·4 min read
From Kushinagar to Japan: Learning, Earning, and Looking Back Home.
What would you do if you had spent years studying agriculture, finally found a job in your field, and were still earning just ₹13,000 a month? For Sonu Kumar, the answer was to look beyond what was…
What would you do if you had spent years studying agriculture, finally found a job in your field, and were still earning just ₹13,000 a month? For Sonu Kumar, the answer was to look beyond what was familiar. Today, he is working in Japan’s agriculture sector, earning almost ten times what he earned back home. But his story isn't really about going to Japan. It is about what he hopes to bring back with him.
Sonu grew up in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, in a family where working abroad was already part of life. His father had worked overseas, and his brothers had built careers of their own in different parts of the world and in India. So the idea of working abroad wasn't completely new to Sonu. What was new was the possibility of using international work not just to earn more, but to learn something that could eventually help him build something of his own.
After completing his Bachelor's and Master's in Agricultural Sciences, Sonu began working as an Agriculture Supervisor with the Birla Group in Kushinagar. His work involved working with farmers and helping them improve crop management and cultivation practices. It was work connected to what he had studied, and he enjoyed it. But at around ₹13,000 a month, he knew that his ambitions were bigger than what his current income could offer.
Then a professor told him about opportunities in Japan's agriculture sector through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
It sounded promising. It also came with a fairly big challenge: Japanese.
Sonu enrolled in a Japanese language programme in Varanasi. For six months, he worked on the language, followed by further preparation for the certification exams. Hiragana and Katakana were only the beginning. Kanji proved much harder. He didn't clear everything on his first attempt either. But instead of treating the failure as a reason to stop, he went back, prepared again and eventually cleared the required language certification and the Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) examination.
Then came the interview with Persol Global Workforce. This time, the opportunity was real.
Japan.
His first posting was at a potato processing facility in Hokkaido, where he worked alongside six other Indian workers. The first few weeks brought a different kind of learning. Japanese sounded very different when people were speaking quickly at work rather than slowly in a classroom. Even simple everyday routines took time to understand. There was a new workplace, a new country, a new language and a completely different way of life to get used to.
His work took him from the potato processing facility to a seasonal orange farm and eventually to a one-year contract in Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo. Along the way, his employer helped with many of the practical challenges of settling in, including housing, airport pickup and transportation between postings. Sonu even received a company vehicle and began learning to drive in Japan.
And then there was the financial difference.
The ₹13,000 salary he once earned in Kushinagar had become almost ten times higher in Japan. A significant part of his earnings goes back to his family in India, while he uses the rest for his life in Japan. His employment also provides health insurance, pension and social security.
For his family, that change matters. But for Sonu, the money is only one part of the story.
Because he doesn't see Japan as the final destination.
He sees it as a place to learn.
His long-term plan is to return to India and start his own agricultural business. He wants to bring back the techniques, mechanisation and production practices he is learning in Japan and apply them to agriculture in his own community. The goal is not simply to earn abroad. It is to take that experience and turn it into something that can create value back home.
And that is what makes Sonu's journey interesting.
His story begins with a young agriculture graduate in Kushinagar looking for a better opportunity. It takes him through language classes in Varanasi, a difficult exam, a new life in Japan and a series of jobs across its agricultural sector. But it doesn't end there.
The hope is that one day, the journey will come full circle.
Go out. Learn. Earn. Bring the knowledge back. Build.
For Sonu, international mobility isn't about choosing between home and the world. It is about using the world to create something at home.