Why ALL Foreigners Leave Japan

All across the world, millions of people

dream of living and moving to Japan. But

did you know that 95% of all foreigners

end up returning to their home country?

In today's video, we'll be exploring why

this is and why I decided to leave Japan

and return to my home country.

So living in Japan has always been one of

my deepest dreams. Ever since I was about

17 years old, I fantasized

about living in Japan every single day.

So you might be thinking, how come you

were so desperate to live in Japan? And

then when you finally managed to live in

Japan and you got a visa, How come you

were so miserable and then you were so

eager to leave the country and go back

home? Well, that is an interesting

question. My theory is that the majority

of foreigners who dream of living in Japan

are probably not very happy in their

current situation. They don't really feel

like they have much going on in their

lives. They feel like there's not much

reason to stay in their home country.

They can't find a girlfriend. They don't

really like the people in their local

area. Well, those were my reasons for

wanting to live in Japan. After watching

lots of anime, Japan just looked like the

superior country and the superior culture

with superior women. Unfortunately, I

think that I, along with many others in

the same way, we came to the realization

that simply moving to a different place

and moving to a different country doesn't

really solve the problems we have inside

of our heads. And we try to put the blame

on external things instead of realizing

that these problems are internal, and it

doesn't matter where you go, you're going

to take these internal problems with you.

You might be thinking that, oh, all these

problems in my head are there because of

the country I live in is rubbish, my

village is rubbish. Our egos are so

desperate to protect our fragile minds

that it will perform all kinds of mental

gymnastics to try and place the blame on

external factors like our surroundings.

When I was a teenager, I didn't think

there was anything wrong with me. I

thought I was a perfectly normal

functioning human being, and I thought

everyone else— I thought everyone else was

weird. Now, it's not really a weird thing

to move to another country and settle

there for the rest of your life. Millions

of people do it. But the fact of the

matter is the vast majority of human

beings on the planet live and remain

in their home country. Most people in the

world can live a very happy and fulfilling

life just in the same town or in the same

city or in the same area that they were

born in. So why do people like me have

this burning desire to move all the way to

Japan, halfway across the world? Well,

basically it's to escape. Most of us who

dream of living in Japan, we want to

escape from our current lives because our

current lives are not very fun,

fulfilling, or happy. There's a lot of

miserable, unhappy people in the world,

and there's lots of different forms of

escapism. There's video games, There's

drinking, there's drugs.

And then for people like me, well, the

idea of escaping to a completely new

country far, far away with a different

language, a different culture, with people

who look different to what we're used to,

it can be very, very enticing. The problem

is, after a while, we realize that the

problems we have are internal and not

external. So there's different phases to

this whole process. First phase is you're

still in your home country. You haven't

been to Japan yet. You're still in your

daydreaming, fantasizing phase, and

everything in Japan looks so perfect.

You're so desperate to get over there.

And then there's the honeymoon phase,

which is when you first get there and you

live there for your first few months.

This can be extremely exciting. This will

probably be the best time you ever have in

your life. My first time in Japan was

amazing. I had never felt so happy in my

entire life. I met people, I socialized,

I did fun things, I had girlfriends, I had

actual— I had an actual social life, and

my life felt so fulfilling and fun and

full of purpose that I never experienced

back home in England. And at this point

you start thinking, wow, I really want to

be here long term. I don't want to ever

leave. I don't want to go back to my own

country. That's boring. I want to try and

get a visa and get a job and live here

permanently. So this phase lasts many

years until you actually reach the status

of being able to live in Japan long term.

And that's when things start going

downhill. When the honeymoon phase wears

off and you've been in Japan for a few

years, you're starting to get used to

things like the culture, the way people

look, the way the language sounds. You're

starting to understand the dark side of

the culture and the society. The

rose-tinted goggles start to slip off and

the ugliness of reality begins to slip in.

Things that you once found quirky and

funny and wacky about Japanese culture and

living in Japan, they start to become

irritating. And then you start to miss

your home. You start to miss little things

like certain types of food that can't

really be found in Japan. Like baked beans

or proper bacon. All those feelings of

unhappiness and the things that made you

feel miserable when you were back home in

your home country, they start coming back

after the excitement and the fun times of

being new to Japan start to wear off. All

of your problems inside of your head,

they start resurfacing. And then it kind

of clicks. You kind of realize that, wait

a minute, The reason why I was unhappy

wasn't because of my surroundings. It was

because there's something wrong with the

way I'm thinking. There's something wrong

with my attitude towards life. I need to

fix my internal problems instead of

blaming external things for them. And this

is a harsh reality, an awakening that— and

this is a harsh reality, a cold awakening

that many foreigners wake up to. And when

you live in a guesthouse, you start to

realize that a lot of the foreigners at

the guesthouse, they kind of have a

stereotype, kind of like drifters. They

don't know what to do with their lives.

They're probably unhappy back home. So

what kind of happens is it takes a few

years for maturity to set in and for

people to kind of untangle these problems

inside of their heads and finally realize

what was making them unhappy. And they

return to their homes and they try and fix

things and they try and build a life. And

then they realize that, wait a minute, I

don't actually have to move to a different

country to find happiness. I can be happy

in my home country. So in conclusion,

basically my theory is that many people

who move to Japan move there in the hopes

of having a more fulfilling and happier

life because they're not very happy back

home. And then they realize that Japan

doesn't really make them happy anymore.

They get fed up and homesick, and then

they move back home and they finally work

out their internal problems, and then they

find happiness back home. It happens so

many times. Now, there are exceptions.

You know, obviously there are people who

end up remaining in Japan because they get

married and they have kids, and then they

kind of have to stay in Japan because

that's their new home now. And then some

people do actually genuinely love Japan

more than their own country. And as for

me, my life back in England is still as

miserable as it was back in Japan,

probably more miserable because now I

don't have a wife or girlfriends. And

that's mainly because I just— I still

haven't managed to push myself out of my

comfort zone and finally try and build a

social network and socialize. And meet

people who are not women or girls looking

for dates. Maybe eventually the day will

finally come when I decide to try and

build myself a normal life and then

realize that's a better way of living.