Becoming the first foreign employee

Gurung Suriya

(Gurun Surya)

I am Nepalese and came to Japan in 2016. After graduating from a Japanese language school and a vocational school, I joined Sakaeya in April 2019.

In Nepal, family is highly valued, and working for one's family is considered very important. It is common for migrant workers to go to other countries to work, and since Japan offers higher wages than Nepal, I chose Japan hoping to send money back to my family and provide them with a better life.

Living in a country different from where you were born and raised, not just in Japan, brings many worries and anxieties. There were cases where things that were commonplace in my home country were taboo in Japan. The biggest difficulty I faced as a foreigner was my inability to speak Japanese fluently. I hit the language barrier many times, and there were times when I thought I couldn't do it and gave up.