English language job in Japan that is not teaching

• I have been offered the dream position for me - teaching English in Japan. It is with a good school, I have up to two years to take up the offer, and there is a visa attached which will also mean my son and husband can come as dependents. And if we went it would be for a number of years, at least. Only fly in the ointment is what is my husband going to do with himself? My husband doesn't 'do' not working - more than two weeks holiday and he is nearly unbearable to be around. The one time he was unemployed in his life - 3 weeks - he ended up severely depressed. So going to Japan and not working for years is just not an option. However, there are some obstacles. -His current employer has no opportunities in Japan, so there is never going to be a chance to 'transfer to the Japanese branch'. - My husband only speaks English. And he is not going to learn Japanese before we go there. He has previously tried to learn a foreign language, and he just doesn't have the aptitude. I am sure once he was there he would pick some up, but not enough to get a Japanese speaking job (we have lived in countries where we don't speak the language so that is not an issue for him). - He doesn't want to teach, so an English teacher job is not really an option. - Money is not the most important thing, but being honest I am not sure if after 25+ years of professional work in which he has risen to a high level he is going to be happy working at a kombini stocking shelves. - He is not the entrepreneur type so he is not going to set up his own business from home or the like as a career. He is a qualified civil engineer, though for the past decade or so he has worked almost entirely only in management (he has been known to go out and play on the excavator or lay concrete on a job site for fun). He says that if he was applying in an English language country he would be back at the 'graduate recruit' level when it comes to applying for 'practical' civil engineering jobs (I think he is selling himself short, but he works in the field, not me). He has no formal training in CAD but does have experience in both horizontal and vertical construction as well as working in disaster relief. He is also extremely practical, and good at making and designing things - he is a self-taught woodworker and has recently been designing and making furniture from scratch. He is also very outdoorsy, especially mountain biking and hiking, and has previously been qualified as a climbing instructor and general Adventure Training leader. I realise that organising a job for him before we got there is going to be near impossible, but I have no idea if this is a case of 'get there and probably within 6 months you will have found something' or 'nope, there is no chance he is going to find a job'. We have visited Japan on various previous occasions, my son and husband love it there nearly as much as I do, and the whole idea of downsizing and moving to another country doesn't bother us (we have lived and worked in half a dozen different countries so far). We will have substantial savings before we go and I would have employment, so we would have a buffer to look for the right kind of thing for him to do - but I am wondering if it is realistic to think there would actually be anything there for him. Note 1 - I am probably looking at working in Osaka, but the school that is willing to hire me has branches around the place so there is a little bit of flexibility on where he could go to work. Osaka would be our preference though. Note 2 - I briefly thought of going out to Japan for a year and while there scouting around for a job for him, but the reality is his current job would not give him the time to look after our son as required. Sexist, but sadly unavoidable in our situation.

• Answer:

  What does HE want to do? Is there a reason he can't figure this out?