With an MBA in finance, Nivedita Sharma had been a team leader at a bank in India. She quit her job three months after her arranged marriage, when her husband¡¯s firm decided to transfer him to Tokyo.

¡°After moving to Japan I searched a lot, but I couldn¡¯t find a job in my field that didn¡¯t require native-level Japanese,¡± Sharma says. ¡°I did have options for teaching in Indian schools or eikaiwa (English conversation schools), but truly speaking, I didn¡¯t want to change my career from finance.

¡°We decided to plan a family. Now I¡¯m a mother of two. I also tried learning the Japanese language but, trust me, it isn¡¯t a very easy task. I wonder how even the Japanese learn Japanese,¡± she says. ¡°I can speak Japanese for survival, but with professional-level Japanese there¡¯s still a long way to go.¡±