RetireJapan

Still running my own school with my wife but have been doing 4 days a week for a few years now and have cut back classes again this year. Now working at a level close to what might be considered semi-retired!

I arrived in Japan with the Working Holiday Visa thing... I did my fair share of language teacher, and to be honest, I genuinely loved the job. I could have been a teacher all my life if I didn't think that working in language schools was, somehow, insecure.

So, I studied for an MBA in Tokyo (but in English), and now work in HR. Having some dreams of creating something myself too.

I don't consider myself as fluent in Japanese, but my goal for this year is to try (and fail) N2, and try again, and succeed.

My work is with a US based online school. I teach kids from all over the world in a few subjects, one of which is personal finance. I do other things for the school as well and so I end up engaging in flexible work for about 20 hours a week, roughly 30 weeks a year accounting for all the holidays.

I am a database engineer. I arrived in Japan Oct-2020 during the height of covid. I am hoping to retire in the next 2 to 4 years and remain in Japan.

douglasxwilliams wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 1:27 pm I am a database engineer. I arrived in Japan Oct-2020 during the height of covid. I am hoping to retire in the next 2 to 4 years and remain in Japan.

Cool. Apologies to everyone else for the niche question but what does a database engineer do?

adamu wrote: ↑Sat May 06, 2023 1:32 pm Cool. Apologies to everyone else for the niche question but what does a database engineer do?

I was hoping no one would ask.

At a high level...what i do is design and develop database systems. This includes: the movement or transfer of data from one system to another, create procedures (code) to process data, query and analyze data.

I should practice my 30 second elevator speech!

Jack of all trades and IT Swiss knife.

Been 11 years in Japan and, my latest gig is Network Engineering in fintech. i have another 22 years to go prior to retirement

I'm sales and marketing at Japanese packaging manufacturer, working at the headquarters and targeting pharma companies in the US with our pharmaceutical phGO99ODackaging, namely IV bags. I previously worked at an Eikaiwa juke, transferred from there into a haken company which sent me and a few others into a pharma company and had me be the English teacher, interpreter, and translator. At this time I took and passed the N1, in late 2017.

I had studied Japanese since 2012 in college, and lived with a Japanese home stay family for 5 years from 2016, after helping their son in the states.
All these things really helped my Japanese to become more and more useful and fluid.

Now happily married to a wonderful Christian Japanese woman of two years, and we have a 3 month year old. I've been working in Japan 8 years total now, and I'm ready to bring my family back to the states and spend some quality time with my parents, who really love my wife and she loves them.

If possible, I'm hoping to move back still employed for this current job, and continue to help my company establish sales routes and partnerships with US companies even after I come back to the states

On the 80th post, I'm surprised that I'm the first one to write that I'm a recruiter (or as I like to refer to it, a Talent Acquisition Specialist). Started off on the agency side and moved internal about 10 years ago. Have been working for US based companies and enjoying the work. Proficiency in Japanese is often a must, but I've met some people with little to no Japanese doing the same (internal roles).

about 7.5 yrs since I first came to Japan.

Started as Design/Analysis engineer in automotive industry :1.5 years. (Japanese company)

Moved towards Sales Engineer role in a company from pumping industry :5.5 years. (very conventional Japanese company; 1 year relocated to Singapore)

Currently, Project Manager for new product development project in electronic equipment manufacturing industry :<0.5 years. (non-Japanese company)