Studying in Japan

Studying in Japan requires a Student Visa, which is obtained via the school in which the applicant will attend while residing in Japan.

 

Individuals may receive a student visa via several options, including: University study abroad year/semester (check with your college study abroad office); attending a Japanese university; or, attending a Japanese language school that offers visa sponsorship.

 

Certain individuals may be allowed to work part-time.

 

You must apply to and be accepted by your respective program or school in order to receive this visa. You cannot receive a student visa without having proof of acceptance or enrollment in a valid visa-issuing program.

I want to work in Japan

Americans who want to work in Japan

 

Japan is home to several U.S. military installations. Active duty military may be deployed to these installations depending on your branch of service, among other factors. Please note that all active US military are required to live on-base while stationed in Japan.

 

Many civilian (non-military) contract and full-time positions in Japan are available to US citizens and can be found on USA Jobs. Rules regarding living on base vary by installation. As most of these positions are on military installations, there are very few opportunities in or near large cities, including Tokyo.

 

U.S. citizens working for the U.S. government in Japan (including diplomatic employees) do not receive a working visa. The U.S. and Japan has a special diplomatic agreement called SOFA that governs these unique individuals.

 

Australia/NewZealand/Canada/Korea/France/Germany/UK/Ireland/Denmark/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Norway/Portugal/Poland/Slovakia/Austria and want to live in Japan

 

Are you between the ages of 18 and 30? Are you a legal resident of one of the above countries? Then you qualify for the Working Holiday Visa. This visa allows you to live and work (with restrictions) in Japan for up to one year.

 

This visa requires a round trip ticket to the applicant's home country, as well as proof that the applicant can financially support themselves while living in Japan for the length of the visa. (This is done by providing bank statements or other similar documents.)

 

The following requirements are needed:
•For a national of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Poland or Slovakia, an applicant must be currently residing in his or her country of nationality; for a resident in Hong Kong, an applicant must possess a valid HKSAR or British National Overseas passport; for a resident in Taiwan, an applicant must possess a valid passport of Taiwan.
•Intending primarily to spend holiday in Japan for a specific length of time.
•Between 18 and 30 years of age both inclusive at the time of application for the visa; As for Australia, Canada and Republic of Korea, an applicant should be between 18 and 25 years of age except in those cases where the competent authorities of Japan agree to extend the limitation of age to 30 years.
•Not being accompanied by dependents or children.
•Possessing a valid passport of his or her country/region and a return travel ticket or sufficient funds with which to purchase such a ticket.
•Possessing reasonable funds for the maintenance of his/her stay during the initial period of stay in Japan.
•In good health.
•Never having been issued a Japanese working holiday visa in the past.

Common questions

I want to work in Japan

If you wish to work in Japan in any capacity, you will need a work visa. Work visas are divided in several categories, and each specific working visa subset generally requires its own unique requirements to be issued. Work visas require the applicant to have a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) issued by the applicant's prospective employer. You will not be able to obtain a work visa without the COE. A COE is essentially equivalent to a job offer; you can't have one without the other. No job offer? No COE and no work visa. You can obtain a job offer (and thus, a COE) by applying for jobs with Japanese employers while overseas. This also includes teaching positions as an ALT or eikawa English instructor. With the exception of a few very unique working visas or very unique exceptions, almost all work visas require the applicant to have a four-year college degree.

Indeed.com

Indeed.com is the best online job board for finding jobs. I have looked at several sites and after experimenting and testing other sites, Indeed has proven to be the best by far. You can search by keyword and city/location. I prefer to set the keyword to "English" and city to "Tokyo" for example to get the most results possible.

Indeed Job Search

キーワード:

勤務地:

からの求人

Other ways to find a job

Networking

Meetup, various social events in Tokyo and major cities, community events, etc.

 

 

Side jobs

Voice actor

Voice recording

Stand in/movie extras     

Convenience store worker

Delivery workers

Teaching English

Scouting sports—especially soccer, basketball for real time data

Tokyo American Club: various jobs including lifeguard, receptionist, graphic designer, teacher, etc.

Freelancing jobs

Another way to make money while living in Japan after you secure your job is through freelance work. I highly suggest looking for supplementary income as the pay in Japan is generally lower than what you would expect.

A site I recommend is Legit Writing Jobs which has helped me get some additional work. I have made enough at times to pay my bills or even a whole month's worth of groceries. Consider this as a good way to prop up your earnings.

