Beverly Anne Hills
I spend six months a year living in rural Japan, where I have a permanent home. On balance, my own personal experiences are very positive.

我每年有六個(gè)月的時(shí)間住在日本農(nóng)村，在那里我有一個(gè)永久的家?？偟膩?lái)說(shuō)，我個(gè)人的感受非常正面。

The hardest thing for many Western foreigners is the realisation that YOU have to adapt, Japanese culture is old & very deep and will NOT change to accommodate YOU

對(duì)于許多西方外國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)，最難的事情是意識(shí)到你必須適應(yīng)，日本文化古老而深厚，不會(huì)為了適應(yīng)你而改變

Work-culture in Japan is brutal & salaries are very, very low. It is expected that employees do unpaid overtime and there's no way around it. Most foreign English teachers and the like leave after a couple of years because the days of well-paying work are long gone and it's impossible to support a family on an English teacher’s salary.

日本的工作文化很殘酷，工資非常非常低。員工加班是意料之中的事，這是無(wú)法避免的。大多數(shù)外國(guó)英語(yǔ)教師和類(lèi)似的人幾年后就離開(kāi)了，因?yàn)楦咝焦ぷ鞯娜兆右呀?jīng)一去不復(fù)返了，靠英語(yǔ)教師的薪水不可能養(yǎng)家糊口。

My personal situation is different. I have external sources of income and that works fine for me. I strongly recommend that anyone planning to live in Japan has an external source of income from their home country because you won't get rich working in Japan.

我的個(gè)人情況不同。我有外部收入來(lái)源，這對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)很好。我強(qiáng)烈建議任何計(jì)劃住在日本的人都有來(lái)自母國(guó)的外部收入來(lái)源，因?yàn)槟悴粫?huì)因?yàn)樵谌毡竟ぷ鞫赂弧?/b>
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A big shock for “weeaboos” is that the things you may be used to in your home countries are not encouraged in Japan:

對(duì)“日粉”來(lái)說(shuō)，一個(gè)很大的震撼就是，你可能在祖國(guó)習(xí)慣的東西在日本是不被鼓勵(lì)的：

Tattoos. Visible tattoos are associated with criminality, it's been this way in Japan for centuries and it's not going to change just because you are inked. If you want a measure of respect, cover your ink - it's the polite thing to do because many Japanese find tattoos intimidating. Of course, nobody will throw stones at you if you flaunt your tattoos. But you will be an outcast. If you have face tatts, don't bother coming - Japanese immigration at the airport are not known for their kindness and will give you a really hard time. That's just how things are, it's not going to change anytime soon.
Many drugs that are acceptable in your home country WILL earn you jail time & deportation. That includes stimulant ADHD meds, as well as “medical marijuana.” They make no exceptions. Hundreds of foreigners are deported every year for bringing in contraband meds & drugs. If Japan deported Sir Paul McCartney for bringing in contraband, be assured they won't hesitate to lock you up for a few days before deporting you for doing the same. Be aware you stay locked up until YOU pay for your outbound ticket. Being detained in Japan is a pretty unpleasant experience. Japan also shares immigration/deportation data with a bunch of other countries, which could cause future difficulties. It's, really unwise to mess with the system here because you cannot win.
All that said, I love living in Japan. I feel safe here 24/7 and people are extraordinarily polite. Totally different from Australia, where I come from. I leave my doors & windows unlocked in Japan. Today someone came into my house when I was out walking & left some home-grown oranges on my kitchen table. Still trying to figure out who it was.

