Who am I?

My name is Ken Halim (it actually isn’t, but I can’t reveal my true identity – yet), a 30-year-old Indonesian expat living around Kobe-Osaka Japan (this is true though).

This is my 12th year in Japan. Up until recently, I was a PhD student with a prospect to work as an assistant professor (助教) … but life happened – and completely rearranged my priorities. Now, I am a senior associate researcher at a global medical diagnostics company.

Moving and living in Japan has been difficult for foreigners, mainly because of Japanese language and the modern-yet-traditional culture. Since 2018 I have been involved in assisting and mentoring non-Japanese speakers (fellow students and now my expat colleagues) to get settled in.

I started workinjpn101 in the hope that I could be of some help to other expats by sharing my experiences and providing up-to-date information that I have interpreted.