Expats in Japan: Tourists, Contracts, and the Long Game
The Honeymoon Ends, the Paperwork Begins Japan is easy to admire from the outside, but living there reveals a quieter reality shaped by paperwork, deadlines, and unspoken rules. Expats in Japan: Tourists, Contracts, and the Long Game is a plain-language, journalistic guide to what actually separates expats who stay from those who leave. The book moves past cherry blossoms and convenience-store clichés to show how small pressures stack up over time: money that works until it doesn't, contracts that end on schedule, social norms that are never explained, and systems that reward preparation over confidence. Staying is not framed as personality or devotion. It is about buffers, anchors, and options: time, savings, information, and people who can help you navigate complexity before your life narrows into one fragile lane. Running through the book is a sharp look at how Japan informally sorts foreigners into social boxes. Tourists are welcomed because they leave. Expats are tolerated b...