紋身?？梢?jiàn)的紋身與犯罪有關(guān)，在日本，這種情況已經(jīng)持續(xù)了幾個(gè)世紀(jì)，而且不會(huì)因?yàn)槟闵砩嫌屑y身而改變。如果你想要贏得尊重，那就遮住紋身——這是禮貌的做法，因?yàn)樵S多日本人覺(jué)得紋身令人生畏。當(dāng)然，如果你炫耀自己的紋身，沒(méi)有人會(huì)向你扔石頭。但你會(huì)被排斥。如果你臉上有紋身，就別過(guò)來(lái)了——日本機(jī)場(chǎng)的移民局并不以友善著稱(chēng)，會(huì)讓你很難堪。事情就是這樣，短期內(nèi)不會(huì)改變。
許多在你的祖國(guó)可以接受的藥物都會(huì)讓你坐牢和被驅(qū)逐出境。其中包括興奮劑ADHD藥物，以及“醫(yī)用大M”。他們沒(méi)有例外。每年都有數(shù)百名外國(guó)人因攜帶違禁藥品和毒品而被驅(qū)逐出境。日本因?yàn)閿y帶違禁品而將保羅·麥卡特尼爵士驅(qū)逐出境，請(qǐng)放心，他們會(huì)毫不猶豫地將你關(guān)起來(lái)幾天，然后再將你驅(qū)逐出境。請(qǐng)注意，在你支付出境機(jī)票之前，你都會(huì)被關(guān)起來(lái)。在日本被拘留是一種非常不愉快的經(jīng)歷。日本還與許多其他國(guó)家共享移民/驅(qū)逐出境數(shù)據(jù)，這可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致未來(lái)二次返日時(shí)的困難。在這里試圖去搗亂社會(huì)體系真的很不明智，因?yàn)槟愀沮A不了。
盡管如此，我還是喜歡住在日本。我在這里全天候都感到很安全，人們非常有禮貌。這與我的家鄉(xiāng)澳大利亞完全不同。在日本，我不會(huì)把門(mén)窗上鎖。今天我出去散步時(shí)，有人進(jìn)了我家，把一些自家??種的橘子放在我的廚房桌子上。我還在想是誰(shuí)來(lái)著。

So yes, Japan isn't for everyone. But it works for me, mainly because I don't have to work here.

所以是的，日本并不適合所有人。但它很適合我，主要是因?yàn)槲也恍枰谶@里工作。

Victor Lee Junsei
I am a Malaysian who started out learning Japanese at the age of 19 went to Japan at the age of 20 and finally ended my journey in Japan at the age of 35 and just came back to home country Malaysia 3 months ago.

我是馬來(lái)西亞人，19歲開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)日語(yǔ)，20歲去日本，35歲結(jié)束日本之旅，3個(gè)月前剛回到祖國(guó)馬來(lái)西亞。

Since I am Chinese so I look like them and apparently my Japanese was very close to native level and I also worked as a producer in some big gaming companies before and I even build a game studio before by hiring 35 Japanese permanent staffs.

因?yàn)槲沂侨A人，所以長(zhǎng)得像日本人，而且我的日語(yǔ)水平很接近母語(yǔ)水平，我之前也在一些大型游戲公司擔(dān)任制作人，甚至還成立過(guò)一個(gè)游戲工作室，雇傭過(guò)35名日本全職員工。

I would say that my experience is somewhat beyond what a normal Japanese person life could had been and base on my own experiences and perspective yes I agree that Japan is not worth doing long stay. But I see it as a very different angle.

我想說(shuō)的是，我的經(jīng)歷有點(diǎn)超出了普通日本人的生活范圍，根據(jù)我自己的經(jīng)歷和觀點(diǎn)，我同意日本不值得長(zhǎng)期居住。但我會(huì)從非常不同的角度來(lái)看待這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

The tax is too high and it will only get higher. For high income people who owns a business your company and your personal income will BOTH gets a 55% cut maximum and its non negotiable when you earn a lot. In Malaysia, taxes are negotiable and I going with 15% only flat rate right now. That alone was big enough to leave Japan and re-establish my studio in Malaysia.