More Ways to Find a Job

Tokyo Employment Service Center for Foreigners

http://tokyo-foreigner.jsite.mhlw.go.jp/english.html

The Tokyo Employment Service Center for Foreigners (Nishi Shinjuku Center) is a public employment office specializing in providing job counseling and placement services for non-Japanese students holding a STUDENT 留学 status (visa) and non-Japanese specialists or technical experts holding a corresponding status (visa) who live in Japan and seek employment in Japan.  The center is run by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

 

The Nishi Shinjuku Center (Tokyo Employment Service Center for Foreigners) administers the following services:

·Job counseling and placement services for non-Japanese students who desire to work in Japan after graduating

·Job counseling and placement services for non-Japanese specialists or technical experts holding a corresponding residential status (visa) such as ENGINEER 技術,SPECIALIST IN HUMANITIES/INTERNATIONAL SERVICES人文国際, SKILLED LABOR技能, INSTRUCTOR教育

· Immigration advisory services

 

Interpreters are available in English and Chinese by appointment between 9:15 am - 5:15 pm

 

The Kabukicho Center (Shinjuku Foreigners’ Employment Assistance and Guidance Center) provides similar services:

•Job Counseling and placement services for non-Japanese job seekers whose status has no restrictions on occupation such as SPOUSE OR CHILD OF JAPANESE NATIONAL日本人配偶者等, LONG TERM RESIDENT定住, PERMANENT RESIDENT永住

•Job counseling and placement services for WORKING HOLIDAY status (visa) holders

•Job counseling and placement services for STUDENT留学 and DEPENDENT家族滞在 status(visa) holders seeking a PART-TIME job

• Immigration advisory services

 

Interpreters are available in English and Chinese by appointment.

 

For hours, location and map, select the Shinjuku Foreigners' Employment Assistance and Guidance Center

 

Other Employment Service Centers for non-Japanese job seekers:

Osaka Employment Service Center for Foreigners

Nagoya Employment Service Center for Foreigners

 

 

Another Way to Find a Job

Boston Career Forum (BCF)

 

It is the preeminent career forum for bilingual Japanese-English fresh graduates to look for employment with top firms in Japan. It is held in November every year in Boston, and many executives from top firms come here with the sole purpose of giving out job offers during this time. It is also open to mid-career professionals as well, although most of the positions being offered are geared toward new graduates or young professionals.

The recommended qualifications are:

•Japanese-English bilingual (minimum conversational level) and one of the following: •Graduated from or currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. program outside of Japan

•Graduated from or currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. program in Japan including at least one year of study abroad

•Mid-career professionals

In the most recent BCF in November 2015, 195 companies participated including some of the biggest names out there such as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deloitte, Sony, Hitachi, Toyota Motor Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui, Mitsubishi Corporation, McKinsey, Konica Minolta, Softbank, and others.

 

I attended the forum as a graduate student a while back, and I was able to secure a couple of interviews with consulting firms and financial institutions which eventually led up to additional rounds of interviews but, unfortunately, no offer. My biggest weakness at the time was my complete lack of Japanese skills. I only knew a few words, but I had a desire to live and work in Japan as my wife is Japanese and I wanted a new experience.

How to Get these Jobs

Recruiters: Michael Page, Robert Half, Intelligence GlobalSearch, Vision Consulting, JAC, Robert Walters, Recruit, EnWorld        

Caveat: I have dealt with nearly all of these recruiters in my time here. Frankly, most of them are rather useless although I did get my first job at a large financial services company through one of them. The key is to find a niche or a specific job description where your skills fit in, either roughly or very specific. I will explain what I mean. These recruiters are tasked with finding bilingual English-Japanese speakers for their clients. Given that many Japanese are very poor in English speaking, some companies will be more lenient with foreigners who have limited Japanese skills yet have a strong background and matching skills for the position. Modifying and targeting your resume by emphasizing your financial analysis skills or your years of legal experience, and mitigating the weakness of your Japanese skills (if that is the case) by showing a determination to learn and apply what you have learned helps a long way to securing an interview. I have had interviews done completely in Japanese, even with my limited skills at the time, as I had shown an interest in learning Japanese, improved my reading and speaking skills to the point where I could read newspaper articles and have full conversations without any hestiation

 

Job sites: Careercross, Daijob, Glassdoor, Nikkei Career, Tenshoku En World, Linkedin, Career Engine, Gaijinpot, Twitter: search by “Tokyo Jobs”, jp.linkedin.com, search by “ネイティブ英語”

Typical Jobs Part 2

Public Relations/International Marketing

Overseas business development

IT-server/network admin/developer

Translation

 

Specialized financial/legal positions

Front office sales and trading for investment banks often only require conversational Japanese and fluent English. However, these are far and few in between recently with the market moving overseas and jobs being cut and not returning.

Consulting

Expat

U.S. military- many civilian positions on base and around.

Tokyo American Club