I’ve read and I’ve read and I’ve read even more about Senmon Gakko, including the posts within this reddit, and the differing opinions make it a very elusive subject for me. Some say that you can get a work visa after two years of study and graduation, some say you need a bachelors at minimum. Some people say you can get a work visa but your career field is pretty limited (this is the answer I’ve heard the most within this reddit). Just really unsure about the whole thing and I’m hesitant to ship myself over to Japan for something that may or may not allow me to stay there after education.
I’m 19, N4 at BEST, living with parents, skipped college for two years to save up money since I already have experience in Web Design and make pretty good money from freelance work. And now that those two years have passed, I kinda just really wanna move to Japan, because I’m a loser nerd or something. I definitely plan on language school for at least a year and a half. I’m not even gonna think about a freelance visa because I know that it doesn’t exist, and I really don’t want to consider any loopholes or shortcuts because that just feels nasty. Uni costs a bit too much for me and I’m not all too confident in my eligibility, since I’m bad at math. Senmon Gakko seems like a good compromise— I’d rather just develop a solid educational foundation for skills that I already have, and two years seems a bit more manageable for me. Judging by average tuition for language school and the Senmon Gakko fields that I’ve looked into, I’ve almost already saved up the entire amount. It’s just, once again, I’m not sure about the validity of Senmon Gakko for a visa.
My situation isn’t “Japan or bust” and I’m not particularly in a rush, but Japan is cool(I’m aware of all the bad stuff) and I have a lot of money. I’d just like to know what my options are.
2 comments
You have N4 Japanese, so you won’t be able to take a senmon gakkou course. If you want to work in Japan, you’ll need to have a bachelor’s degree. A year and a half of language school before you even start gaining any work skills is not a great plan:
– It won’t be long enough for you to gain enough Japanese fluency to comfortably take a senmon gakkou course; and
– It’ll probably work out about as expensive as just staying at home with your parents and going to uni for your bachelors.
If you were fluent in Japanese, you might have some more options, but to work in tech in Japan as a foreigner, 99% of the time it’s a bachelors you’ll need. No company is looking for a non-fluent foreign worker with less than a bachelors.
EDIT: Looks like I’m being a bit overly pessimistic about where you need your Japanese to be for senmon gakkou!
A bachelor’s degree will open up many more doors for you, but a senmon degree will qualify you for a work visa within the field of your study (and as I understand it they’re pretty strict, compring the courses you took to the job description etc).
However, unless things have changed, if you finish senmon gakkou and get a job within your field and work for 2 years, you can then work in other visa qualified fields.