I’m a 19 year old Indian National currently in my flight training process. I’ve always been fascinated by Japan and thought what would be better to live in Japan while doing what you love at the same time.
Now I’ve researched online and I’ve seen almost every article saying that you would need a college degree to make the process easier but also some articles related to aviation in Japan saying the airlines don’t employ expatriate pilots. Now I don’t have a way to verify this and whether you have to be a Japanese national or fluent in Japanese to get employed in one of the airlines.
Now I need some advice on whether they employ expatriate pilots. I do not plant to apply right away but after I’ve earned experience in this field but I think it wouldn’t be so bad to seek for advice much before.
2 comments
I know of a few foreigners working for the Japanese airlines. Note that to convert your license over I think that you’ll at least need to do the radio test in Japanese. It’s also worth pointing out that the Japanese medical requirements for commercial (and private) pilots are a bit stricter than in some other places, so if you’re on any type of special exemption medical, it might be more difficult in Japan.
Edited to add: This was about the licensing requirements. I haven’t the faintest notion what the visa requirements might be to work as a pilot.
Not currently, but they did before covid, and almost certainly will again. The general requirements were current on type with minimum 3000 hours usually. An SFI/TRI rating is also a big bonus. Basically youll need about 4 years commercial experience on type before theyll look at you.
They hired generally through dispatch companies and there were no citizenship/japanese language requirements, but speaking the language will make you far more employable.