12 Reasons NOT to Move to Japan

A warning from my Japanese colleagues (as an Englishman working for an American company, on assignment in Tokyo) was that many westerners actually collapse from malnutrition. Seriously, I found this a very real issue. While Japanese food can be a fantastic experience, it can also be difficult to adapt to a rice-based diet (where it's essential to keep snacking carbohydrates) as well as their peculiar diet. Even my attempt at a traditional Sunday Lunch of Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding in an international hotel was a disaster. Sure, they served up some delicious Roast Beef and excellent Yorkshires, but, the Roast Potatoes never arrived! Later, I'd discover that Japanese often find Potatoes nauseous. Seemingly, the texture is too similar to rotten fish (at least to their taste). While grabbing a few bags of Corn snacks in the mini supermarket, to ensure I'd have carbohydrates on hand to boost my blood sugar, was an unmitigated disaster. EVERYTHING TASTED OF FISH. Yes, as a westerner, getting my carbs to maintain my blood glucose levels, really was extremely difficult. My colleagues weren't exaggerating in saying many of us westerners had collapsed due to dietary issues. Although, I can also relate that I had some fantastic meals – including the delicious deadly poisonous puffer fish – under guidance from my wonderful Japanese colleagues. Go there, but stay alert.

海外の人にとって観光として行くのはいいけど住むには向いてない国デスぜ…😅

Good job, i enjoyed watching this.

So Japanese women may talk too much without saying much. American women are just like that. How did we get in a war with these guys, we are almost identical.

Door slammers are the worst, I’m not in Japan but 3 of them moved next to me and they make me want to move too!

As a guy it would be a great benefit that the gender bias is still pronounced.
Also a a guy I tend to avoid friendships, so Japan sounds like a big win.
And I like to imagine I'm a secret agent, so blending in would be taken as a personal challenge. Maybe some makeup or flimsy disguise would help.

Ya i have experianced many of the same social issues 8n my many trips to china. Oh the aunties and uncles realy do stair there. I stair right back, shuts them down everytime. I year i went with a leg injury where i used a device called an "I walk" it like a peg leg but you kneel into it to walk. Now that got stairs and more outsider vibe.

Cracking video. Looking like I'll be moving out there in two months, and this is the kind of stuff I need to hear. Great job, Chris 👏👏👏

You forgot to mention 'opportunity cost', especially with the incredibly weak yen, poor salaries and poor work culture, housing depreciation etc.

Your channel is boring!!!😂😂😂

It's hard for Japan to improve its society because of its awful defamation laws, which allows people to be sued for hurting someone's reputation EVEN IF it's justified! So, people aren't able to speak up about wrongdoing, or they could be sued.

Japan for myself, it's just so depressed especially for social vibes.

I want to go to Japan and have for a long time and I love videos like this because it reminds me that it really is about yourself, there are places all over the world where people face discrimination because they stand out from the crowd for one reason or another, Japan isn't special in that sense. I definitely think it's one of those theings that to go through it and know it may never stop happening is either worth it or its not, and no one else can make that decision for you, and often we can't know what we will choose until we're in the situation. Interesting things to think about!

Great video

bruh my man said no place is perfect maby norway and narnia. im from norway and I wanna move to japan. people outside norway have legit no clue how bad norway is. and how fucked norway really is.

Literally nothing here has deterred me 😂

God bless Brett Maverick

I like Japan a lot. I’m going to spend 4 weeks there next summer and then hopefully my freshmen year of college. But I wouldn’t live there.

I just returned from my first visit to Japan and I could to relate to many of these points as a tourist there. Very candid video😊

Why be so submissive? There is gender inequality, but it is men that are being oppressed not women. The pig remark would not made any headlines if it was aimed at a man, and the pic u show of womens only is oppression against men that gives women special treatment, not to mention everything else like men pay more in relationships, have lower value of protection etc. Men have a submissive personality and only looks how things affect women and not themself. Men should stop giving themself a lower value, you as a man has value too, you shall not be womens slave.

