Why I Can’t Leave Japan

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So as many of you know, I’m an American who moved to Japan more than 20 years ago, now married to my Japanese wife with a 3 year old son. I still get asked if I’m ever going to move back to the US. Although it’s never off the table, for me as a Permanent Resident and now as a Parent in Japan having my Son grow up here just seems like the best option for us, at least for right now, and in this video I’m gonna share with you some of the reasons why I can’t leave Japan and why I don’t want to.

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So this is why I can’t leave Japan so many of you know that I’m an American who moved to Japan more than 20 years ago now married to my Japanese wife with a 3-year-old son but I still get asked a question if I’ll ever move back to the US although it’s never off

The table for me as a permanent resident and now as a parent in Japan having my son grow up here just seems the best option for us at least for right now and in this video I’m going to share with you some of the reasons why I can’t

Leave Japan and why I don’t want to Oh and before we get too deep into this there’s obviously many downsides to living in Japan and many upsides to living the us but that’s not the focus of this video either way I’m sure many of you will point out the arguments to

Me anyway so yeah let me know in the comments what you agree or disagree with and why as there’s always two sides to a coin number one freedom first of all you’re pretty much able to do anything you want here in Japan well pretty much just as long as you’re not

An a-hole about it and you’re not going around and harassing people yeah I may have a looser definition of freedom but if you’re simply living a normal life you’re more than good here you go to school you go to work you follow the rules eat great food hang out with

Friends travel where you want what more can you ask for in fact you can do stuff in Japan that you can’t do in the US or other countries not that I do any of it personally but nonetheless you can in fact you can watch some of the examples

Right here in this video number two safety now this one is a no-brainer especially now that I’m a parent I think one of the best things you can do for your child is have them grow up in a safe environment and Japan is at the top

Of the list in fact recent study show Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world at 22.9 when compared to say the us or just double that at at 47.8 one but simply from my perspective walking down the street I just feel safe can’t remember

Ever walking around to Japan even in the middle of the night being scared I’m going to get robbed assaulted or even killed while in the US let’s just say I’ve been a little bit nervous visiting some neighborhoods Japan is so safe it’s normal for Young Elementary kids to walk

Around the city alone and take buses and trains to get to school take it for what you will I’d prefer that my son grow up in a safe environment and Tokyo in general is just a safe City and yes there are outliers like everything else but hey I’m going with the odds number

Three gun violence is just not an issue here in Japan and one less thing I have to worry about when raising my son I know this topic should fit in with safety but I think it’s worth noting separately since Japan has one of the lowest firearm related death rates in the world at

0.08 and compared to again the us at 10 .89 and it’s not like there’s no guns in Japan in fact you can purchase guns here as long as it’s a shotgun or rifle and it’s for target shooting or hunting also for Japanese citizens to purchase a gun

They must attend an all day class pass a written exam and complete a shooting range test they also receive a mental health evaluation performed by a mental health psychiatrist checking for things like schizophrenia depressive disorders alcohol addiction narcotic addiction Etc and to top it all off the government government performs an extensive

Background check contacting neighbors landlords work colleagues Etc finally you have to retake the exam every 3 years and your gun is inspected annually to ensure that it hasn’t been modified without permission number four healthy school lunches now if you’ve been watching this channel you know how healthy Japan School meals are food

Education is a top priority in Japanese schools which they even have a word for it Shoku iku and it’s something I want to give to my son as I’ve said before in Japan lunchtime itself is considered food education as opposed to a simple break between classes Japanese believe

That providing their youth a balanced and delicious meal every day at lunch naturally teaches them good eating habits and what they should be eating outside of school so my wife grew up in Japan and she tells me that she actually looked forward to school meals as it

Tastes good and the meal changed every single day although we as a family try our best at home to give our son a healthy diet it’s nice to know that the is also doing its part this is probably again why Japan has one of the lowest

Rates of obesity in the world at 3.6% when again compared to the states at 36.2% in fact While most Nations consider obesity to be at a BMI body mass index of 30 or over the Japanese government has set obesity to 25 to be honest I wish I would have received some

