The Philippines offers a unique environment for your get-away or permanent home.  There are so many islands to choose from and a well developed industry accustomed to accommodating foreigners.

Live Work and Invest in Japan

I have lived in Japan for over four years.  I came here in 1998 at the age of 26 looking for a little more work stability than I thought was possible in the United States.  What I stumbled upon was a country with a lot to offer any perspective expatriate, with its still excellent job market, great social welfare system and inexpensive real estate.  Yes, inexpensive real estate! You could write a book about each of these points, but I’ll just shove you in the right direction.

In order to live, work and study in Japan you need a visa.  There are many types of visas and different ways to get them.   To get a work visa you have to have a job before you come to Japan.  If you have a four year degree from a university you can be issued the Specialist in the Humanities visa which is commonly given to those who come to Japan to teach English. You need a sponsor i.e. an employer to get this kind of visa.  The internet is a good resource for finding jobs in Japan.  Just use your favorite search engine and use key words like, “ESL teaching positions Japan” and sift through the matches.  The are so many English teacher job posting websites these days that it won’t take long to come up with a long list of prospects.  If you have absolutely no access to a computer there is always the New York Times.  Some of the bigger language schools over here run ads in the employment section, which is actually how I got my first job in Japan.  When you look for a job always be aware of your needs.  Do you need accommodation or paid airfare?  How much money do you have to start out?  Some companies will pay to bring you over or at least subsidize your trip.  Many companies provide shared or unshared housing.  If you have a family and need your own housing there are nationwide apartment rental  companies such as LEOPALACE that cater to non-Japanese and offer weekly, monthly, and yearly rent payment options that allow the foreigner to escape the much hated key money gift/deposit system that operates here and you don’t need a guarantor.

If you don’t have a degree there are other options for you.  If you are from Canada, Australia or New Zealand you can come to Japan through the working holiday visa program.  This visa allows you to work in Japan without a degree.  There is an age restriction and technically you are not supposed to have secured employment before you arrive here but rather look for it later.  Another option is the student visa.   If you come to Japan as a university student you are allowed to work part-time as long as you clear it with the immigration office and the work doesn’t interfere with your studies.  After you receive your degree you can change your visa status from “student” to “work” and seek full-time employment.   If you have no degree but have a bit of money you can come to Japan as a language student.  There are Japanese language schools that sponsor student visas.  You generally have sign up for a long term Japanese language course that could cost in the neighborhood of USD$4000.  A different way to work in Japan is the “heritage visa”.  This visa is available to those with Japanese ancestry.  For more information on this visa you can visit the nearest Japanese consulate or embassy.  Then of course there is always the spousal visa which needs no explanation.  The Japanese Ministry of Justice’s website has a breakdown of all the types of visas and the requirements for permanent residence and citizenship.  Like most government websites there are English pages that are very informative.

What jobs are there?  Well, if you are a fluent speaker of English with a degree you can get a job as an English teacher anywhere at a decent base salary of \250,000/month.  I say fluent because at most schools you don’t have to be a native speaker just native-like, although many of the larger companies have a native speaker requirement when hiring.  Specifically, there are assistant English teacher positions in public and private schools and there is work at private language schools or “cram schools”.  There are teaching positions at universities and regular classroom English teacher posts at private schools.   Jobs in other fields are available depending on your Japanese ability.  Every prefecture and most major cities have employment offices that set qualified foreigners up with jobs.  Many of the offices have English, Spanish or Portuguese speaking staff.

The social welfare system of Japan is comprehensive and fair.  All long term residents are required to have health insurance coverage and the national health insurance system does nicely.  When you come to Japan sign up for it right away because they will make you pay arrears for ever month you put it off.  When you join the national health system they calculate your monthly payment based on your salary and the size of your family.  Generally the first year of payments is very low because the government pretends that you were here a year before and had no income thereby dropping your payments.  There is also a refund for baby delivery if you have a child here and a small income supplement regardless of the nationality of you spouse or child.  Japan has a national pension system that all residents over 20 must join.  The premiums start at about \13,000/month.  Should you decide to leave Japan early withdrawal is available after you have left the country for a specified amount of time.  If you stay in Japan until the pension matures at the age of 65, the monthly payments can be sent to wherever you are in the world.

One way to maximize your earnings is to own your own home, provided that the taxes are relatively low and you have a low or no mortgage.  Japan is famous as a country with expensive real estate.  This is only a surface reality.  In major or appealing urban areas the real estate is expensive because there is not enough land for the demand.  Many Japanese people crave convenience and inconvenience could mean a 25 minute car ride.  A property in the city center is much more expensive than one on the outskirts.  Newly built properties here have heart attack price tags.  Used properties are reasonable.  Properties listed with private realtors carry heavy fees and commissions, while properties listed with the court system are cheap enough to buy outright.  Every prefecture has a district court.  In some prefectures there is a branch in each major city.  The courts deal in real estate and they have a separate section for this.  Unlike some countries, you don’t have to be a citizen or even a permanent resident to own, only a resident.  This means that your name is on file at city hall as a foreign resident.  Some courts have real estate listed on websites for easy viewing.  Houses, lots, fields, buildings whatever are available but you have to be here.

Despite common misconceptions, Japan is a big and more importantly, long country.  The people are more diverse than the media would have you believe.  They are also accepting.  The north is sub-arctic and the south is sub-tropical.  In the middle there is everything in between.   When you choose a job think about what the area is like.  Look at the real estate, the schools and the businesses.  Use the internet.  Yahoo Japan has translations at the bottom of the screen for the first page anyway.  Don’t give up trying to get here and don’t give up after you’ve been here.