稅收太高了，而且只會(huì)越來(lái)越高。對(duì)于擁有企業(yè)的高收入人士，您的公司和您的個(gè)人收入都將獲得最高55%稅率，而且當(dāng)您賺很多錢(qián)時(shí)，這是不可協(xié)商的。在馬來(lái)西亞，稅收是可以協(xié)商的，我現(xiàn)在只接受15%的固定稅率。僅憑這一點(diǎn)就足以讓我離開(kāi)日本，回到馬來(lái)西亞重建我的工作室。

The lack of competitiveness and the eagerness to try and learn from the younger generations. As a business owner we will always need younger staffs who are keen to learn with passion especially in my line of creativity but this is getting very rare in Japan these days even in Tokyo. I will blame it on the government who kinda cater towards the older generations as the whole country now is basically a BIG ASS old folks home with full support to elders as squeezing young adults for pension. And with less younger working adults and more elderly to feed with their long life span you can kinda see it’s a ticking bomb anytime soon.

缺乏競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力，也缺乏嘗試向年輕一代學(xué)習(xí)的熱情。作為企業(yè)主，我們總是需要年輕員工，他們熱衷于學(xué)習(xí)，尤其是在創(chuàng)意領(lǐng)域，但如今的日本，即使在東京，這種情況也非常罕見(jiàn)。我會(huì)把這歸咎于政府，他們有點(diǎn)迎合老一代，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在整個(gè)國(guó)家基本上是一個(gè)龐大的養(yǎng)老院，為老年人提供全力支持，擠壓年輕人的養(yǎng)老金。隨著年輕的能工作的成年人越來(lái)越少，需要養(yǎng)活的長(zhǎng)壽老人越來(lái)越多，你很快就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這是一顆定時(shí)炸彈。
Besides the tax they make you pay for health insurance compulsory. And like the tax the health insurance will also increase every year making it a burden to young adults who just started to work. In countries like Malaysia health insurance is not a must and our medicine is cheap. In Japan if you do not pay for your health insurance which is called 健康保険 all medical fees will be +70% imagine that.
除了稅收，他們還強(qiáng)制你支付健康保險(xiǎn)。和稅收一樣，健康保險(xiǎn)也會(huì)每年增加，這對(duì)剛開(kāi)始工作的年輕人來(lái)說(shuō)是一種負(fù)擔(dān)。在馬來(lái)西亞這樣的國(guó)家，健康保險(xiǎn)不是必須的，我們的藥品很便宜。在日本，如果你不支付健康保險(xiǎn)（稱(chēng)為健康保險(xiǎn)），所有的醫(yī)療費(fèi)用將增加70%，想象一下。

Now if you understand the high tax rate and low income and low passion from the young generations what do they prefer to do now? Well here is the darkside. Host clubs and girls bars, men’s health care massage and sugar daddy are so common that it was not even known as a problem anymore in Japan. It comes to a point that a prostitute can be an ideal soulmate for some men who just spend so much time in work and earning a little. Thus it comes with their heavy drinking culture which is called 飲みニケーション and there is normally a companionship there to attend them.
現(xiàn)在，如果你了解了高稅率、低收入和年輕一代的低熱情，那么他們現(xiàn)在更喜歡做什么呢？好吧，這就是陰暗面。男招待俱樂(lè)部和女孩酒吧、男士保健按摩和傍大款在日本如此普遍，以至于這甚至不再是一個(gè)社會(huì)問(wèn)題。對(duì)于一些花大量時(shí)間在工作上、賺得很少的男人來(lái)說(shuō)，J女可以成為理想的靈魂伴侶。因此，他們就有了酗酒的文化，這種文化被稱(chēng)為“飲みニケーション”（喝酒聯(lián)誼），而且通常會(huì)有同伴陪伴他們。
one of the best long term investment ever known in within this 80 years of history is property. While Japan is full of earthquake and with the Nankai Plate splitting anytime soon it’s crazy just how Japanese companies could manipulate their property prices so high even until today. There are still people who wants to live in high skyscraper buildings and those properties are super overvalued from my own judgement. I single strike on Mother Nature could had collapse the whole market and we had seen them at with the 2011 tohoku earthquake. So on a business perspective and risk management would u rather listen to the broker who tries to sell you a USD10 million prop in Tokyo and saying the price will continue to rise or would you rather pay USD3 million for Malaysia property in KL and has 5 times more land with NO earthquake and any other sorts of nature disaster? It seems pretty obvious.