Of this Japanese food education when I was growing up just looking back on all of my bad food habits back back in the day frying chicken nuggets after school with Mountain Dew followed up with Oreo cookie soaked in a large glass of milk probably not the best diet I just didn’t

Know better okay so before we continue on I want to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of this video Squarespace if you all don’t already know Squarespace is a number one way to build your online presence in fact I use Squarespace for my website Tokyo zebra here are just

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Going to a Japanese Nursery School it’s pretty clear that Japan places a strong emphasis on kids following the rules and Collective group Behavior known in Japan as shuon Coto obviously I don’t want my son to become a straightup robot but I do feel that having a sense of responsibility for his actions and

Community is important and I think the Japanese school system helps enforce this Behavior whether it’s as simple as washing their hands and gurgling every time they arrive at school or grade school kids all working together to clean their school every day or even taking turns to hand out school lunches

The school system seems to encourage students to be decent human beings who knows I may change my mind on this when my kid gets a little bit older but for now it just seems like a good option here in Japan just last week my son told

Me that I shouldn’t put my elbow on the table cuz it’s not good we never taught him this but it’s great that the school teaches him and I guess a few months ago he even told us that he was responsible for throwing away the food on his plate

That he couldn’t finish he’s only three and look at this people at the train station just following rules even though you might be able to get ahead if you go on the other lane most people will just follow the rules it’s probably why in the latest Japan Airlines crash all 379

People aboard were able to safely escape the Burning Plane they followed instructions and didn’t go their own way but yes even making this argument I can already see that always doing exactly what you’re told is maybe not a good thing for my kid as it could limit his

Creativity but at the same time I think it’s just more of my responsibility as a parent to show my son how to be an independent thinker and soul within such an environment number six suicides now this one is kind of a weird one to talk

About cuz it’s kind of not a reason why you would want to live in Japan but I wanted to mention it anyway since so many people comment about it when I talk about Japanese following the rules discipline work ethic Etc saying that’s why the suicide rate is so high in Japan

Well yes it is a problem and something that needs to be worked on and something that you know I am concerned about for my son but the numbers have been decreasing in Japan over the years due to government efforts and programs so I think it’s unfair to always say that

Japanese have the highest suicide rates when you actually look at the more recent statistics the US sadly in recent studies shows a high higher suicide rate at 16.1 compared to Japan at 15.3 for 100,000 people both those seem unnecessarily high as they’re both above the world average at 9.1 it is a serious

Issue so if any of you yourself are struggling with any mental illness or depression I sincerely hope that you can get the help you need so I don’t know I just wanted to mention that there has been a downward Trend in Japan and when compared to moving back to the States

It’s just not so much different and number seven free healthcare in Japan kids can receive treatment or medications for free until they’re 15 years old again it’s one less worry for me as a parent just to know that if my kid does get sick the Health Care system

Will take care of him I mean just these last couple years my son has been catching colds having fevers getting rashes Etc and just being able to go to the doctor to get him checked out and get medicine at no cost has been amazing

I think when I was a kid living in the US I barely ever went to the doctor when I got sick I think my parents just didn’t want to pay for the doctor fees while in Japan there’s even a free 24-hour hotline you can call if your kid

Is having a medical issue which we actually used when our son had a plus 40° C temperature and started to go into seizures when he was still really little it was one of the scariest moments of my parent life so far luckily the ambulance came and took care of him again all of

This was free and even now as an adult the mandatory health insurance in Japan covers 70% of medical fees and Japan’s national health insurance really kicked in when I got into my major snowboard accident in Nagano which I’ve mentioned before I broke my hip I broke nine ribs

I crushed my lungs had some heart issues spent a month in ICU but luckily all the medical treatment costs were capped per month based on my income so yeah you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt in case you have a high cost medical expense I’d like to say it’s a life Cher

So those are some of the reasons why I can’t and don’t want to leave Japan it’s good here that said would you prefer to live in Japan would you raise your kids here or do you prefer your home country let me know in the comments if you guys

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Bell button I’ll catch you guys in the next one