So here’s the thing about living abroad: you accumulate a lot of stuff. Not just physical stuff, but digital accounts, bank relationships, insurance policies, and bureaucratic entanglements that would make your head spin if you tried to explain them to your family back home.
When my mother died in 2019, my sister and I spent days going through her desk looking for anything useful. We found house repair receipts from 1995, bank statements from accounts that had been closed for years, and empty file folders with intriguing labels. What we didn’t find were her passwords, which meant closing her email and online accounts turned into a bureaucratic nightmare involving faxed death certificates and way too many phone calls.
That experience made me think: if this was hard in our home country, in our native language, with familiar systems… what’s it going to be like for my American family when something happens to me here in Japan?
So I wrote a book about it. Actually, two books. Because foreign residents face challenges that regular estate planning advice just doesn’t cover.
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned about getting your affairs organized when you live in Japan. Not because I’m morbid, but because being prepared means you can actually relax and enjoy your life instead of worrying about the mess you might leave behind.
#ExpatLife #JapanLife #EndOfLifePlanning #ForeignResidents
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