在最近80年的歷史中，有史以來(lái)最好的長(zhǎng)期投資之一就是房地產(chǎn)。雖然日本地震頻發(fā)，南海板塊隨時(shí)可能分裂，但日本公司至今仍能操縱房地產(chǎn)市場(chǎng)達(dá)到如此高的房?jī)r(jià)，這真是太瘋狂了。仍然有人想住在摩天大樓里，而這些房產(chǎn)在我看來(lái)被嚴(yán)重高估了。只需一次大的天災(zāi)，整個(gè)市場(chǎng)就可能崩潰，我們?cè)?011年?yáng)|北地震中就看到了這一點(diǎn)。所以從商業(yè)角度和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)管理的角度來(lái)看，你是愿意聽(tīng)從試圖在東京向你出售價(jià)值1000萬(wàn)美元的房產(chǎn)并吹噓價(jià)格會(huì)繼續(xù)上漲的經(jīng)紀(jì)人的話，還是愿意花300萬(wàn)美元購(gòu)買(mǎi)吉隆坡的馬來(lái)西亞房產(chǎn)，那里的土地是這里的5倍，沒(méi)有地震和任何其他自然災(zāi)害？這似乎很明顯。

studies there, earn millions in Japan , appended it like crazy on companion girls, bought some companies sold it off went through corona and the 2011 earthquake been through a few love life with Japanese girls… yea I do not recommend a long stay in Japan.
Come to Southeast Asia , we are getting more advance now and our prices and taxes are still very cheap haha.
cheers and hope this helps!!

在那里學(xué)習(xí)，在日本賺了數(shù)百萬(wàn)，瘋狂地把錢(qián)花在伴游女孩身上，買(mǎi)下了一些公司然后出售，經(jīng)歷了新冠疫情和2011年地震，和一些日本女孩談了戀愛(ài)……是的，我不建議在日本呆太久。
來(lái)東南亞吧，我們現(xiàn)在進(jìn)步很大，而且我們的物價(jià)和稅收仍然很便宜哈哈。
干杯，希望這對(duì)你能有所幫助！！

Thomas Cayne
One of my cousins dreamed about a life in Japan. He obtained a Master’s degree in Japanese studies and then moved to Japan to begin a new life.

我的一個(gè)表弟夢(mèng)想著在日本生活。他獲得了日本研究型碩士學(xué)位，然后搬到日本開(kāi)始新生活。

It was not what he expected.

這與他所期望的不一樣。

My cousin loved life in a Western way, and in his case that meant that he valued dining out, going to parties, having a girlfriend and hobbies, and excelling at doing basically nothing while lying on the couch, far above the concept of work, and the importance of success.

我的表弟喜歡西方生活，對(duì)他來(lái)說(shuō)，這意味著他重視外出就餐、參加派對(duì)、有女朋友和愛(ài)好，擅長(zhǎng)躺在沙發(fā)上什么都不做，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于工作的概念和成功的重要性。

And this kind of non-philosophy did not work out.

而這種非哲學(xué)并沒(méi)有奏效。
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In the very beginning he was embraced by his new home, but very quickly his way of “interpreting life” was spit out and on by his Japanese company and new “friends.” Not much later, he was excluded from the city society as an outcast.

一開(kāi)始，他被新家接納了，但很快，他的“生活解讀”方式就被他的日本公司和新“朋友”所唾棄。不久之后，他被排除在城市社會(huì)之外，成為一個(gè)棄兒。

And eventually he needed to be repatriated with the help of his family back home, because he had sunk into a deep depression, and nobody seemed to care about this inferior immigrant who had showed no respect for the Japanese way of life.

最后，他不得不在家鄉(xiāng)家人的幫助下被遣送回國(guó)，因?yàn)樗萑肓松钌畹囊钟?，似乎沒(méi)有人關(guān)心這個(gè)對(duì)日本生活方式毫無(wú)尊重的劣等移民。

And that’s why I think that indeed, Japan is not suitable for a long-term stay.

這就是為什么我認(rèn)為日本確實(shí)不適合長(zhǎng)期居住。

It is deeply diseased by racism, and it seems to be constricting itself through degrees of obsession which are simply too abundant for a country to remain healthy in the end.

