Retirement?
and why Japan is entering into my equations
Here’s an update on my crowdfunding campaign.
Huge thanks to everyone who has donated thus far. I have raised enough money to meet the first of my two goals and will be attending the Kenyon Review Winter Online Writers’ Program! I’m very excited about this opportunity and look forward to the potential results (as I continue to work on pieces for more literary magazines this year).
The second goal, my attendance at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in LA this March, is less than $800 until completion. The chance to deepen my networks with other writers, editors, and publishers is a critical step in my memoir’s journey to readers.
Donations at https://gofund.me/f0b94c3d are welcome, and you can also share the link with your networks of friends and writers.
Hiro and I spent a few hours Saturday afternoon at the local library. We had brunch earlier in the day with a passel of good friends, and I wanted to run some errands after that, but we left the restaurant in a downpour. When there was no convenient parking at the supermarket I had wanted to visit, the errands list narrowed down to just the library visit.
I needed to drop off a due book—I won’t mention the author or title because one of the reasons I gave up on reading it, aside from the extraordinary length, had to do with the hoops the author jumped through to avoid criticizing his own country’s policies while criticizing those of other countries. I also had to pick up two books and a CD (yet another Cher album! insert one of my execrable Cher imitations here). Hiro typically waits in the car for me, but today he came in.
He went directly to the international magazines section and picked up the latest issues of 家庭画報 (katei gahō, household image dispatch, literally) and 婦人画報 (fujin gahō, women’s image dispatch, and think of an image dispatch as a high-gloss magazine with lots of photos).
Neither Hiro nor I are likely to be within the ideal readerships for either of these publications—way too many adverts for expensive jewelry like VanCleef and Arpel’s—but we each picked a periodical, skimmed through it, and swapped. I used my cellphone to clip the most intriguing information: graphic design elements, clothing patterns, travel destinations (including hot spring resorts, shrines, and temples), and recipes. A pork belly hotpot with pickled plum and perilla? Oh, yes!
I won’t be eligible to retire until 2028 at the earliest, although I am aiming at 2031. As I’ve mentioned, I am seriously considering retiring to Japan (and our trip to Japan this coming May will officially launch the real estate search). Hiro and I spent seventeen years, from 1998 to 2015, trying to stabilize our life together in North America—a quest that ended with his US green card. We have a constellation of friends and family across the continent, and yes, that will be hard to leave.
We’re not choosing Japan because we have buckets of money (as noted above, I need to crowdfund, for example, to get to two significant writing opportunities). My work history includes nineteen years without any contributions to retirement funds. Gosh only knows if Social Security will still be intact by 2028.
Without those buckets of money, the idea of post-employment health insurance (even if Medicaid is still intact) in the US is daunting. I’ve had pretty good health for most of my life, but if something goes wrong, I suspect we’ll end up in the deny-defend-depose cycle until bankruptcy.
And as bleak as politics in the US has become since the Reagan era and the rise of the neoliberalist Democrats, leading to the nihilistic capitalism that James Baldwin warned us about, I’m not choosing Japan for political reasons. One potential candidate for Prime Minister after moderate Ishiba likely gets his hat handed to him after the House of Councillors (Japan’s upper house) election later this year is Sanae Takaichi, a far-right member of the now-waning Liberal Democratic Party whose colleagues have dubbed Taliban for her insane conservatism.
However, the momentum for marriage equality in Japan is gaining traction. After three favorable high court rulings (with a fourth expected later this year), the Japanese Supreme Court is also likely to rule in favor of marriage equality in early 2026. At that point, the government will have to adopt new legislation that, among other things, will finally allow me to apply for a spouse visa.
After the requisite period of time, I will apply for citizenship there and formally take my husband’s family name.
Moving to Japan with a spouse visa will offer me better (and far less costly) health insurance. I’m not looking forward to Japanese dentists, I suppose—during my first ten years in Japan, it took me six years to find a dentist who heard me when I said it hurt instead of telling me to just hold on for a little longer!
After I retire, I can keep writing and open a small tour company with Hiro. Since we both want to live somewhat close to Kyōto, one of my dreams is to introduce people to the quieter parts of that city, places where you’re not jostling cheek-to-jowl with every other tourist on the planet.
I have been a meditation practitioner for nearly 2,000 days now (although, as is true for any practice of mine, those days are not all in a row—being gentle with myself when I accidentally miss a day or three makes it much easier to return to the practice), and one of the early lessons taught me to choose at least one thing each day that gets me closer to my writing goals.
On some days, I write (and writing this issue of my Substack certainly counts).
On other days, I query agents. I sent three new queries this past week.
On still other days, I submit. I sent essays and excerpts to four magazines and my manuscript and/or proposal to two publishers—one university press and one independent publisher.
Yesterday, I decided to pull a Tarot card for my 2025. From my Botanical Tarot deck, I drew this card:
The quince tree represents the World card in classic arcana and signals that completing my current (overarching) writing goal, finding an agent and/or publisher for my memoir, is nigh. I was blown away when this card appeared and will keep it out to remind me: keep working!
Before I sign off, here is one last reminder about my crowdfunding campaign: https://gofund.me/f0b94c3d.
Love to hear about this retirement plan. And: nice card! Happy New Year from Nyack!