Living in Japan

Japan offers solid, dependable pay against costs that are real without being punishing, so most people end up with something put aside each month. Getting hired is the hard part, since the system favors those who already know it and English carries only so far outside a few fields. Tech, construction, and the skilled trades are the likeliest openings for someone arriving from abroad. The reward here is stability more than a windfall, which suits some careers better than others.

Japan's foreign-born population, long small for an economy its size, now stands at 3.4M and grew 33% over the past decade. The arrivals are overwhelmingly from East and Southeast Asia, led by China (809.9K), Vietnam, and South Korea.