日本深受種族主義的困擾，而且似乎正通過(guò)各種程度的迷惑行為來(lái)束縛自身，而這種普遍存在的迷惑行為對(duì)于一個(gè)想要保持健康向上社會(huì)氛圍的國(guó)家來(lái)說(shuō)是無(wú)益的。

You can’t keep shouting if you forget how to breathe.
SOURCES: original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865).

如果你忘記了如何呼吸，你就不能一直吶喊。
資料來(lái)源：歌川國(guó)貞(1786-1865)于19 世紀(jì)50年代創(chuàng)作的原創(chuàng)藝術(shù)作品。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://mintwatchbillionaireclub.com 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


?Tom Brucia
My son moved to Japan right out of college 30 years ago and is established there. He lives midway between Tokyo and Yokohama now. He lived in Kitakyushu (high school assistant English teacher), worked for a large communications firm (contract; night shift) in Tokyo, and then — and now — works as a freelance Japanese-English translator. Our daughter-in-law is a hard-working woman, first raising two boys and now back working outside the house full-time. They, now in good high school and an excellent university respectively, were born and raised in Japan and have lived their entire lives there. (Japanese is their first language; English is just a second language).

我兒子30年前，在大學(xué)畢業(yè)后就搬到了日本，并在那里定居。他現(xiàn)在住在東京和橫濱之間。他住在北九州（高中英語(yǔ)助教），在東京一家大型通訊公司工作（合同制；夜班），然后——現(xiàn)在——做自由日英翻譯。我們的兒媳是個(gè)勤勞的女人，先是養(yǎng)育了兩個(gè)兒子，現(xiàn)在又全職外出工作。他們現(xiàn)在分別在一所優(yōu)秀的高中和一所優(yōu)秀的大學(xué)讀書(shū)，他們?cè)谌毡境錾烷L(zhǎng)大，一生都住在那里。（日語(yǔ)是他們的第一語(yǔ)言；英語(yǔ)只是第二語(yǔ)言）。

My son is fully comfortable with his clients, and they seem very happy with his work. The boys have a lot of friends. My daughter-in-law does what Japanese women do, which entails a lot of ‘community work’ and being a good neighbor as well as working outside once the kids are gone. In short, at least in their urban world, their lives are similar to the ones they’d live if in Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles. A routine middle-class life.

我兒子和他的客戶(hù)相處得很融洽，他們似乎對(duì)他的工作也很滿(mǎn)意。孩子們有很多朋友。我的兒媳做著日本女人做的事，包括做很多“社區(qū)工作”，當(dāng)一個(gè)好鄰居，以及在孩子們離開(kāi)家后在外面工作。簡(jiǎn)而言之，至少在他們的城市世界里，他們的生活與在芝加哥、紐約或洛杉磯的生活相似。一種常規(guī)的中產(chǎn)階級(jí)生活。

My son has always been adaptable. He was born in England and spent the first three years of his life in Spain (his first languages were Spanish and English). Mom is from Spain; Dad (me) is from the northern part of the US, and the three of us mostly adapted to life in Texas. (Fortunately is a very ethnically diverse city!) I think a lot of “l(fā)ong-term stay” concerns mindset. (We’re obviously a nomadic family!) Family comes first; work obligations come second; friends are for keeps unless they decide otherwise; and we manage without much regard for “what people think.”

我的兒子的適應(yīng)能力一直很強(qiáng)。他出生在英國(guó)，生命中的前三年是在西班牙度過(guò)的（他的第一語(yǔ)言是西班牙語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)）。媽媽來(lái)自西班牙；爸爸（我）來(lái)自美國(guó)北部，我們?nèi)齻€(gè)人基本適應(yīng)了德克薩斯的生活。（幸運(yùn)的是，這是一個(gè)種族多元化的城市?。┪艺J(rèn)為很多“長(zhǎng)期居住”都與心態(tài)有關(guān)。（我們顯然是一個(gè)游牧家庭?。┘彝ナ堑谝晃坏模还ぷ髁x務(wù)是第二位的；朋友是永遠(yuǎn)的，除非他們另有決定；我們不太在意“別人怎么想”。

If you decide to plunk down somewhere (anywhere!) and adapt, you do so. If you yearn for things in the past or for unrealistic dreams, you doom yourself to unhappiness. One thing is for sure: even if you stay in one single place, the world changes around you. In a very real sense, we’re all refugees or migrants unsuited to the present because what is past is gone forever. The idea that you can ‘fit in’ anywhere is a stretch.

