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the gaijin are leaving Tokyo

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Near our previous apartment is an "international" grocery store, one that specializes in sky-high-prices for "foreign" foods. About a year ago, I noticed that it was becoming a lot less busy.

At the same time, I started attending going-away parties for foreigners that I knew from various circles. A fairly regular series of them.

And over the course of the last year, my then-employer was laying people off and cancelling the expat deals that were keeping several people around. Of the foreigners cut, most weren't finding work in Japan: they were fetching up in places like Hong Kong and Singapore. More departures.

And now it seems that the apartment building across the street is riddled with vacancies where previously there had been foreigners living under corporate leases.

No doubt about it, the gaijin are leaving Tokyo.