I can only speak for myself, but I fought as hard as I could before making the tough decision to leave. I spoke up to friends, to my mostly republican family, spoke up at work (government contractor) which almost cost me my job, spoke up on social media, called my elected representatives and lawmakers, went to protests, and helped organize protests.

But after June/July 2025 I began to realize we were not getting the momentum we needed to stop the MAGA movement, and it was time to begin making a plan B (physical escape).

I’d like to think most others like me have also tried to make an impact, but at some point you have to jump ship. There’s no reason to go down with the others who refuse to wake up and smell the fascism.

Thank you <3

Airplane tickets - $8k, Sending 2 boxes of things air freight (we lost 2 boxes doing sea freight to the US a few years back, so not trying that again) - $2.5k, Vet visits + vaccinations for dog to be allowed in Japan - $1.5k, Repairs on house to list it for sale - $11k, Short term apartment rental while house is on market - $12.5k, Giving away all our stuff because there’s not enough time to list everything for sale online and spend 1-2 hours per listing dealing with people trying to haggle… and then re-buying the essentials in Japan - $20k+ (honestly idek, could be much more. Haven’t sat down and added up how much value we gave away)

This doesn’t include the $50k we dropped our house sale price to make it sell faster, or the $100k+ per year less I’ll be making at work here.

So yeah, clearly our priority here was not maximizing our net worth. We’re significantly downsizing our lifestyle financially, and prioritizing our family’s safety and peace of mind instead. It was not an easy decision to make.

This is a fair point, and one that I’m concerned about. But our only 2 choices were America and Japan, so we’re taking our chances with Japan for now.

Thank you. We’re on the outer edges of a major city, close to my wife’s family. Yeah, unfortunately this country has never been terribly welcoming to foreigners. I certainly wouldn’t want to live here long term if I wasn’t married to a citizen. I did it for 5 years in my 20s and got burned out.

US citizen who just finished immigrating to Japan 2 days ago. It took 8 months of planning and prep work, at least $50,000, and brought my wife and I to the edges of our sanity for the vast majority of those 8 months.

But we are finally free. Fuck ICE, fuck MAGA, and fuck Trump.

Plot twist tho: Epstein is an alien, he’s still alive, and he’s pulling the strings of all our puppet leaders. It’s back on the radar.