RetireJapan

Really interesting discussion with some thoughtful and honest contributions.

I remember joking with a former colleague a few years ago (fellow Brit) that if we become 'lifers' in Japan, we should go into business setting up an old folk's home for English speakers, with us as the Board and then later, VIP residents!

@hbd

Your posts really resonated with me. Can completely relate to the anxieties expressed. It's depressing that retirement here might mean an end of stimulating, nuanced conversation, something which is essential for me. I need a daily dose of witty, cynical conversation.

Hopefully we'll have AI robots that we can converse with in our dotage. But real people better. Agree that we should keep this thread active and explore ideas.

@Tokyo

Great to hear your first-hand experience and looking forward to hearing how things develop.

@money matters
@beanhead

I was considering renting or buying a small place in Chiba (Boso area) for breaks out of Tokyo, but didn't know about those communities 'towns'. Interesting. I like the size of the plots and amount of space between houses.

Follow up Report on Assisted Care Facility

We visited the facility and were really impressed. During the tour, my wife said to me that the place felt like a cruise ship or 5 star hotel.

The good news: the building is newish (4 years old), extremely well-maintained with superb common facilities including the the spacious dining room (with grand piano & karaoke machine), a tiny gym, secure entrance and even a fancy bar with clubby chairs for residents. It is a small facility with about 50 rooms containing up to 55 residents. Individual rooms are well-sized and come equipped with storage, curtains, adjustable bed and barrier-free toilets. You need to bring other furniture. A hairdresser comes in twice a month, doctors visit regularly to administer flu shots and will be coming in 3 weeks to vaccinate residents against Covid. Meals are varied and planned by qualified nutritionists. It’s set in a quiet, residential area but is only 50 meters from a major road with a subway, supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, etc. within 200 meters. The facility is run by the reputable Sompo group which operates 132 other aged facilities in the Tokyo area alone.

The bad news: firstly my idea that foreigners would be caretakers was not to be. All staff are Japanese. The worse news is that all these great features come at a great cost. The cheapest room goes for ¥560,000 monthly including rent, 3 meals and snacks daily, and service fees to cover 24 hour assistance, assisted bathing, etc. Monthly costs reduce if you pay an initial deposit. For example, putting 20million yen down will reduce monthly costs to ¥215,000. I discovered later that it happened to be the most expensive Sompo Aged home of all in Tokyo. Other facilities start from ¥175,000 monthly, with meals. Details (Japanese only) can be found online. <https://www.sompocare.com/search/result ... pe=1&word= > Obviously this is prohibitive for all but super wealthy couples, but would be more possible for affluent widows or widowers.

It was reassuring to find that such elegant facilities are now available in Japan as we had not known of any. If you are still working and strongly desire to spend your golden years in luxury, now you have an idea of how much you are going to have to come up with. Good luck!

Tokyo wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 2:00 am The cheapest room goes for ¥560,000 monthly including rent, 3 meals and snacks daily, and service fees to cover 24 hour assistance, assisted bathing, etc. Monthly costs reduce if you pay an initial deposit.

Damn. I think I will continue with my plan to be on good terms with my grandkids

This is the price chart for a place mentioned earlier in this thread--a downtown hotel that was converted to elder care. Note the up front fee, besides the other expenses:

http://www.hanamizuki.ishikawa.jp/price/

I think that for a good place in beautiful Kanazawa, that sort of upfront payment and monthly fee seem quite reasonable. In Australia these days you must be a multi-millionaire even to get on the waiting list for a decent facility in the better districts of Sydney, Melbourne, and now perhaps even Brisbane. It*s a very big and notoriously venal business which costs users MUCH more than even any of the quality 東京都 facilities mentioned earlier today.

By the way many thanks to you *Tokyo* (sorry for the asterisks, but for some reason my keyboard has 化けた today and inverted commas have been banished) for that detailed account. OK, there are no non-Japanese nor English-speaking staff. Perhaps the Sompocare management needs to be persuaded that there is a good business opportunity waiting for them, but the first thing they have to do is employ some bi-lingual carers and support staff.

