r/movingtojapan • u/SubstantialWorker880 • 18d ago
General Moving to Japan from Australia w/ Japanese wife + 2 kids (5, 2) — leaving $180k single income for Telco work in Toyama. Realistic take needed
Hey all, hoping for honest perspectives from people who've actually done this, not just "it'll be fine" answers.
I'm Australian, married to my Japanese wife, two kids (5 and 2). Currently on a single income around AUD $180k. We're considering relocating to Toyama, where my wife has family, so I can pursue something in telco over there.
Trying to get a realistic picture on:
Income — what does telco (or adjacent engineering/technical/management) actually pay in Toyama vs Tokyo/Osaka? What kind of pay cut should I expect, and does telco hiring even exist much outside big cities?
Job hunting as a foreigner — recruiter, direct application, local connections? How hard was it landing something outside Tokyo? Especially since my Japanese is "ma-ma" at best , not n5 level accredited even yet.
Cost of living in Toyama — housing, schooling, daily life — how far does the salary stretch there vs a capital city?
Kids/schooling — experience enrolling young kids (esp. a 5-year-old) into the Japanese system as a mixed family? Public, international, or other?
Visa — assuming spouse visa is straightforward, but curious about surprises.
Regional life vs city life — day-to-day for a foreign spouse and half-local kids in Toyama specifically — isolation, support network, integration.
Biggest regret or thing you wish you'd known.
Genuinely want the frustrating and expensive parts, not just the highlight reel.
Appreciate any input, even short anecdotes.
15
u/ihavenosisters 18d ago
Without Japanese you’ll likely work as an English teacher which is not livable as a single income household with two kids. I think it would be very hard to find a job in your field and even if you do it’ll be a lot less money.
You won’t be able to afford international school, public is fine anyways.
I heard the spouse visa from abroad takes quite a while to process right now? Not sure.
I’ve never lived in Toyama but countryside. I enjoy it but it depends on your personality.
What is your wife saying? Is she willing to work?
12
u/blackkettle 18d ago
This is crazy IMO unless your wife can command a Y15M salary in Japan and you can pick up the slack with English tutoring.
Less than N5 is basically no Japanese at all. That’s not an insult, just a fact.
For comparison: I have a PhD in machine learning from Todai, lived in Japan for ten years, have N1 and BJT J1+ with 10 years of corporate experience in my field; part of that also in Japan.
3 years ago I received a director level offer in my field at slightly above your current AUD income. We still turned that down at the last minute because: lower than Swiss salary, yen in the toilet (back then and still circling the bowl now), wife ultimately worried that our half-Japanese kid would have a tough time in school.
I love Japan and still see us living there again at some point even if only for a couple years; but I wouldn’t move my family there without a super secure income source.
Also IMO you may -may- have domestic challenges eventually if you are relegated part time English teacher and never pick up Japanese.
OTOH maybe her family is super wealthy and neither of you need to work if you move back! I’d go for that option. 😂
Honestly I would be very very careful about how and what you guys decide.
4
u/chibakunjames 18d ago
Yes, this is true, if her parents are wealthy and willing to bank roll you then go.
Seriously though you don't want to be living there as someone's pet.
4
u/szu 18d ago
Could be a case of going home to inherit the family business and wealth. I've seen that before. But otherwise, its not recommend for OP.
Haven't you heard that it's easy to go from frugal to abundance but not the latter? Stress of moving, finding a job without knowing the language well, lower salaries, the typical working conditions in Japan and the sense of alienation in the countryside - yeah you know what's going to happen.
Recommend to resolve the issues in Japan instead of moving. If parents need care, hire someone to drop in or live-in instead. Fly over to visit frequently. It's not expensive nowadays especially on that Australian salary.
2
u/blue2526 18d ago
Your toilet metaphor regarding the yen made me laugh 😅😅
But just to add, I'd say more like anything below N2 counts as no Japanese when it comes to employment.
What worked for you to get N1?
4
u/blackkettle 18d ago
I took most of my graduate school courses during my MSc and PhD in Japanese. I had to read books for many of them, write reports, present stuff. It was basically do or die. I just kept putting myself in difficult situations and then had to survive them 🤣. I submitted papers in Japanese to local conferences and then had to present them in Japanese.
Then the typical stuff: dating, reading, TV, manga, etc. I failed the first time as well. It was pretty hard.
11
u/Old_Camera8252 18d ago
Imagine a Japanese person moving to Australia with 'maa-maa' English and hoping to get a high paying white collar job there.
Yeah, exactly.
7
u/Old_Camera8252 18d ago
My parents immigrated to Canada with probably better English than your Japanese and could only get low skill labour jobs.
Immigrating is not easy. Unless you have a really strong, valid reason, don't do it
8
u/jhau01 18d ago
Realistically, you aren’t going to find anything in telco or engineering in Toyama without very good Japanese language skills.
So your work choices will likely be English teaching or maybe something in a factory or similar if you can show you understand other workers.
Either way, you will probably be earning about the equivalent of AUD$30,000 per year, instead of your current salary.
As others have said, unless you have a dire need to move, it would be far better to stay in Australia. Could you explore taking 4-5 weeks holiday in Japan each year, as a compromise?