如果你下定決心在某個(gè)地方（任何地方?。┌差D下來(lái)并適應(yīng)，那么就去做吧。如果你懷念過(guò)去的事情或有著不切實(shí)際的夢(mèng)想，你注定會(huì)不快樂(lè)。有一件事是肯定的：即使你呆在一個(gè)地方，你周?chē)氖澜缫矔?huì)發(fā)生變化。從非常現(xiàn)實(shí)的意義上講，我們都是難民或移民，之所以無(wú)法馬上適應(yīng)現(xiàn)在的生活，是因?yàn)檫^(guò)去的一切已經(jīng)一去不復(fù)返了。認(rèn)為你可以“融入”任何地方的想法有點(diǎn)牽強(qiáng)。

Patrick de Sousa
I have the feeling that Japan is held to much higher standards than other countries.

我覺(jué)得日本的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)比其他國(guó)家高得多。

Nobody would move to a foreign land expecting to make friends easily and to be considered a local, and still we see thousands of gaijin asking themselves why do they face difficulties doing so as they move to Japan.

沒(méi)有人可以一搬到異國(guó)他鄉(xiāng)，就期望能輕易交到朋友并被視為當(dāng)?shù)厝耍覀內(nèi)匀豢吹匠汕先f(wàn)的外國(guó)人在搬到日本時(shí)問(wèn)自己為什么會(huì)遇到困難。

I'm willing to admit that Japan is more insular than the US or Europe. Foreigners are a small percentage of the population. But some of the oft-quoted unsuitabilities of Japan for a long term stay, such as bureaucracy or a lack of ability in foreign languages, are near universal concerns. We just handle bureaucracy and work culture more easily when we are raised in the country that we live in, and we can count on our parents and peers to help us learn how to do everyday stuff.

我承認(rèn)日本比美國(guó)或歐洲更封閉。外國(guó)人只占人口的一小部分。但一些經(jīng)常被提及的“為什么日本不適合長(zhǎng)期居住”問(wèn)題，如官僚主義或缺乏外語(yǔ)能力，幾乎是普遍關(guān)注的問(wèn)題。當(dāng)我們?cè)谧约壕幼〉膰?guó)家長(zhǎng)大時(shí)，我們更容易處理官僚主義和工作文化，我們可以依靠父母和同齡人來(lái)幫助我們學(xué)習(xí)如何做日常事務(wù)。

Adults have a hard time making new friends anywhere, and we will always feel a bit isolated if we move away from our family and community - even if we just move somewhere we can't get back to in a weekend jaunt. In the US, you don't even have to move to another country to feel this way.

成年人很難在任意地點(diǎn)都結(jié)交到新朋友，如果我們離開(kāi)家人和社區(qū)，我們總會(huì)感到有點(diǎn)孤單——即使我們只是搬到一個(gè)周末無(wú)法回到老家的地方。在美國(guó)，你甚至不必搬到另一個(gè)國(guó)家就能有這種感覺(jué)。

In addition to that, most foreigners in Japan are visibly foreign. They might get treated with stereotypes that they can't shake off even by living decades in Japan, but it's no different than what happens with Middle Easterners in Europe, or Black people in much of Asia and Oceania, or White people in most of Sub-saharan Africa.

