The Monday Read: Snow in April A surprisingly good stay This photo was taken on April 2nd in Zao Onsen Town in Yamagata. Went to stay at the surprisingly excellent Zao International Hotel for one night (we had been planning to get ...

The Monday Read: Snow in April www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The Monday Read: Cleaning the Family Grave Finding joy in the everyday A few times a year we head down to visit the family grave. It’s outside of Sendai in a little town to the south. Takes about half an hour from our place ’cause we live next...

The Monday Read: Cleaning the Family Grave www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

Is Japan becoming a hostile environment? Visa fees are going up, rules are changing From 2012 the UK government created the ‘hostile environment’, a series of policies designed to make life more difficult for illegal immigrants. You could sa...

Is Japan becoming a hostile environment? www.retirejapan.com/blog/is-japa...

The Monday Read: Perfection? A well made negitoro don might be as close as you can get It was my granddaughter’s birthday the other day, and she decided she wanted to go to a little sushi place near us for her party. Well, first ...

The Monday Read: Perfection? www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The Monday Read: A Bit Less Toxic After fifteen years it is time to say goodbye You may have noticed that I am not on Twitter any more, either in a personal or business capacity. Last week was the final straw for me. Seeing the wall o...

The Monday Read: A Bit Less Toxic www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The Monday Read: Mito! Grand old hotel, opera, and art Had a really pleasant three day trip to Mito last week. The Ukranian National Opera was in town and my wife wanted to see one of their performances. We drove down from ...

The Monday Read: Mito! www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

A trip to Appi, last call for our online course, and all the usual links.

Enjoy with a coffee as a mid-morning break 😁

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 🏔️

The Monday Read: Frozen Perfection Sometimes it is nice to get away Every year my wife and I take our eldest granddaughter to Appi ski resort for a few days. It’s become a family tradition. This year we left it a bit late to book and t...

The Monday Read: Frozen Perfection www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The first Monday Read of the year.

How was your shrine visit this year? After avoiding being eaten by bears, mine went surprisingly well.

A good omen? We'll see 😉

The Monday Read: The Year of the Horse The Fire Horse year signifies intense energy and transformation Not too sure about that ‘intense energy and transformation’ thing, it sounds a bit ominous. A little bit ‘may you live in interesting ti...

The Monday Read: The Year of the Horse www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The Monday Read: So long to 2025 Very happy to see the back of it, hoping 2026 is better This has been a very tough year for me. One of the worst of my life (which is saying quite a bit). Still, it wasn’t all bad. And it is almost ov...

The Monday Read: So long to 2025 www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

The best posts and videos from 2025. RetireJapan's annual roundup post.

Which were your favourites?

2025 Roundup (post #1,100) Resistance is futile This is the RetireJapan roundup post for 2025. We’ll be going through some successes and failures, as well as my lists of favourite blog posts and videos. Here is the 2024 post if...

2025 Roundup (post #1,100) www.retirejapan.com/blog/2025-ro...

Treetop obstacle courses, ziplines, a Xmas special, and all our usual links for your last week of work before the winter break 😀

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 🎅 🍰 🍗

The Monday Read: Taking Flight When it’s time to go, go A couple of weeks ago I went to a new tree adventure experience in a local park near us with my wife, my oldest granddaughter, and some of my wife’s friends. Seems there are a...

The Monday Read: Taking Flight www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

Tracking your financial progress can be a huge source of motivation when you are trying to save and invest for the future.

I've been writing these public reports since 2016. Here is the latest one 😀

TLDR: it was a good year financially.

Progress Report 2025 You can’t handle the progress This is always one of my favourite posts of the year. It’s a chance to look at my financial progress, and hopefully this will inspire others to work on their finances too...

Progress Report 2025 www.retirejapan.com/blog/progres...

If you live in Japan, you should be ready for disasters.

Don't worry about them TOO much, but do take time to make basic preparations

You'll be so glad you did when the day comes

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 🚒

The Monday Read: Be Prepared Natural Disasters are coming In Japan, natural disasters are all around. This week we had a moderate sized earthquake in Sendai. It came, of course, at night. My wife was in the bath so I went and mad...

The Monday Read: Be Prepared www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

What are you feeding your brain? The standard informational diet might be bad for your mental health.

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 😇

The Monday Read: You are what you eat Time to be a bit more conscious of the information diet This blog sometimes feels like Groundhog Day (the movie). The same themes and topics crop up over and over again, seemingly without making any p...

The Monday Read: You are what you eat www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

My Number Reloaded Renewing the digital certificate in 2025 My what has expired now? One of the more baffling aspects of the My Number cards (in my humble opinion) is the fact that the digital certificate only lasts for...

My Number Reloaded www.retirejapan.com/blog/my-numb...

Handling the internet addiction, proposed visa fees in Japan, generative AI results, forum topics, all our usual links and more 😁

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 🉐

The Monday Read: On/offline Walking the line I’ve been putting a bit more effort into RetireJapan recently. Posting on social media, replying to comments and questions. A lot is going on in Japan at the moment, and people seem i...

The Monday Read: On/offline www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

Are the good times over for UK citizens living abroad? Maybe.

All the details of changes coming in 2026 in our new blog post.

HUGE UK state pension changes You are on the clock to sign up if you haven’t already For years people who had lived or worked in the UK had an incredible financial opportunity: they could sign up to pay into the UK state pension o...

HUGE UK state pension changes www.retirejapan.com/blog/huge-uk...

The Monday Read: Winter is Coming And that right quick I took a trip up to Appi Kogen (a ski resort in Iwate) with my wife last week. One of our favourite hotels is there, and it is cheap(er) in the off season -prices during winter ar...

The Monday Read: Winter is Coming www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

Going back to work, RetireJapan TV, a new YT series, my new favourite mouse, and all the usual links and content 😎

The Monday Read from RetireJapan: personal finance, investing, retirement, and life in Japan 🎌

The Monday Read: Going Back Work eventually makes you free after all Last week I did something I haven’t done for a while: I took a paid job working for an employer. It was just for one day, and I had an ulterior motive, but it ...

The Monday Read: Going Back www.retirejapan.com/blog/the-mon...

Japan gets tough (eventually)

All visa renewals and changes will now require proof of paying tax and social insurance.

But is this 'unfair'?