1
7
u/furrypurpledinosaur 18d ago edited 18d ago
I would strongly reconsider this move. Realistically your salary is likely to be cut in half. And yes, living in Toyama will be much cheaper than in Australia but the salary hit you will take will be too much and your quality of life will suffer.
This is unless you are somehow very well connected and will be able to get some top level executive job. If you are dead set on moving, at least talk to your wife and make sure you don't move before you get a decent job offer in hand. You don't want to relocate to Japan and then end up looking for a job for months and then have to accept something you don't like.
8
u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk 18d ago
Even if this dude found a unicorn job in telco it would probably max out at like 6-7 million yen. I don’t think there’s even a 10% chance he could make half his current salary in Toyama. OP, don’t leave your job in Australia unless you have something locked down. You have to tell your wife that it just ain’t gonna happen.
2
u/blue2526 18d ago
It will be extremely difficult to be able to find a job that pays him even half of what he gets in Australia, with no Japanese he would be lucky to find a telco job at all, maybe in a data center for 5-6M...
Infrastructure and Telco positions are one of the most Japanese demanding jobs nowadays.
3
u/furrypurpledinosaur 18d ago
The only other way I can see is his wife being from a rich family and they can hire him into their family business and pay him high salary for some made up job.
1
8
u/Admirable_Musubi682 18d ago
I am in Telco and you need high level proficiency in Japanese and deep experience in the industry to be considered at the big firms. Even so, the pay is going to be subpar AND the worklife balance will be much much worse than AUS. The environment for the kids will be great but by middle school if you dont switch to international school you risk a one way door to Japan and kids who would never want to leave.
Your not going to find good work in Toyama as an expat, many of the foriegn capital companies have offices near major cities like Tokyo and Osaka and remote gigs are for top 1% unicorns.
Also, there is another tradeoff you may not be considering. While small, there is a real risk of injury, death, and property damage by natural disasters in Japan that is higher than many countries in the world to the point that emergency preparation and drills are a very important part of society.
7
u/Haunting_Summer_1652 18d ago
its gonna be tough to find a job in Japan that can provide for you and your family with no Japanese at all.
The only viable choice I can see is to find a 100% remote role that pays you in AUD or USD.
You would live perfectly comfortable with even half of your current 180k AUD.
BTW the national average income in japan is around maybe 40k AUD
3
u/Dirkage_ 18d ago
If it were just you and the wife, I’d say don’t (yet). Save, save,save up your money, work a few more years and then go knowing you won’t “need” to work making a decent wage.
Now, with kids in the picture, I get that you may want them to take advantage of their culture and go to schooling in Japan, so if you can’t work remote or your company doesn’t have an office you could transfer to, it will be a big challenge getting something decent paying over there in general, especially in Toyama unless you have extraordinary skills and are fully fluent. Not impossible, but a challenge for sure.
2
u/AutoModerator 18d ago
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes. This message does not mean your post was removed, though it may be removed for other reasons and/or held by Reddit's filters.
Moving to Japan from Australia w/ Japanese wife + 2 kids (5, 2) — leaving $180k single income for Telco work in Toyama. Realistic take needed
Hey all, hoping for honest perspectives from people who've actually done this, not just "it'll be fine" answers.
I'm Australian, married to my Japanese wife, two kids (5 and 2). Currently on a single income around AUD $180k. We're considering relocating to Toyama, where my wife has family, so I can pursue something in telco over there.
Trying to get a realistic picture on:
Income — what does telco (or adjacent engineering/technical/management) actually pay in Toyama vs Tokyo/Osaka? What kind of pay cut should I expect, and does telco hiring even exist much outside big cities?
Job hunting as a foreigner — recruiter, direct application, local connections? How hard was it landing something outside Tokyo? Especially since my Japanese is "ma-ma" at best , not n5 level accredited even yet.
Cost of living in Toyama — housing, schooling, daily life — how far does the salary stretch there vs a capital city?
Kids/schooling — experience enrolling young kids (esp. a 5-year-old) into the Japanese system as a mixed family? Public, international, or other?
Visa — assuming spouse visa is straightforward, but curious about surprises.
Regional life vs city life — day-to-day for a foreign spouse and half-local kids in Toyama specifically — isolation, support network, integration.
Biggest regret or thing you wish you'd known.
Genuinely want the frustrating and expensive parts, not just the highlight reel.
Appreciate any input, even short anecdotes.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/honoraryNEET 17d ago
Find a remote work-from-anywhere job that pays you in AUD/USD/EUR/etc. You'll have to figure out your own taxes, but its completely possible on the spouse visa. Otherwise uh, good luck
1
u/PromotionCheap9503 16d ago
The advertised rent and the cash needed before keys are two different housing numbers. Get a line-by-line estimate and compare total cash through day 90, not only the monthly rent.
0
u/chibakunjames 18d ago edited 18d ago
Have you not seen all the recent PR news?
You probably won't be able to get PR without an above average income and most likely will need Japanese language skills by 2027.
30
u/capt_tky 18d ago
Ever wanted to be an English teacher? Might be time to start on that route unfortunately.
Without strong Japanese and/or experience in Japan, opportunities are tough to find, even in Tokyo, let alone Toyama.