Singaporean who moved to Japan 3 years ago shares the pros and cons of living there

In 2023, Pascalle and her partner Jo made the bold decision to pack their bags, uproot their lives, and move to Japan. 

After three years of living in the land of the rising sun, Pascalle took to Instagram to reflect on their journey. 

In a post on July 3, she shared that she has been loving her time in Tokyo, where she and Jo have been staying. 

"There's always stuff to do, see, eat, explore," she wrote.

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Pascalle started by admitting that there are some challenges, such as building wealth, which she said is much harder to do in Japan than in Singapore, especially since Jo is the only one working full-time while she freelances. 

"But my quality of life has improved. The access to good food, goods and services is amazing. It's what I always admire about Japan — many have a strong sense of pride for what they create, and [there is] strong local community support, so they always get to enjoy a lot of nice things," she shared. 

Living in Japan has also allowed her to find peace and joy in the small things, she added.

"So cliche, I know! But somehow, every coffee shop we find, every supermarket run we do, every time we cycle somewhere together, every nice human we meet, there is [contentment]."

On top of that, Pascalle feels that the move has helped her become more "creatively stimulated" and inspired. 

"Most importantly, the choice to move here has rewired my brain. Wealth accumulation is no longer the most important thing in my life," she shared. 

Pascalle added that had she stayed in Singapore, she probably would not have started content creation or freelance work. 

"My brain now sees infinite ways of living life compared to the singular set path that I would most likely be on in Singapore." 

For now, she and Jo are unsure whether this move to Japan is permanent, saying the question is still "up in the air".  

But she has no regrets and said that this change was a necessary one for her. 

In previous social media posts, Pascalle shared that she had quit her full-time corporate job in Singapore to fulfil her dream of living in Japan. 

For a while, this meant that she was unemployed and that Jo was the main breadwinner, which resulted in feelings of "financial guilt" for her. Eventually, she found freelance work. 

The couple, who are learning how to speak Japanese, shared that they had moved to Japan not just to experience living in a new environment, but to also learn how to speak the language better. 

Pascalle added that parts of their social media content are done in Japanese instead of English in order to improve.

AsiaOne has reached out to the couple for more details. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com