Milestone: Obtained Japanese Permanent Residency

Perhaps because there are so many brilliant people in the software industry, whenever I feel like I’ve achieved a milestone, it feels insignificant by comparison.

I’m surrounded by incredibly skilled engineers who juggle diverse side skills, parenting, and management roles all at once. It’s the same with Japanese; even when I think I’m decent at it, I’m at best average here. Seeing everyone miles ahead of me, over time I started to resent my own mediocrity.

Getting permanent residency was no different. My initial impulse was to post about it and celebrate, but I worried people might think, “It’s just PR, what’s the big deal?”

Recently, I rewatched Hunter x Hunter and began to realize how unhealthy and toxic this mindset is. Gon, Killua, and Kite are all formidable, yet against the overwhelming power of the Chimera Ant King, they were nothing. No matter how much you compare, there will always be people in this world stronger than you. It’s like having another pyramid perched atop the peak of a pyramid—in some pyramid, you’re bound to be at the very bottom.

While I’ve known this rationally for a long time, knowing it and actually accepting it are two completely different things. There was a period when my mindset was quite warped: I didn’t want to open social media at all, and I muted posts from high achievers. Was I seeking praise, or did I just want to document and share my journey? Or both?

As long as I couldn’t see them, I could live in my own little bubble and feel like I was doing pretty well.

If what I’m striving for is a better world and a better life, then seeing others outperform me should be a reason to be happy. It means the world has moved forward a bit more, and it means there’s still room for me to grow.

Every now and then, I’m reminded of that iconic scene with Ryunosuke Tanaka in Haikyu!!: “I am an ordinary guy. I’m confident in my athletic ability, but right now, I don’t excel at anything in particular in the volleyball club. That’s no reason or excuse to give up, though. But about once every six months, when my mental state dips, I start feeling so utterly mediocre. But do I, an ordinary guy, really have the time to hang my head?”

Unlike Ryunosuke Tanaka, I’ve never once considered myself a genius. At most, I pick things up slightly faster than average in certain areas. But that’s only relative to the average—nowhere near enough to reach the top in any field.

Timeline

• 2019.07 Moved to Fukuoka, Japan for work (Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa, the standard work visa for coming to Japan)
• 2022.02 Applied for the Highly Skilled Professional (HSP) visa
• 2022.04 Switched to Highly Skilled Professional (took about 1.5 months from application to notification)
• 2023.08 Applied for Permanent Residency (1 year with 80+ points on the Highly Skilled Professional route)
• 2023.09 Received a request for additional documents: proof of expected income for the upcoming year (requested through my employer, required the corporate seal)
• 2023.10 Received approval notification

It took about two months from applying for permanent residency to receiving the notification.