Sorry for the long post in advance. Hard to summarize a decision of a lifetime.
I am a M/26yo Iranian holding a BA degree in Theater (graduated in 2022) and looking to migrate to Japan for life. Since the situation in my home country is pretty rough right now, the sooner I can go, the better. Still, the more I research, the more I am confused about which direction to take. I am self-studying Japanese (currently around N4 level) and have signed up for JLPT N5, taking place this December. I have a budget of \~2.6M¥ I can take with me to Japan. I’m also looking to work part-time there. My options are:
1. Sign up for a language school starting in July, finish with N2/N1 and go to grad school (preferred fields of study: Cultural studies, Urban studies, Media, and other arts/humanities fields) and then look for a job (either academia or firms). What concerns me here is going bankrupt even while working part-time, as language school tuition and accommodation consume a chunk of my money. I don’t think I’d have any chance of paying grad school tuition without a scholarship.
2. Skip the language school and enroll in grad school (probably English language programs) and learn Japanese beside it so I can have a shot at finding a job after graduation. But then my day would be studying, studying Japanese, work.
3. Sign up for language school, finish with N2/N1 and look for a job with the BA degree I currently have.
4. Wait and apply for the MEXT scholarship program in 2023 and (if accepted) begin studying at a grad school in April 2024.
I would appreciate your guys’ help. I don’t know if these are feasible ways to consider, so if there are any other routes I can take, please tell me. Any other advice is also appreciated.
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TL;DR Theater BA graduate from Iran with \~2.6M¥ budget looking to migrate to Japan for life.
1 comment
You definitely cannot just move there and figure it out as you go, you need a visa. Job, student, or working holiday if it’s available to you. There’s a lot of visa details in the wiki.