Why a University Student Living in Malaysia for 7 Years Built a Relocation Simulator

Five months after graduating high school, I finally made it to Malaysia. And when I say "finally," it's not just a figure of speech—it really took five months just to get my visa.

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Why a High School Student Aspiring to Be an Architect Chose Malaysia

Originally, my dream was to become an architect. I was passionate about design and applied to an art university in Japan, but unfortunately, I didn't get in. Faced with the choice of either repeating a year or studying abroad, I instinctively knew that repeating wasn't for me.

I didn't have much resistance to going abroad. Since kindergarten, I had been attending English conversation classes and traveled overseas almost every year during my school days. The idea of "going abroad" was already a familiar option for me.

There were two reasons I chose Malaysia. First, it's a multi-ethnic country. In Malaysia, where Asian, Indian, and Western communities coexist, you won't be discriminated against just for being Japanese. This was a crucial condition for my study abroad destination. The second reason was the low cost of living at the time. When I moved, RM1 (Ringgit) was about 25 yen, making it a very practical choice for a student.

It wasn't my first time in Malaysia. I had visited twice before—once on a school trip and once to tour the university I would be attending—so I had a general idea of what to expect.

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The 5-Month Visa Process—Learning from Malaysia's Pace

Once I decided to move, the first hurdle was the visa. I was handling the study abroad procedures on my own, without going through an agent, so there was no support window to help me. I had to do everything myself.

Malaysia, in a good way, is very laid-back. Even if you inquire about the progress of your visa, they won't rush. If you expect the "quick response" typical in Japan, you'll find yourself waiting endlessly. Without connections to an agent, it took even longer.

In the end, it took about five months for my visa to be approved. This experience later became one of the reasons why visa information is a key content area on MoveWorth. Starting from research to actually being able to move takes much more time than one might imagine.

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What I Learned After Actually Living There

After arriving in Malaysia, I encountered a few surprises.

The inconvenience of transportation was more than I had anticipated. In Japan, trains and buses run on time and can take you anywhere. In Malaysia, cars and Grab (a ride-hailing app) are the main modes of transportation, and trying to live with the same mindset as in Japan can be confusing.

Regarding food, I couldn't eat out for the first week. I couldn't shake off concerns about hygiene. However, as I got used to it, I was able to enjoy local food without any issues. Now, I enjoy it regularly.

The climate is quite rainy. Regardless of the rainy or dry season, downpours like squalls are frequent.

As for cost of living, I initially felt the affordability when I moved, but now it doesn't seem as different. Back then, RM1 was about 25 yen, but now it's around 40 yen, and the cost of living in Malaysia has also risen. Deciding to move based solely on the image of "Malaysia is cheap" might lead to unexpected surprises.

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The Reality of "Migrants" I've Seen Over 7 Years

During my seven years in Malaysia, I've had many opportunities to talk with people who moved from Japan or were stationed here. A common story I heard was how challenging it was to gather information before moving.

Especially when there were fewer migrants, the only way to get real information was to meet and talk directly with people already living there.

You can search for blog articles, but finding out "how much it specifically costs for someone with my income, family structure, and destination country," "how taxes will change," or "which visa suits me" is still not easy.

My parents once talked about wanting to move to Malaysia. At that time, I wished I had something to give them as a reference, but I had nothing.

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"More Than a Blog, Something You Can Calculate Yourself"

As a student majoring in Computer Science, I also wanted to try developing a service myself. I wanted to deepen my technical understanding by actually creating and operating a web service.

I considered creating an information site or blog, but there are already articles about migration out there. More than that, I felt that a simulator where you can input your conditions and visually check living costs, taxes, and visa situations after migration would be a "concrete step to deciding on migration."

Turning vague anxieties in your head into numbers can significantly lower the hurdles to migration.

That's how MoveWorth was born.

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The Future of MoveWorth

Currently, we support simulations for 44 countries.

Since Japanese people primarily use Japanese as their main language, researching overseas migration information in Japanese itself is quite a challenge. Through MoveWorth, I hope to lower that hurdle even a little.

In the future, we plan to support countries worldwide and make the service available in various languages, not just Japanese. I'm continuing to create what the 19-year-old me who came to Malaysia wanted, and what my parents needed.