除此之外，日本的大多數(shù)外國(guó)人都有明顯的非日本特征。他們可能會(huì)受到刻板印象的對(duì)待，即使在日本生活了幾十年也無(wú)法擺脫這種印象，但這與歐洲的中東人、亞洲和大洋洲大部分地區(qū)的黑人或撒哈拉以南非洲大部分地區(qū)的白人所經(jīng)歷的遭遇沒(méi)有什么不同。

In some ways, Japan is more accommodating than most countries. You can find English language signs in most places. Nearly every traffic sign and train station sign is transliterated to the Roman Alphabet, even deep in the countryside: you try that in China, Russia or anywhere else where they don't use the same letters as we do.

在某些方面，日本比大多數(shù)國(guó)家更包容。你可以在大多數(shù)地方找到英語(yǔ)標(biāo)志。幾乎每一個(gè)交通標(biāo)志和火車(chē)站標(biāo)志都音譯成羅馬字母，即使在偏遠(yuǎn)的鄉(xiāng)村也是如此：你可以在中國(guó)、俄羅斯或任何不使用與我們相同字母的地方嘗試一下。

Japan even has a program to help kids acclimatize themselves with foreigners, the notorious JET: I find it hard to believe that most governments would spend taxpayer money bringing underqualified 20-somethings halfway across the world to act as teacher aides.

日本甚至有一個(gè)幫助孩子們適應(yīng)外國(guó)人的項(xiàng)目即臭名昭著的JET項(xiàng)目：我很難相信有那么多政府會(huì)把納稅人的錢(qián)花在資助一個(gè)未獲得教學(xué)資格的20多歲的年輕人，并把他帶到半個(gè)地球之外的地方擔(dān)任助教上。

Japan is probably more suitable for a long term stay than most of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

日本可能比亞洲、非洲和拉丁美洲的大多數(shù)地方更適合長(zhǎng)期居住。

Nao Suzuki
Japanese here. My answer is meant to provide some feedback, as a Japanese, to some of the answers provided here in a respectful manner.

我是日本人。作為一名日本人，我的回答旨在以尊重的方式對(duì)這里的一些答案提供一些反饋。

Cost of Living
Having lived in Vancouver and Bay Area, I find living expenses are way lower here in Japan. It’s pretty common for a young professional to live in a shared apartment in North America, yet it’s rather uncommon even in some of the most expensive cities in Japan like Tokyo. Not to mention, the measure of how high the given cost is to you depends largely on you, so it might be wise to give some idea; thanks to the today’s currency rate 5~8 USD is more than sufficient for having lunch at a restaurant in Tokyo; 3~6 USD gets you a fast food meal across the country; no tipping needed and no one accepts it; a studio apartment in Tokyo costs around 600~700 USD a month on average, and a considerable number of companies provide financial assistance so that you’ll pay 10~40% of the rent. While I agree that salary is not attractive here in Japan relative to other developed countries, what I feel everyone forgets to mention or just simply overlook is they, partially or entirely, ignore inflation-adjusted costs of living.

生活成本
我曾在溫哥華和灣區(qū)生活過(guò)，我發(fā)現(xiàn)日本的生活成本要低得多。在北美，年輕的專(zhuān)業(yè)人??士住在合租公寓里是很常見(jiàn)的，但即使在一些生活成本最高的日本城市，比如東京，這種情況也相當(dāng)罕見(jiàn)。更不用說(shuō)，給定的成本對(duì)你來(lái)說(shuō)有多高，很大程度上取決于你，所以給出一些想法可能是明智的；按照今天的匯率，在東京的餐館吃一頓午飯花5~8美元就足夠了；3~6美元可以在日本全國(guó)任意地方吃上一頓快餐；不需要給小費(fèi)，也不會(huì)有人接受；東京的一套單間公寓平均每月租金約為600~700美元，相當(dāng)多的公司提供經(jīng)濟(jì)援助，這樣你只需支付10~40%的房租。雖然我同意日本的工資相對(duì)于其他發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家來(lái)說(shuō)并不吸引人，但我覺(jué)得每個(gè)人都忘記提及或只是簡(jiǎn)單地選擇忽略了通貨膨脹調(diào)整后的生活成本。

Work Culture
Long hours, extra unpaid work, demanding environments, etc.. They are all true. That said, the first two are getting way better in almost all corporations except for the public sector, especially teachers. Teaching jobs are notorious for their toxic working conditions today and referred to as ブラック(reads “black”).

