Hi there, thanks for clicking on my post and having a read. I’ve pretty much exhausted the useful videos on youtube, all the top posts on here and the wiki. (Shout out to Dave Trippin who has had a lot of useful content on youtube.)
Now I come here hoping to get some constructive feedback.
I’m currently a 29 year old student about to start my second year of university studying film production. I’m especially interested in editing. I want to move to Japan once I’ve got my bachelor’s degree.
So after doing my research, here’s my plan for your consideration.
In two years time, finish University whilst creating a portfolio of editing work and media production.
With newly acquired bachelor degree, apply to English teaching roles to get a COE and visa to get into Japan
Once in the country, keep teaching English for a year or however long needed whilst I continue to build my editing portfolio and try and get a job editing in Japan. (I will also look to find direct hire English teaching roles rather than working for an agency after about 6 months.)
If I can’t get editing work in Japan straight away, I would try and gain experience working remotely doing editing work from the UK or America.
Extra details:I’m currently learning Japanese using the genki books and anki decks with a friend and plan to have at least N4 by the time I move, although I feel maybe N3 could be possible.
I plan to have saved around £9000 by the time I move to Japan, although an eye watering, £2500 will be for pet transport.
I also plan to come over next year in August for the full month and travel around to experience Japan and also see how homesick I’ll get.
My intentions will be to move for 5-10 years or more depending on how successful I am in securing a career in editing/media production.
Issues with my plan that I would like advise on please?
1.I’ve got two cats, how hard is it to find a rental property with cats? I’d be able to come at most, two weeks before them to get set up but leaving them any longer or leaving them behind isn’t an option.Would a teaching agency be willing to help me find a property from overseas to move straight into when I arrive with two cats?
2. If I can’t find editing work straight away in Japan due to a lack of actual working experience, would I be able to work remotely from a company in the UK or Japan and self sponsor my own visa?I read on a post previously that if you can prove your income is more then £1600 (rough figure from memory) then you can self sponsor, is this true?
3. Would a teaching visa allow me to work remotely in a self employed role as an editor part time along side my teaching work to gain experience ? I would of course declare all earning I make from it.
Big thanks to anyone who’s read this and can offer up any advice or answer my questions 🙂
4 comments
Don’t bother moving to teach English once you finish your degree. That’s just shooting yourself in the foot. Get a job in the field you want in your home country and get experience there. As for your specific field, you’re going to need basically native level Japanese to move and stay within your field. Work on that.
Ooh boy…
First off, bona-fides: I have been living/working in Japan in the post-production industry for 10+ years. Not an editor, but work with editors every day. (No, I’m not going to be more specific, as specificity would effectively doxx me)
>I’m currently learning Japanese using the genki books and anki decks with a friend and plan to have at least N4 by the time I move, although I feel maybe N3 could be possible.
Quite frankly, this is ***nowhere near enough*** Japanese to work in the film industry. You need as close to native-level Japanese as you can get to successfully manage it.
You’re still in school, but I’m assuming you have worked on a few productions as part of classes. Think about the level of technical, creative, and emotional discussions you have had as part of those productions. Now think about having those conversations with someone who speaks English (or whatever your native language is) like a 5th grader.
Now imagine doing it on a deadline that is about 3000% more tight than a school production.
If you’re not even N4 now, you ultimately won’t be reaching the required level of Japanese any time soon. I’ve lived here for more than a decade. I achieved N1 6+ years ago. And I *still* can’t do the creative part of my job in a 100% Japanese environment.
>I’ve got two cats, how hard is it to find a rental property with cats?
Read our [pet wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/wiki/pets/). Finding an apartment for a *single* cat is difficult. Most “pet friendly” apartments are referring to dogs. Finding an apartment for ***multiple*** cats going to be ridiculously hard. Finding an apartment for multiple cats on an English teaching salary is going to be borderline impossible.
>If I can’t find editing work straight away in Japan due to a lack of actual working experience, would I be able to work remotely from a company in the UK or Japan and self sponsor my own visa?
Your problem isn’t going to be lack of experience. It’s going to be ***language***. See above.
And no, you can’t work remotely.
Reason #1: You can only work within the restrictions of your visa. An English-teaching visa won’t allow you to work as an editor. Even remotely. You would have to request permission from immigration, and in this situation they’ll reject it out of hand.
Reason #2: You can’t self-sponsor a visa when your clients aren’t located in Japan.
>Would a teaching visa allow me to work remotely in a self employed role as an editor part time along side my teaching work to gain experience ?
No. See “working within the restrictions of your visa” above.
Frankly, the only way you’re going to be able to make this work is to stay at home, build a *killer* demo reel, and study Japanese like your life depends on it in your spare time.
You need 3 things:
1. Luck (This is a world-wide industry thing, not just Japan. Jobs in film/video/media require a hefty amount of luck in general. Right place, right person, right time)
2. Native-level Japanese.
3. A bad-ass reel/portfolio.
1. To bring cat in Japan is a long and complicated thing, you need your cat to have rabies vaccine and stuff, you should check that first.
2. You cannot really “self sponsor” yourself. Usually it would be a company that will give you a work visa or a spouse of you get a spouse visa. To “self sponsor”, you would have to get something like an investor visa, so you have to invest 10M yen and hire Japanese people in your newly made company… realistically, you won’t do that. I’ve never heard of anything else.
3. No, a visa for teaching will only allow you to work in a specific field. If you change job, then you have to get the appropriate visa. You can only work the type of job that your visa allow.
What would be possible (especially if you did not had the cat situation) would be to get a working holiday visa. In that case you could travel around Japan and work (even remotely to the UK). But that is just a short term thing that would at least give you a taste of Japan, then you can continue to build experience, improve your Japanese and try to find a job in your field in Japan.
> Shout out to Dave Trippin who has had a lot of useful content on youtube.
Just checked out that guys channel, boy if there’s ever a guy monetizing hopes and dreams it’s him