Should a Passport Brotha Move to Japan and Open a Bakery with His Japanese Choomba?
A while ago, I was having a conversation with my Japanese boo and she was not happy about her job. I was telling her we can go in business together, just me and her. She mentioned that we can start a bakery together.
I didn’t think about that conversation and we were just talking but here in America, I was watching a YouTube then it hit me – she might have been serious. In this article, let’s discuss this option for the brothas out there because it is a very viable option a brotha can make happen.
Let me explain something – this concept is not something new, especially in the Black community – this is our actual history from nearly 100 years ago. Brothas in the military would find a Japanese spouse, a Korean spouse, a Polish spouse, a Southern chick hanging out at the NCO club.
A lot of post-war Japan culture has a lot of hints of Black American history that are still in essence and practice. This is why I keep telling you – no one has our history and no place on this planet is the best place to visit and experience for African-Americans is Japan.
Let discuss the scenario where you as a brotha is tired of America and decide you going to move to Japan on an education visa, find a boo thang, and open up a bakery shop together.
A German Baker Found His Peace
A saw this YouTube video of a German man who is married to a Japanese wife and he created a Germanic bakery in a remote area of Japan. He is a real artisan and you can see he chop his own wood, use a mill to grind wheat into fine grain and make his own bread.
Then I realize he was married to his Japanese wife who work the bakery with him, then I remember the conversation with my boo thang and things clicked. This German man is living his best life, an entrepreneur, living off the land in his own home, and married to an awesome and based Japanese wife.
Think about it and I’m not asking you to watch the full hour, but this is what every real brotha who is a man wants primally and he is living the dream.
Understanding Bakery Model in Japan
When you been in Japan and talk to the people you do business with, you get to hear their story and give you more depth on Japanese people. What I seen is they usually work in corporate America and after they retire, or burned out, the men go into driving a taxi or delivery truck, trading in the office desk for a more agency in their life.
What I seen a lot with middle-aged Japanese women is they would open a café, a small restaurant, or a bakery after saving up her coins working a corporate job. I realize this is what my boo thing was talking to me about – she hate her corporate job and she does appear to be the type of woman doing something like this as her personal joy and producing something meaningful through her labor.
If you observe and peep the technique because they show it in detail – they are kneading dough and creating presentations. They not using sharp knives and they are mass producing bread that will sell a lot more than the unit cost.
But there is something you may be missing – look at the level of peace, the level of ownership and agency and pride they have working for themselves or in this environment – it look kind of chill. If you started a business like this with your spouse, this would be the coolest thing between both of you.
But in case you don’t know – this is exactly how we African-Americans did it 100 years ago in the 1920s. We had this same kind of Black couples starting a bakery, an older lady had her own cake shop, we had Black-owned donut shops like Dat Donuts on 83rd and Cottage Grove in Chicago where Leon’s Chicken was at. I already told you Japan is vibing on the same thing we done at Black people and still practice our history, retaining the soul of our people.
The muffins in this shop look so good and she cooks them with a passion. I also see her doing an old-school granola recipe with the nuts and berries and corn syrup that we used to do back in the old days as well. Look at the small shop and how they are doing real shopkeeping, something we cannot do in our communities anymore.
This is something I definitely can dig and see me and my Japanese boo thang just running a bakery together like those Black couple in the 1920s. My Japanese choom already like 1980s urban city pop and I can feel the soul of my Black ancestors in how she moves and her music choices and this old-school culture of walking in Tokyo, dressed up after work, hand-in-hand to get something to eat, then take a cab home and kiss her off like we used to do when we had real foundational Black love.
Getting Started with Your Choomba
If you a brotha who tired of dealing with these uncooperative, stank attitude sistas back in America and ran out of options, you might want to look at that German man video and watch all of it, because that can be your quiet life as well.
So how to you get started on this path? Let’s break down the steps. By the way, if you a sista reading this, you can take the same steps as well – but I’m trying to hide this article from the sistas because the reality is a sista can do this be more successful than a brotha. In fact, I remember a Black American couple in China was profiled on YouTube doing this kind of business together.
Bypass Option. Join the military, serve in Japan, save your coins, find a Japanese chick, then open up shop after enlistment. But some of you brothers got man-titties and cannot pass a PT test, so let’s look at the other way.
Save Your Money Up. Save at least 50k to 70k or get access to credit lines. Because what you want to do is see if you can buy a distressed shop or rent it out from an older couple. If you cannot save up 50k to 70k, you a broke clown with a broke mindset. You can get 50K, figure it out.
Get Education Visa for Japan. This is one of those goofy language schools they setup but in reality, it’s just a backdoor to get you into Japan for 6-months to a year. That’s all the time you need to get you a boo thang. By the way, you can be 50 years old and do these schools like Japanese language school.
Get Your Rizz Going. You in the door, now go find a boo thang. Don’t find a chick at a damn club, brotha, don’t be goofy like that. You learn the language, appear friendly and approachable and they will approach you and you open your mouth. I dress proper and they come to me, they give the stares like they will run if you call them over and exchange Line information – they use X and Instagram more than Line.
Marry Her. This is why I told you not to deal with goofy club chicks, find a working woman and date her and you tell her exactly what you trying to do – open a small bakery. Because I already told you at the top of the article, that is their real dream. She wants to quit her job and run her own ramen spot, yakatori spot, bakery and sweet shop.
Open Up Shop Together. Trust me, she will be more motivated than you to get the bakery setup. She is Japanese will have her money saved up, probably over $1 million while you just got 50K in your pocket you struggled to get because you a typical American brotha that don’t read Dream and Hustle like you should’ve.
Get to Business. Do your part in setting up the commercial oven, kneading the dough, learning the recipes for different types of bread, muffins, cakes, pastries. Get up like the Dunkin Donuts dude because it’s time to make the donuts.
This is not as hard as you think it is brotha, the only part that you have to understand is finding the right Japanese chick that will roll with you 100% on this. To be honest, I don’t care if she is a Minato girl, she will roll with you on this is you pipe her down right, that’s how brothas get their ticket punched and get to move around this world.
Other Women and Nations
One thing you may be asking is can this be a Passport Bro model to go anywhere outside of Japan? The answer is yes. But the advantage of Japan is it is safe to do business and have a local fiscalism ecosystem meaning they got money and spend it in the community, using cash.
The second place I would consider would be, come on you shouldn’t guess – Dubai. The reason why I said Dubai is because you can bring almost any kind of woman with you on this venture. You can bring an Ethiopian sista, a Korean chick, a Colombian beauty, or a Ukrainian chick or Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Middle Eastern lady or even an Indian woman and start a bakery.
There is one more place I would consider and that is a nice walkable community in America. It can be one of these large apartment complexes with a storefront on the bottom, or one of those small walkable downtown areas where people live nearby and want to grab a fresh variety of baked breads that are not sold in the big box and grocery stores.
It’s something about these videos with the husband and wife in a bakery that I’m looking at and seeing a common pattern. They are operating at a married couple, at peace, cooperating, building up their money together, he in the kitchen, she at the cashier.
It like they have purpose, they in business together, they serving their community, and most of all I see is tranquility in the work they doing. If I was one of you younger brothas, I would consider this as an option to pursue. Because it look like the ultimate Passport Bro end goal to achieve, running a bakery with your Japanese wife, just you and her, the business and saving money and building up together.