Move now or later in career when JPY is better? Japanese-American considering FAANG opportunity

[pristinegraceca]

@kervinjacque I believe the US also taxes at vest like Japan. The difference is that in the US you are subject to witholding at vest, so the money is automatically taken from you at that time, and you don't have to worry as much about having the money to pay the taxes the following year.

 

[kristhuy]

@pristinegraceca

in the US you are subject to witholding at vest, so the money is automatically taken from you at that time

Just to clarify, Japan also has withholding at vest, it's just that foreign companies can't withhold Japanese tax. So if your Japanese employer grants you RSUs, you will have income tax withheld when they vest. But if your Japanese employer's US parent company grants you RSUs, the US parent company can't withhold Japanese income tax because they aren't a Japanese entity.

 

[resjudicata]

@gingermarie If it’s 15mil who cares, go! That’s an insanely high salary for here. I support a family of 3 on a salary of 6.5mil and have 50,000 or so to save monthly (granted rent is 67,000). If i make 15MIL?! I’d be living the dream

 

[pamina58]

@gingermarie Dude, if you're making 15m yen a year and can't afford to take trips abroad, you need to reel in your spending.

 

[faithfound]

@gingermarie Keep out, and simply ignore the "average salary" as it is completely irrelevant to the argument. 15M for someone in their 20s is an excellent salary. Period. Great opportunity.

 

[jimthebob]

@gingermarie EDIT: Sorry, I read through your answer again and focused more about burnt out and mental health. Moving to Japan 11-12 years ago really helped me "start over" and it's the best thing I ever did. It can be nice to start somewhere totally new, and a 15M salary is more than enough to do whatever you want here.

A lot of questions boil down to the same thing (even my own sometimes). Will the yen strengthen or weaken? No one knows. Either make your decision based on the current situation, or try to beat the most financially literate bankers and traders in the world.

If you gamble for it to improve, you may need to wait years... maybe a decade? We just don't know.

Honestly, if you go to Japan now and "make about the same," you are doing better than you will in the future. If your career keeps progressing, you will get to a point where you cannot get a career in Japan without taking less money. Even Google in Japan is going to max out at some point (since they don't have so many L7+ here compared to Mountainview).

So either get screwed by the exchange rate now, or get screwed by career options when you are more senior

 

[nemoigloo]

@jimthebob I'm senior, at about what her offer is, lol. I should go home for a few, but then I'd be throwing away my life here.

 

[uluvsamm]

@gingermarie Could you take a similar role in the US first and later transfer to Japan? Or is this offer focused on a specific need in Japan right now?

If you can work in the US first, you will get your starter RSU grant at the US compensation level. That’s meant to roughly cover four years for a large portion of your compensation. When you move to Japan, the base salary and bonus will be scaled down (probably about 50%) but the RSUs granted in the US will still continue to vest with no change, so you can get a huge boost to your total compensation. Only future equity refreshers will be discounted for Japan.

 

[beautifullove]

@gingermarie Im from Eastern Europe so I never had to think for a second if I could find a better career in Tokyo or Back-home so our views probably vary, but.

15M is enough to live a good and extravagant life in Japan.

Keep in mind that outside of FAANG people won't pay an engineer easily more than that so you will have to move to managerial roles or stay in FAANG.

You won't "ruin" you career by moving here, but further it, even if you decide to go back to US later.

Fresh start is also a huge thing for a person your age, which a lot of people seem to not think about.

A lot of us had made it without looking like a local, having the headaches of getting rejected from houses, struggle with the language etc.
In your case you thats not a problem.

About the Yen, we never know what lies in the future.

Financially and life-wise, I say do it.

Now that you have the energy and chances, fill your life with experiences. You can always get back to the place you are, you have a strong resume too.

 

[amximuspitta5158]

@gingermarie DISCLAIMER: I'm a software engineer so some of my experience may not be relevant for marketing, below are my 2 cents.

I left Japan for a US FAANG role last year and am planning to move back sometime in the next few years.

I transferred to Tokyo in 2017 with a 17.5million salary plus 20% perf based bonus (US company). Financially it was great: I saved a lot and never worried about money. Even though cost of living has gone up substantially, most of my friends and former colleagues still in Japan are doing great. Putting finances aside there's significant career trajectory impact if you're not good about personal development on your own time.

Professionally I felt myself stagnating pretty badly, depending on the project/company you may find yourself doing less desirable or impactful work because anything really high profile will be done back at HQ. Leadership generally likes having projects they care about close to home.

While Tokyo will always be there, decent roles in Japan are harder to come by compared to the US. In the end, I don't think there's any wrong decision: if you try out Japan for a year and decide to come back to the US you'll mostly be able to pick up where you left off - you'll also have international experience which will set you apart from your peers.

 

[amincitia]

@gingermarie So many acronyms. No idea what you’re talking about.

 

[arcticwind]

@gingermarie I think you should finish your therapy first tbh. Not good to move when your mental health isn't in the right place.

 

[dotk3033]

@gingermarie Cant believe people who make more than enough money for most families in Japan are still overly concerned about… money… or maybe I shouldn’t be

 

[manishk012]

@dotk3033 The bar for “fuck you”money is way way higher than what you imagine. When you have one or two kids and start thinking of international school, 15M¥ isn’t so huge anymore.

 

[ethzz]

@manishk012

international school

One of the nice things here is that international schools are only an option, since the local schools are both decent and accepting. Since OP hasn't mentioned being married, this is likely not an issue. Also, since they are N1/fluent, using the local schools would be more normal than for someone who did not have those advantages.

 

[manishk012]

@ethzz I really was replying to this specific comment and to the many posters around here who believe 10M¥ is 1%er level income and you can drive a lambo with this mad amount of cash.

 

[coolbair]

@manishk012 It's nothing in that situation. Poor to be hoenst

 

[illumine]

@coolbair I make 30 and on the same page. HWhat can we do?

 

[coolbair]

@illumine I hear you. I mean I am definitely not happy at 20M and feel that I am falling behind globally with peers of similar skills and age(39), but it isn't horrible either. I also get about 4k USD a month in military retirement, so from an after tax perspective I am not too far from 30M gross.

I do save about 3.5k USD for retirement a month, but that's probably less than I should be ideally.

I also love somewhat frugally.

My point being that I don't know how families do it on 15M or far less in some cases.

 

[illumine]

@coolbair let’s share ideas on how to save on taxes and invest better.