Day 300 of writing every day.
Feeling secure about where you are in life seems to be an endless goal that starts at different points for people. If you grew up with food and housing types of insecurity, then you basically grew up with the experience and knowledge of what it is to worry about if you’ll still have what little you possess tomorrow or some future date. Many who grew up with the security of a family with a stable income and living in a low crime area won’t know what it is to feel insecure about their life except in the form of social status at school if that can be argued to be a form evaluating the security of one’s life.
When I was in a rush to find a job before I passed the three month deadline, I was really stressed out by the fact that I wasn’t getting interviews or just getting flat out rejected because of age and/or racial discrimination. I’m not in Tokyo, so there’s a lot fewer foreigners that work in offices alongside Japanese colleagues. Foreigners are welcome to work in Japan but it’s going to be limited to certain industries and can also be very niche if you’re not a permanent resident or spouse of a Japanese person.
My mental endurance had worn out and I just had enough of my previous job that I quit before my permanent residency application had finished. If anything I was quite displeased with how immigration didn’t even seem to move on my application and about half a year had passed. It could possibly have been because they thought I wasn’t earning enough to be worthy of permanent residency. But in the end I did the honest thing and told them I’m leaving my job and will try to find another one. That didn’t work out and I guess I gave them a new and more legitimate sounding reason to reject my application.
Long story short, I don’t think I’d be dealing with the stress I’m feeling now if the permanent residency was cleared. But after seeing the request for documents and additional information from my employer, I felt some dread again. One from worrying that immigration will not allow me to renew my residence card and cause me to lose everything I built up after investing 11 years in Japan now.
Immigration is a lot more forgiving and accepting of residents in Japan than the US, which is ironic given the way the Western world portrays the two societies as polar opposites. Japan is supposed to be really closed and isolationist while America is this melting pot of culture composed of people from all over the world. It’s next to impossible for most people to get in the US legally on a green card and the citizenship test is something most Americans would probably fail.
Getting into Japan from the US just requires finding an employer and a college degree plus no criminal history. Not too hard if you ask me and look at the limits on green cards issued and the extensive screening process of people trying to get into the US. Being born in the US grants you citizenship, but Japan does not have the same policy. In that regard, it’s a lot easier to get citizenship in the US where it can be granted at birth regardless of parents’ nationality, whereas Japanese citizenship is only granted at birth if at least one of the parents is a Japanese citizen.
I digress but after years of just trying to live a normal life without the added worries of making sure I can legally be in Japan, that it sucks to have to things going against me while Japanese citizens can be much less than stellar and upstanding but face no punishment for not being a contributing member of society. I’m sure many workers in the US feel the same about how ignorant and privileged people are who were born citizens.
Anyways, fingers crossed the renewal process will go smoothly.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 