Japan
I will also make my contribution to the matter, especially since someone asked me to share information.
It’s already 4 years since I live and work in Japan. To get here to a foreigner is easy on the one hand, but not on the other. How so? The fact is that there are no immigration programs in this country, naturalization is possible (practically) only through marriage, but the country has a huge shortage of engineers. That is, there are sellers, lawyers, doctors, builders, taxi drivers, and there are few engineers. I will talk about the reasons below. So, Japan every year imports a huge number of Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Americans, Thais, etc. for work in technical fields. However, it is difficult for a Russian engineer (as always) to squeeze through. If only because you need a visa, a surety, running around with papers (in the last year or two, the situation has become the best bit). Therefore, if you really want to go to Japan, you will have to stock up on some unique ones (well, or at least rare) knowledge - microcontrollers, programming for RTOS, GIS, tricky databases, distributed computing, etc. And there are plenty of webmasters in China too :)
As a rule, the employer draws up a work (engineering, which is very honorable) visa, which can be extended as necessary. First they give a visa for a year, then three.
Another possibility is to enter a Japanese university for a technical specialty. After training, internship at the enterprise (which counts as work experience), acquire connections, and at the end of training to find work (even at least at your own department at the university). By the way, last year I invited students to an internship, but nobody from Russia decided anything, and we took a student from France (as they say, follow the advertisement, next year, maybe we will look for students again).
Another way is science. The Japanese are willing to take foreign scientists into their research projects. Unfortunately, I do not have any specific information here.
Japan is not such a small country as it seems the first time. Firstly, it is very elongated from north to south, so if in Hokkaido the climate is similar to the Russian Far East, then subtropics reign in Okinawa. The mountainous terrain is similar to Switzerland or Altai, the coastal (most populated) areas are similar to Europe. The climate is mild, humid, clearly pronounced 5 seasons - winter, spring, rainy season, summer, autumn.
Earthquakes are frequent, but you quickly get used to them. In the fall, in September-October, a series of typhoons goes on, but except for leaves scattered everywhere and canceling trains for several hours in the worst case, they do not present any special problems.
Japan is one of the cleanest countries I've seen. In Japanese, “pure” and “beautiful” are one and the same word.
Greater Tokyo is a highly populated place, but already an hour by train from its center you can live quite comfortably.
It is difficult for a foreigner in Japan. But interesting. The most difficult thing in Japan (no, not the language) is the Japanese :)
It’s very difficult to live with them, but it’s even more difficult to work. The fact is that the Japanese are weaned from school to think and analyze. That is, a child from elementary school is only trained, but not taught - they are not taught to search and process information, look for new ways to solve problems, and generally act outside the box. Hence the above-mentioned shortage of engineers - precisely those skills that are necessary for engineering specialties are suppressed among the Japanese.
In addition, the whole society as a whole is based on completely different principles. Any predominantly male collective is a baboon pack with alpha males and oppressed members. Hazing and subservience flourish. This is not only not suppressed, but also encouraged from school. Therefore, first of all, the Japanese are interested in the age and social status of the interlocutor (older and married are placed higher) - this makes it possible to embed the interlocutor in their social system and develop an appropriate style of behavior with a specific person. Good news - white Europeans are not a priori people, so you can not be puffed up about their status in general. Women are people to a lesser extent, Asiatic foreigners are not people at all.
The Japanese, who have grown up or studied abroad, cannot live in Japan at all - it’s disgusting to lick the boss’s ass, but you won’t get a foreigner (as a rule, they either leave at all or look for work in foreign companies).
In some negative manifestations, Japan is similar to modern Russia - the same “own way”, “rising from one’s knees”, contempt for former colonies, junk food and “domestic producer”.
The attitude towards white Europeans as to cute animals is interested, benevolent, but no one will ever creep in the thought of their human nature :)
On the other hand, the Japanese are polite and nice people. It is very rare to encounter rudeness or aggressive behavior. There is practically no crime. Drivers are polite, always giving way to pedestrians. Service is beyond praise. A visitor to a store or restaurant is king and god. They say "o-kyaku-sama" about any clients, where "sama" is the most respectful of all the suffixes of the Japanese language (this is the way the gods, the emperor and the client are addressed).
