thanks to Ben (and everyone on the forum) for the wealth of really useful information on this site and in the forum. Somehow the lockdown kicked me into gear financially, and I now have an iDeco, NISA and HMRC National Insurance payments all set up, and this website has been an absolutely massive help. Thank you so much - I really appreciate it, and as other people have said previously, it's so refreshing to see a forum where people help each other out so much and share such great information.

Cheers,
Andy

[cooper]

Hi everyone,

For years, I thought I was alone as an American passport holder in Japan, trying to effectively manage my investments with a plan to remain in Japan into retirement. My wife and I are trying to achieve FI by the time our children reach high school. I'm excited to learn from everyone's collective experiences after discovering this forum today.

[RetireJapan]

Welcome to everyone who joined recently! Please ask questions and post, this forum gets better the more active people are

[japanville jojo]

Hello everyone.

Been receiving them news letters for a while and they are very informative . Not much to really offer you all but just maybe some stories of living and working here in Japan. I'm out looking for work actually these days, but really have no skills to say of. Was a real estate broker in the Los Angeles and San Bernardino area before moving to Japan. But not living in a major city here, I don't think my real estate background would help me at all with a job, maybe in a big city now that many foreigners live in them. Not really living in the rural area, but about 5 minute walk and its all rural with small little villages popping up in the hills.
Not sure really what to do at the moment, seems like I have stop signs at whatever challenge I want to take on at the moment. Teaching English conversation , well... its nice to put them friendly smiles on the students faces, but these days it seems like it may not really pan out. Don't know how it is in the major cities with teaching, but here in some neighborhoods there seems to be an English juku teacher teaching every few blocks.
Anyway, nice to meet you all. Maybe after I learn what's on this forum I'll post a bit.

Got any ideas for a job. Sadly I'm not computer savvy, but something that I could do part time working at home would be of interest to me.

Thank you for reading my post.

[Beaglehound]

Don’t be put off teaching English by the competition. Do the juku you speak of employ native speakers? If not, they are not true competition. If so, they show there is a market. And might even employ you.

I am in a small town of around 18 000 people and while I am not overrun with students I teach for about 15 hours weekly without having advertised at all. Some are elderly hobbyists, some younger folk looking to improve their English for work purposes. A couple of Japanese high school English teachers. Some high school and junior high school students whose parents are looking to improve their communication skills/pronunciation or to practise for Eiken speaking tests.

Some one to one or small group teaching might be perfect for working at home part time, depending on your living space.

[japanville jojo]

Thanks for your reply. Teaching conversation would be quite enjoyable for me. At the present time l'd like to help out seniors, but l'm not sure how l would do it at the city volunteer / paid way of introducing myself . Currently l only have a bicycle to get around. But if l could find a community center, would that be a good idea to start with? Time wise l am free, day and most evenings.

Again thank you.

[Beaglehound]

Volunteering would be an excellent way to get your face known. I didn’t go down that route as my wife has tentacles throughout the place I live, being her home town, so that along with word of mouth has brought me most of my students. I also teach some classes organised by the city office next town down from me, as a way to get my face known there, hoping that will lead to some private students in the end.

Local cafes or community centres may be interested in you going along and explaining about the culture where you are from. That kind of event would attract the type of people likely to be interested in English classes. Obviously the timing sucks but offering to do a basic workshop on ‘hospitality English’ at your city office might be helpful if your area gets any overseas tourists in normal times. In my experience, it does take a while for the Japanese to get used to a new face, but I reckon if you get yourself known and let it be known that you teach privately, it’s only a matter of time before people start asking about lessons.

[RetireJapan]

Teaching conversation would be quite enjoyable for me.

The best way to find students is to have a web presence. You just need a simple website in Japanese (maybe with some simple English for flavour). Make sure you include your photo, description (including what kind of classes you do), fees, free demo lesson info, and most importantly your neighbourhoods. It is almost impossible to rank for search for large areas, but if you go down to the neighbourhood level you can be the top result on Google or Yahoo.

[TJKansai]

Just joined today. After decades of doling out advice to colleagues and friends, it is great to have a resource where people know more than I do.

I have been fumbling along with Jr NISA/NISA/Tsumitate NISA for the family, iDeCo, overseas funds and US funds and stocks. Paying taxes in US and Japan, but probably not correctly. Looking forward to reading more and getting things straight before I retire (5 years away, hopefully).