😂😂😂😂

no really, Norway is perfect! I don't know about Narnia.

Olympig is funny.

I dont think your experience is unique in any country. There are African Americans in the US for many generations and still don't feel they are accepted in the US. Do you know how many expats in the US from any country still dont feel accepted here?

Still better than living in America I guess

Same here NZ

Ok, plan A: Wear a japanese mask and dye your hair color black and use sign language to talk. Telling everyone you are deaf & can't speak.
i feel like this Plan A will give me a massive leap boost towards the success...

I had bad sore throat in japan, so I went to a pharmacy to ask about sore throat medicine in English. The lady serving who probably looks 65, the called her supervisor, and she was even older, probably 85 😅

Imagine being black

I thought Japanese didn't shake hands for intros and greeting..

We Canadiens all pays rent!! 👌

Japan is for the most part an apartheid country and never gets called out for it. Maybe because it works. Idk. Nobody wants to recognize melting pots have been a disaster. Look at America

I lived for 20 years in Japan and pretty much agree with everything you've raised.
However, this was well before mobile phones and the internet, a totally different world from today, and foreigners were still a rarity in Nagoya.
I was able to live quite independently, signed all the contracts needed to buy a car, get a Japanese license, rent houses, etc, because there was still a naive trust of foreigners.
During my time there I noticed how being independent of a Japanese mentor was becoming more difficult, as foreigners intentionally disregarded rules, and pretty much were jerks.
Two foreigners trashing their apartment made it harder for the rest of us, foreigners not returning DVS, disobeying parking rules and so on has put so many restraints on the foreign community.

For $US1,000 a month I was able to live in a 4 story Japanese style house with garage and roof top garden, walking distance to both train and subway.
How?
I rented directly from the owner, the house was over 20 years old (but very clean and comfortable), and it was in Nagoya, 10km from Sakae (the heart of that city).

no thanks. im marrying my favourite guitarist.

Just discovered you…you are proper funny…

I think it is not only just not being Japanese, its being not Japanese looking. Friend of a friend was born here, raised here, but because her father is white, she constantly gets the....where are you from question?

But your friend is also very right. I have another friend, who isn't Japanese, doesn't look Japanese, but follows Japanese norms and married a Japanese, and yet they would never claim to be Japanese because they aren't.

I myself been visiting Japan for more years than I could count, I certainly don't think its a magical wonderland but I guess the stuff they DO get right is why I accept a lot of it.

Looks like Japan is more of an ant colony than a real country.

Look up the 1937 Nanjing massacre and you get an idea about Japanes mentality,or should I say insanity.

Living space is crowded and expensive, the women are ugly, the food is shit. Never understood the attraction of Japan.

How comes they can not solve the problem of sound proofing?

Really enjoyed this video, thank you for that. One thing that immediately came to me was, that Germany is just as worse off in many of these listed points, its a backwards thinking, boomer corrupted, overly bureaucratic nightmare for non german speaking skilled foreigners and 80% of the population, namely the shitty boomers, are too afraid, too stupid, too uneducated or simply too old to embrace any change in this. Its weir,d because its so detrimental to our economy and our well being as a society.

Japan knows what's up regarding foreigners. The rest of the world should be more like them.

Old stuff

1. A 16 hr work day. 2. Everything is to small. 3. The hair thing. 4. Air polution. 5. No one will socialize with you. 6. To many traditions. Etc...

That man got treated like a black man in Japan. Guess he doesn’t like that😮‍💨

“women have difficulty finishing”. World’s greatest Freudian slip.

I’m VERY curious about whether Japan and the Japanese are open to other genders, or the concept of being another gender, like non-binary or agender. Personally I’m non-binary and am curious as to whether or not they’re okay with that.

Hey great video, love the honesty and reality check. Your point on never really being Japanese reminded me a lot of my time here in the US. I'm from Mexico but have lived in the US since 1988 and I'm still not "American" and get asked all the same questions you do, like, "how long have you been here?" "What is your family heritage?" or "You speak really good English." Like you mentioned from the get go, no place is perfect.