There are many foreigners in Tokyo and its environs, Osaka and some other large cities. These are mainly tourists or employees of foreign companies.
For unmarried / single there is a very big chance to find a soul mate. Those Japanese and Japanese who are not afraid of foreigners are usually very nice and open people who are keenly interested in foreign culture and lifestyle. As a rule, they find white Europeans (especially with bright eyes) very attractive :)
The salaries of an engineer, even the most minimal one (about $ 2,500), are enough for a fairly tolerable standard of living. The average salary ranges from 3500-5000 dollars. Good - from 6000. If you are lucky to get a financial organization (and they are going through hard times), you can count on the amount of one and a half times more.
Food prices are almost the same as in Moscow, but the quality is noticeably better. For everything else (clothing, electronics) - noticeably lower.
There are certain problems with the car - the former owner may even pay extra for the car itself, but keeping it a little expensive due to paid parking lots. Therefore, if there is no home where it can be set up for free, it is better to travel by public transport. The whole country is literally riddled with railways, which, according to Russian concepts, are more like a surface metro. Trains run regularly, quickly and with several transfers, you can get anywhere. In big cities there are still buses, but they are not so convenient.
Language is another problem. Nobody speaks English here. That is, the whole country teaches, but no one speaks (even if they understand a little, they don’t give a view) - but what if you suddenly make a mistake! This is a shame! In some places, the signs are duplicated in English, but not as a rule.
Housing is expensive and cramped. For a two-room apartment of 45 meters you will have to pay about 700-1000 dollars a month, depending on the distance from Tokyo.
Compulsory health insurance covers 70% of expenses (including medicines). If the cost of medicine per month exceeds a certain amount, you can get some part back. The medicine is paid, in almost every district there is a large hospital and dozens of small specialized clinics.
In general, if you decide to go to Japan, just go! This is a very interesting and beautiful country.
Yokoso! Welcome!
I will try to answer the questions in the comments.
How?
It’s already 4 years since I live and work in Japan. To get here to a foreigner is easy on the one hand, but not on the other. How so? The fact is that there are no immigration programs in this country, naturalization is possible (practically) only through marriage, but the country has a huge shortage of engineers. That is, there are sellers, lawyers, doctors, builders, taxi drivers, and there are few engineers. I will talk about the reasons below. So, Japan every year imports a huge number of Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Americans, Thais, etc. for work in technical fields. However, it is difficult for a Russian engineer (as always) to squeeze through. If only because you need a visa, a surety, running around with papers (in the last year or two, the situation has become the best bit). Therefore, if you really want to go to Japan, you will have to stock up on some unique ones (well, or at least rare) knowledge - microcontrollers, programming for RTOS, GIS, tricky databases, distributed computing, etc. And there are plenty of webmasters in China too :)
As a rule, the employer draws up a work (engineering, which is very honorable) visa, which can be extended as necessary. First they give a visa for a year, then three.
Another possibility is to enter a Japanese university for a technical specialty. After training, internship at the enterprise (which counts as work experience), acquire connections, and at the end of training to find work (even at least at your own department at the university). By the way, last year I invited students to an internship, but nobody from Russia decided anything, and we took a student from France (as they say, follow the advertisement, next year, maybe we will look for students again).
Another way is science. The Japanese are willing to take foreign scientists into their research projects. Unfortunately, I do not have any specific information here.
The country
Japan is not such a small country as it seems the first time. Firstly, it is very elongated from north to south, so if in Hokkaido the climate is similar to the Russian Far East, then subtropics reign in Okinawa. The mountainous terrain is similar to Switzerland or Altai, the coastal (most populated) areas are similar to Europe. The climate is mild, humid, clearly pronounced 5 seasons - winter, spring, rainy season, summer, autumn.
Earthquakes are frequent, but you quickly get used to them. In the fall, in September-October, a series of typhoons goes on, but except for leaves scattered everywhere and canceling trains for several hours in the worst case, they do not present any special problems.
