The economy and progressive feel about Japan has gone now. I was an English conversation teacher in 1998 and it was very high tech. When I've revisited over the years I've tried to get out of Tokyo and Chiba prefecture. I still enjoy Japan but Other Asian countries have risen up now so much to even pass Japan on certain points.

I like how you walk and talk. It keeps me interesting. Stay or go is probably a question all foreigners being asked by others or asking themselves. It was nice to listen to who have made their minds about the decision. Thank you for the video!

So easy to spot English teachers in Japan.

Good luck Matt. Hope everything's going well in Canada now.

I am returning after 20 years absence. For food, water, bike rides, cheaper farms, the wife's oldies.

I leave Japan in two weeks after almost four years of living in the Kanto area. First and foremost, I will always cherish my time here. I'll come back to America as a changed person, perhaps for the better, as I've learned from a culture that is almost the polar opposite of my own. There is beautiful nature, futuristic cities, arguably the best public transportation system in the world that enables you to go just about anywhere without a car, and a history that stretches back thousands of years. However what has really driven me to leave this country and, moreover, not stay long-term, is the by-the-book way things are done here, an uncompromisingly homogeneous culture, Stone Age-era economic and social policies, and more recently, the bungling of the COVID-19 and Olympics situation. I was ALTing but it really broke me down, having to come to work in a building full of schoolchildren who are potential vectors for coronavirus every day. It really affected my mental health, and to me that is a dealbreaker. Now whether or not others want to stay or leave is up to them for certain. They may have very good reasons for staying and are better suited than me to Japanese society. I also haven't written off coming back, but if I do, it won't be to join the traditional workforce, but to be able to work from home and live life on my terms, not someone elses. I wish Matt luck in Canada! I can't imagine starting a family in Japan and deciding to move back overseas. I hope her family took the news well and your kids can put this experience in a strange new land to good use!

They both sound Canadian. ExJapTer, you are Canadian or lived in Canada at all?

Yes, I come to realize this question will always be in back of all foreigner's mind at some point in time. It certainly have for me after living in Jp for 10+ years. If one would ask me why do you want to leave Jp, I would have to say I missed my old way of life in the states I cannot do here. I am much like your friend there. Have a Japanese wife and 1 son. No car though, but I do have a Japanese driver's license and do drive every now and then my in-law's car.

So what part of Canada did he go back to? It’s been 7 months. . . I’d be curious to hear what kind of job he got to support his family. I hear it’s pretty expensive to live in Canada especially in cities like Vancouver, Ottawa or Toronto. I understand that he wants his children to be bilingual and is willing to give up a stable income, an affordable place to live and a car. If I were him, I’d be afraid to give all that up and go home just so that my kids could be bilingual both in English and Japanese . Housing, food and insurance are expensive, and with the pandemic, unemployment is an all time high. Unless I was a doctor, lawyer, engineer or had a job in finance (or worked at Pearl Harbor), I wouldn’t make it. I’d have to live off my family. There would be no way I’d able to afford and own a place of my own, trips to the mainland or the neighbor islands or even private school. Good luck to him. I hope he makes it. Seems like a nice family man.

My Japanese wife and I left Japan few months ago for good, Japan going backwards and being passed by other developed countries we’ll be in America for the long haul

Hmmm. How about foreigners retired and still living in Japan. I wanna hear people experiences about this.

If they live in Japan why do they need to speak English? Is this really a good reason to leave. I assume this man speaks fluent Japanese after living in Japan for 20 years.

Reasons given were vague.

I always assumed English teachers were mostly in their mid-20s. Is it common for people do the work long-term?

You're not even allowed to do this with UK now, need to have job with certain salary level in order to bring a spouse.

I am a Canadian woman and from my experience of living there over 10 years, I saw that most guys get chick pregnant, usually a student, and get stuck there. Then a mid life crisis hits and they want to get out. But, it is really hard to assimilate back into the home country though. especially without transferable skills. The wife will always run her house like a Japanese so she will not assimilate at all. So the lesson here is always use birth control, always have a plan and always be ready to bail like I did. And girls, don't marry a shmoo who doesn't plan ahead.

I think it would be far more difficult to raise children to be bilingual in Canada as there is almost no opportunity to use Japanese in Canada whereas there are plenty of opportunities to use English in Japan, including in school where they study English 5 days a week in jr. high school and high school. Besides, Japanese requires a tonne of rote learning in order to develop and maintain the ability to write because of its complex writing system. There's little chance kids will maintain the necessary drill work required to develop their writing skills in Canada, especially if they haven't (like this guy's kids) been able to develop their English skills in Japan. For foreign kids to become bilingual in Japan it requires parents to put in the time and effort to not only speak English with them but to teach them phonics from a young age and follow up with reading and writing tasks as well as having discussions that develop their analytical skills. This would be even more essential in a country where their is literally no usage of the target language...and in a language that has as complex a writing system as Japanese. I have two kids, one in jr. high school and the other in high school. Both are fluent in both Japanese and English. The main reason for this is the time I put in to ensure that happened. I highly doubt my kids could have achieved fluency in Japanese had I moved to Canada. I know of a few mixed couples who have moved back to Canada. Their kids no longer speak any Japanese.

It would be horrible for the kids to make them move as a preteen or teens to Canada. They will be discriminated in Canada. Better to stay in Japan for now until they reach college.

I will say it’s so easy to spot Canadians. They are a delightful and nice group of foreigners. But some Yankees are nice also.

For a country struggling to keep their fertility rate up, they sure love making it harder or more expensive to raise kids in the country..

Is it fair though to uproot his children and Japanese wife away from their Japanese family? I think it's something to consider. Culturally elders are taken care of by the families. Is it so bad that his kids dont speak English in a country where the language is Japanese and not English..

why did you do this walking around on the street?

Can't find my previous comment 🤷🏻‍♂️ (why) was it deleted?

There was no solid reason why moving back

In terms of wealth, Japan is equal or even richer than western countries. But people tend to forget that culturally, it's not a western country and probably never will be.

Those kids are too young they will lose their Japanese very quick in Canada. Better to go when they are in their 20’s. after completing the highschool level kanji and grammar.

tenga shop!

The interviewer seems slightly smug. Not having a plan is how the other guy got to twenty years.

And japanese lesbian and bisexual girls loves have dating american, spanish, italian, or french gals? A great mistery.

I wish they hadn't done this while walking. So annoying.