A little out into the Tokyo suburbs, in Saitama, the prices are far more affordable. Fujimino is a lovely area, for instance, but even
Saitama-shi, just 4 or 5 stops from Ueno on an express, is far cheaper than places downtown. Here are the Saitama listings:

https://www.sompocare.com/search/result ... pe=1&word=

Having said that, I still believe the better option may be developing seeking to develop retirement communities and gradually building up the English and bilingual infrastructure. Of course there are a few already emerging, as mentioned in earlier posts. One area that I*m very fond and would happily live is the Komagawa-Moroyama area, which anyone who*s vegetarian and orders foods from ALISHAN would know of.(In fact I think that Jack, the very affable founder-owner of Alishan, has become a kind of patriarchal figure for the ex-pat fortunates out there.) I believe there are already at least 30 Westerners living around there, many of them even commuting to Shinjuku from the 始発 station Hanno. I*d also like to put in a word for Kawagoe, where I*ve lived for 10 years looking after my boy, because it is a substantial suburban hub where one is 30 minutes on the train from Ikebukuro, on the one hand, 20 minutes from Komagawa and 40 minutes from wonderful places like Yorii, Tokigawa and Ogawamachi at the foot of the mountains, on the other. It has a substantial historical profile (小江戸、no less! ) but also most amenities that you might want, and miraculously remains about one-third rural, so one can drive from the busiest parts to *pastoral Japan* in at most 20 minutes. Currently I think the largest English-speaking group here are the Nepalese migrant workers (though of course it*s not their mother tongue), but it would be great to have more people around from among the bad old former imperialist oppressors - yes, more Westerners please!

hbd wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 8:58 am Having said that, I still believe the better option may be developing seeking to develop retirement communities and gradually building up the English and bilingual infrastructure.

I agree. Japanese assisted care living won't solve the issue of isolation, since 99% of the residents will be Japanese.

If you are in the Yokohama area, YC&AC might be an option for some. It’s not a retirement center but it’s an international community focused around the club. The club has various sports and social events and is in a beautiful neighborhood with a wonderful all weather football pitch. There are two international schools that draw in continual expats. And with an international community, you can probably get references for non-Japanese language help for a variety of tasks if needed.

I used to be a member for a number of years and played old boys football and found it quite enjoyable, just a too far from my current location in Tokyo to make it useful. A potential downside is to make it a “local club”, you’re going to have to pay the price of living in Yokohama/Yamate which can be quite pricy.

https://ycac.jp/wp/

Kobe has two clubs, one a little more upscale with a fair number of Europeans and Americans, and one aimed at younger sportman types and catering to more Kiwis and Aussies. Good mix of internationally-minded Japanese too.

That said, I am not the kind of person who wants to with groups of people on a regular basis.

SARS wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 9:06 am

hbd wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 8:58 am Having said that, I still believe the better option may be developing seeking to develop retirement communities and gradually building up the English and bilingual infrastructure.

I agree. Japanese assisted care living won't solve the issue of isolation, since 99% of the residents will be Japanese.

I imagine that living in a Japanese retirement home without speaking the language would be a lot like this scene with Bill Murray from Lost in Translation:

https://youtu.be/crMq5ULACqs

But that would be your life every day. For the rest of your life.

@hbd
Yes, I also am familiar with the Aussie situation. But there it seems that everyone there is playing with funny money. I mean, you buy a suburban Sydney home for $200,000 when you were 30 and now you are 75 and considering an expensive assisted care facility. So you sell your old home for its current value of 2million and being your own home, it’s tax free. Enter dozens of hungry companies and religions eager to part you from your easily earned dollars.
In Japan, the lack of funny money since the bubble burst means far less predatory behavior.
I totally agree with the idea of aged facilities for gaijins and I am sure there must be a market for us. But it may also be an odd one, ranging from the top execs living in ¥900,000 a month apartments right through to Vietnamese kenshusei earning only ¥150,000 monthly.
Also, I worry about the little things... I keep seeing social media postings of long term gaijins drooling over bacon, eggs & baked beans or something similarly simple and blunt when we live in a country with sublime food. Not interested in spending my last days eating fish and chips or pizza every meal. With the karaoke machine playing House of the rising sun, Stairway to heaven and Rainy days and Mondays on a continuous loop.