Japan is one of the cleanest countries I've seen. In Japanese, “pure” and “beautiful” are one and the same word.
Greater Tokyo is a highly populated place, but already an hour by train from its center you can live quite comfortably.
People
It is difficult for a foreigner in Japan. But interesting. The most difficult thing in Japan (no, not the language) is the Japanese :)
It’s very difficult to live with them, but it’s even more difficult to work. The fact is that the Japanese are weaned from school to think and analyze. That is, a child from elementary school is only trained, but not taught - they are not taught to search and process information, look for new ways to solve problems, and generally act outside the box. Hence the above-mentioned shortage of engineers - precisely those skills that are necessary for engineering specialties are suppressed among the Japanese.
In addition, the whole society as a whole is based on completely different principles. Any predominantly male collective is a baboon pack with alpha males and oppressed members. Hazing and subservience flourish. This is not only not suppressed, but also encouraged from school. Therefore, first of all, the Japanese are interested in the age and social status of the interlocutor (older and married are placed higher) - this makes it possible to embed the interlocutor in their social system and develop an appropriate style of behavior with a specific person. Good news - white Europeans are not a priori people, so you can not be puffed up about their status in general. Women are people to a lesser extent, Asiatic foreigners are not people at all.
The Japanese, who have grown up or studied abroad, cannot live in Japan at all - it’s disgusting to lick the boss’s ass, but you won’t get a foreigner (as a rule, they either leave at all or look for work in foreign companies).
In some negative manifestations, Japan is similar to modern Russia - the same “own way”, “rising from one’s knees”, contempt for former colonies, junk food and “domestic producer”.
The attitude towards white Europeans as to cute animals is interested, benevolent, but no one will ever creep in the thought of their human nature :)
On the other hand, the Japanese are polite and nice people. It is very rare to encounter rudeness or aggressive behavior. There is practically no crime. Drivers are polite, always giving way to pedestrians. Service is beyond praise. A visitor to a store or restaurant is king and god. They say "o-kyaku-sama" about any clients, where "sama" is the most respectful of all the suffixes of the Japanese language (this is the way the gods, the emperor and the client are addressed).
There are many foreigners in Tokyo and its environs, Osaka and some other large cities. These are mainly tourists or employees of foreign companies.
For unmarried / single there is a very big chance to find a soul mate. Those Japanese and Japanese who are not afraid of foreigners are usually very nice and open people who are keenly interested in foreign culture and lifestyle. As a rule, they find white Europeans (especially with bright eyes) very attractive :)
A life
The salaries of an engineer, even the most minimal one (about $ 2,500), are enough for a fairly tolerable standard of living. The average salary ranges from 3500-5000 dollars. Good - from 6000. If you are lucky to get a financial organization (and they are going through hard times), you can count on the amount of one and a half times more.
Food prices are almost the same as in Moscow, but the quality is noticeably better. For everything else (clothing, electronics) - noticeably lower.
There are certain problems with the car - the former owner may even pay extra for the car itself, but keeping it a little expensive due to paid parking lots. Therefore, if there is no home where it can be set up for free, it is better to travel by public transport. The whole country is literally riddled with railways, which, according to Russian concepts, are more like a surface metro. Trains run regularly, quickly and with several transfers, you can get anywhere. In big cities there are still buses, but they are not so convenient.
Language is another problem. Nobody speaks English here. That is, the whole country teaches, but no one speaks (even if they understand a little, they don’t give a view) - but what if you suddenly make a mistake! This is a shame! In some places, the signs are duplicated in English, but not as a rule.
Housing is expensive and cramped. For a two-room apartment of 45 meters you will have to pay about 700-1000 dollars a month, depending on the distance from Tokyo.
Compulsory health insurance covers 70% of expenses (including medicines). If the cost of medicine per month exceeds a certain amount, you can get some part back. The medicine is paid, in almost every district there is a large hospital and dozens of small specialized clinics.
In general, if you decide to go to Japan, just go! This is a very interesting and beautiful country.
Yokoso! Welcome!
I will try to answer the questions in the comments.