[harisenbon]

In my experience, immigration as a westerner is pretty easy -- especially after the horror stories I hear about the U.S. You need to have some sort of sponsor (business is the most common) but overall the process is fairly painless, and relaxed.

Living here is fairly cheap as well -- especially if you're outside large cities.

Casual Racism is probably the biggest hurdle to living in Japan, especially outside of big cities. I've only had a handful of overt racism in the last 12 years, but there are constant reminders every day that you are not, in fact, Japanese. And it's not done through malice, but rather just pure curiosity.

I'm hoping that immigration policies get better in the future, but not holding my breath.

[ue_]

>but there are constant reminders every day that you are not, in fact, Japanese

As someone interested in Japan, would you mind elaborating on this please?