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Japanese finds Penang perfect
for retirement
31/01/2006 The Star
PENANG is one of the best destinations for foreigners planning to spend
their retirement years, says Penang Tourism Action Council (PTAC) adviser
for the Long-Stay programme, Hoshino Kyo.
“I believe Penang is one of the best places for long-stay,” said the
66-year-old Japanese who has been living in Penang with his wife since 1997.
“Just like I explain to potential Japanese visitors, life in Penang is quite
good. The price is very cheap compared with the standard of living.
“The good points for Penang include infrastructure, safety, medical, food,
water, and the high housing standards. It is a nice destination, and the
people are friendly and speak English.”
Hoshino said that although not many Japanese speak English well, most of
them could speak some English.
“For long-stay visitors to enjoy living in a place, they must be able to
communicate with the people. If I want to stay in France or Spain, I must
know how to speak French or Spanish. Here, English is widely spoken,” he
said.
Hoshino was a director with a chemical plant in Butterworth from 1974 to
1977. Twenty years later, he took optional retirement as the chief executive
officer of a subsidiary company and returned to Penang.
In 2000, he started the PJL (M) Sdn Bhd, a non-profit organisation that
collaborated with the Penang state government to promote Penang to retired
Japanese. He continued in his role after the PTAC was set up a few years
later.
Hoshino said the PTAC handled public relations, while the PJL carried out
the promotions and marketing.
“We only promote Penang, not Malaysia as a whole. And we only concentrate on
Japan.”
Besides helping with the “Malaysia My Second Home'' programme visa
applications, Hoshino said the PJL also provided Japanese visitors with
useful information about Penang and charged a minimal fee to cover expenses.
PJL's information for Japanese include a guideline on actual Malaysian
market prices of important items and a list of do’s and don'ts, for example,
reasonable conditions and range of prices for rental of homes.
“While restaurants and supermarkets have fixed prices, there are other
businesses where the prices are subject to negotiations. This means a strong
negotiator can get cheaper prices while a weak negotiator gets higher
prices,” said Hoshino.
“Most Japanese are also not fluent in English, so they will ask a broker to
take care of all these things. And most brokers will not charge local prices
but what we call ‘foreigner price’ or ‘Japanese price’.”
Hoshino said PJL handled two different kinds of long-stay – the short-term
stay with a 90-day social visit pass and the long-term stay of over 180 days
in Malaysia.
He said there were an average of about 200 to 300 people annually from Japan
who came to Penang for a short-term long-stay from December to March. As for
long-term stay, under the PTAC alone, there have been 130 persons, some of
them couples and some indivi-duals.
Hoshino, who has a working visa through JPL, is now only starting to apply
for the “Malaysia My Second Home” programme himself.
“My daughter is still in Tokyo. Twice a year, her family comes to visit. My
grandson is turning seven this year and has already been here 12 times,” he
said. |
