Our 5-Year Japan Plan...

[Thorn]

My husband and I have always hoped that we might, someday, have an opportunity to live in Japan. We're serious enough about it that we have formulated a game plan to improve our chances of being able to "live the dream," so to speak... (I really don't think I'm overstating our desire. I've seriously contemplated putting my career on hold to teach English just so that I could be in Japan.) I'm posting our little plan here because A) it's cathartic and B) any advice would be much appreciated. Even if no one responds at all, it's still nice to see everything written down as a validation that we’re doing the best we can to live the life we want to live.

A bit of background
My undergraduate degrees are in zoology and history and my graduate degree (pending May 2009) is a M.S. in clinical research. For the past four years, I have been the laboratory supervisor for the Sister Study, a breast cancer epidemiological research study with a cohort of 50,000 women. (I work full time and take my classes at night.) I think my best bet is to apply for jobs at US contract research organizations with global trials divisions in Japan.

My husband is a licensed pest control technician without a college degree. He is also taking night classes for his A.A.S. in criminal justice with a concentration in latent evidence processing. If I manage to get a job in my field, he would be perfectly happy to be a house-husband, so I hope the fact that he lacks a Bachelor’s degree will be a non-issue. If he could get a job, his employers would find him to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. He is a bartender, magician, amateur fencer, and photographer (with acting and modeling experience to boot.) He loves electronics and video games and he could easily talk about the latest gadgets all day long without stopping to take a breath. (I didn’t mention any of my hobbies because… well… I think reading about Japan *is* my hobby.)

And then there’s our baby—the furry, four-footed kind! She’s a well-trained pug named Makino who has us completely wrapped around her little dewclaw! We love her even more than we love Japan! (Note how this is the only paragraph that includes exclamation points. That shows how much we love her.) Her hobbies are sitting in laps, eating people-food, and licking faces. She’s doing two of the three right now.

The Plan (subject to change)
(Years 2007 - 2008 are occupied with my husband and I working on our respective degrees.)
May 15, 2009: I finish graduate school.

May 16, 2009: We hire a private Japanese tutor and study the language for the next X years.

July 2009: Makino gets her Canine Good Citizen certification. (She'll totally pass.)

November 2009: We take a two-week trip to Japan with a focus on sight-seeing in Tokyo.

December 2009: We attempt the JLPT 3. (Depending on his school workload, my husband may not take the test this year.)

May 2010: I attempt the Regulatory Affairs Certification examination unless I can think of some other certification or licensure that may be of more use for a clinical research job in Japan. Perhaps PMP certification?

November 2010: We take a two-week trip to Japan with a focus on sight-seeing in Kyoto and Osaka.

December 2010: We attempt the JLPT 2.

January 2011: I start SAS programming classes unless I can think of some other training that may be of more use for a clinical research job in Japan.

May 2011: My husband should finish his A.A.S. He will probably leave his job as a pest control technician (with seven years of experience) and begin working as a crime scene technician.

November 2011: We take a two-week trip to Japan and travel wherever we want to.

December 2011: We re-take the JLPT 2 if we didn’t pass it in 2010. If we did pass, we’ll attempt the JLPT 1.

January 2012: I start actively searching for jobs in Japan or jobs for US companies with a significant Japanese presence. I will have eight years of experience in my field.

[godwine]

Wow, such detail plan. See, this is the kind of things I think the other kids should do, to save others like MMM and others time to tell them what not and whats possible.

I think your overall plan looks great. Your husband's college degree/diploma is probably the biggest hurdle if all these goes according to plan, but the plan for the Crime scene technician thing will push his criteria to the "niche market" of professionals, so I think that is a great plan.

Someone else mentioned before that having a post graduate degree is an almost guarantee in, so by finishing grad school, you improved your chances greatly.

Good luck, I wish my fiancee has the same passion as you and your husband, she is the only reason now why i am not even searching for anything in japan

[Senshi]

Hmmm, I should plan things out more.

I have a long term-plan, but it's the details that always get me. I like yearly targets, because I always need some leeway in case things come up.

But the plan looks great, good luck!

[godwine]

Originally Posted by Senshi

Hmmm, I should plan things out more.

I have a long term-plan, but it's the details that always get me. I like yearly targets, because I always need some leeway in case things come up.

But the plan looks great, good luck!

Senshi, GOOD.. at least you are doing PLANNING work, yearly plans aren't bad, most people can't forecast more than 4 months ahead...