工作文化

長(zhǎng)時(shí)間工作、額外的無(wú)償工作、苛刻的工作環(huán)境等。這些都是事實(shí)。話雖如此，除了公共部門(mén)，幾乎所有公司的前兩個(gè)方面都在改善，尤其是教師。如今，教師工作因其惡劣的工作條件而臭名昭著，被稱(chēng)為ブラック（讀作“黑色”）。
Compensation Package
The aforementioned cost of living is not that problematic after adjusting to inflation. However, keep in mind that starting salary for new college graduates is almost universal among all professionals and ranges from 18,000~22,000 USD/yr plus some moderate bonuses which can vary quite a bit depending on each firm. For better or worse to some people, we have no computer science hype here.

薪酬待遇
上述生活成本在調(diào)整通貨膨脹率后并不成問(wèn)題。但是，請(qǐng)記住，大學(xué)應(yīng)屆畢業(yè)生的起薪幾乎適用于所有專(zhuān)業(yè)人士，范圍從18,000 到22,000美元/年，外加一些適度的獎(jiǎng)金，這些獎(jiǎng)金可能因公司而異。無(wú)論對(duì)某些人來(lái)說(shuō)是好是壞，我們這里沒(méi)有計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)炒作。

Language Barrier
This is the hardest part in my opinion. Being competent in Japanese is just a minimum requirement for a decent job. Still, it’s worth mentioning that no one should blame them for this for the very reason I never condemn American or Canadian firms for not hiring those not being able to speak English or French.

語(yǔ)言障礙
在我看來(lái)，這是最難的部分。精通日語(yǔ)只是一份體面工作的最低要求。不過(guò)，值得一提的是，沒(méi)有人應(yīng)該為此責(zé)怪他們，因?yàn)槲乙矎牟蛔l責(zé)美國(guó)或加拿大公司不雇用那些不會(huì)說(shuō)英語(yǔ)或法語(yǔ)的人。

Tattoos and Drugs
Tattoos are not seen favorably in Japan. But there are two supplementary facts; they tend to have some degree of tolerance towards foreigners’ tattoos; even in Western countries having visible tattoos could potentially harm one’s job prospects especially in a field like finance, law, education, and healthcare. As for drugs, they’re by and large pretty “conservative” (I’m not yet sure if this is the right adjective though)

紋身和毒品
紋身在日本并不受歡迎。但有兩個(gè)補(bǔ)充事實(shí)；他們往往對(duì)外國(guó)人的紋身有一定程度的容忍度；即使在西方國(guó)家，有明顯的紋身也可能損害一個(gè)人的就業(yè)前景，尤其是在金融、法律、教育和醫(yī)療保健等領(lǐng)域。至于毒品，他們總體上相當(dāng)“保守”（不過(guò)我還不確定這是否是正確的形容詞）

Notes
One important thing to point out is that you might be the one who hinders you from immersing yourself in the Japanese society. Language barriers, a homogeneous racial demographic, and possibly other overlooked factors certainly raise immigration hurdles for many. At the same time, however, you’re expected to change your mindset and to contribute to the country as a part of the community. If you cannot help but think about how much you’d have earned otherwise if you stayed in your country, that’s a clear indication you really don’t have the right mindset unfortunately.

注釋
需要指出的一件重要事項(xiàng)是，你自己可能就是那個(gè)阻礙你融入日本社會(huì)的人。語(yǔ)言障礙、同質(zhì)的種族人口結(jié)構(gòu)以及其他可能被忽視的因素肯定會(huì)給許多人增加移民障礙。但與此同時(shí)，你也被期望轉(zhuǎn)變你的舊心態(tài)，并作為日本社區(qū)的一部分為國(guó)家做出貢獻(xiàn)。如果你忍不住一直想假如當(dāng)初留在你原來(lái)的國(guó)家現(xiàn)在會(huì)賺多少錢(qián)，不好意思，那就表明你還沒(méi)有做好心理建設(shè)。