Good morning! I got my bachelor’s in Psychology in the US back in 2018, and I’m looking into Master’s programs for psychology with the ultimate goal of practicing as a therapist for foreigners here in Japan. I’ve read through other threads by people with somewhat similar questions here on reddit, and reading through their advice, I’m considering going through a master’s program remotely at a European university while I live and work in Japan as an ALT. It seems like after that, if I want to be able to use a title like 臨床心理士 or 公認心理師 and work for an institution or agency as a professional, I have to get my clinical psychologist certification here in Japan, which I have no qualms with as I intend to pass the N1 and continue improving my Japanese as close to a native level as possible in the coming years. If my Japanese gets good enough, I’d also be happy to accept Japanese clients open-minded enough to take on a foreign therapist, though I certainly wouldn’t get my hopes up about that happening very often haha.
All that being said, I have **three questions:**
**1)** The Japanese Psychological Association mentions three rules to take the test. “Qualified individuals must 1) possess a bachelor’s degree or above, 2) have lived in Japan for 2 or more years since they were 16 years old, and **3) earned academic credits designated by the JPA certification committee.**” To be clear, will I actually require any formal schooling here in Japan to be able to take this test, or will N1 and a foreign Master’s be enough?
**2)** If anyone here has taken a psychological certification test of this nature here in Japan, what was that like? How did you prepare? Would also of course be happy to hear from any practicing psychological researchers (a route I’m still considering) or therapists in Japan regarding general working experiences.
**3)** Does the roadmap I’ve lined up make sense? Is there anything I’m missing, any certification I’d need or some sort of oversight? Let me know! I’ve done a good amount of reading on this, but it’s hard to be sure since it seems like mostly-untreaded ground as far as I can tell.
by SuminerNaem