Hi, I’m 32 and have been growing an interest in making the move to Japan over the past few years.
A few uphill struggles that I face are my lack of useful work experience, having been stuck with entry level work at Warner Brothers Discovery for quite a while, lack of finances, and poor Japanese.
My plan so far is to focus hard on studying Japanese, move to a more affordable place to save, and to hone the skills for things I have an actual interest in pursuing.
Given my past experience with Mandarin Chinese, I am confident that I can be fairly decent with Japanese within a year and hope to be professionally fluent in a little under three.
As for saving, I would like around 20-30 grand prepared. I know some people have been making it just fine with around 5k, but if I’m planning this for years, what’s the harm in over preparing?
I think the biggest thing I’m worried about is finding work at my age. It would be nice if my company had an opening to just make the move that way, but that’s unlikely. I have a classical music background and an interest in composing for TV / Film / Videogames, but I have no clue what the market is for something like that over there or how difficult it would be as a foreigner, even with having learned Japanese.
The other consideration is bartending. I have an extensive background with craft mixology. However, to my understanding, bars that are more focused on this in Japan are more of a small, master / apprenticeship type of thing; where you would work under them and eventually inherit the bar. It is something undoubtedly unrealistic to try and plan for, as cool as that would be. I’m not sure what regular bartending is like over there without tips? I realize that they are paid more hourly, but here in the states, you can actually make a full career out of it these days.
I know a lot of you probably don’t have much advice for the specifics on my interests, but I’m sure that many of you have valuable insight on the process as a whole. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions that you might have, thank you!
(Ah, and I would rather not do teaching, at least not as a primary career path).
3 comments
You are going to find it EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to get a job in music production without an outstanding resume. There is no bartender visa so that’s out. It’s not just a matter of deciding to move. You need to be able to get a job that will sponsor you for a visa. So, if you’re going to be spending years to prepare for this, I would start with some skills that could actually get you a work visa. That’s actually more important than learning Japanese since you can get a visa without Japanese but you can’t get one if you can’t get a visa sponsoring job, even if you were near native in Japanese.
No one will sponsor a visa to hire you to be a composer or a bartender. Get professional work experience in an in-demand field that actively hires foreigners, and have a bachelor’s degree.
Your Japanese ability is not *particularly* relevant, though having high level Japanese will certainly help. Lots of savings is also good.
But your main obstacle is getting a job and a work visa. Nothing you’ve written here suggests that you will be able to manage that easily, I’m afraid.
From everything you’ve said I’m pretty confident you won’t be able to get a visa to work in Japan. No bar will sponsor a visa for you and neither will a company in the tv/film/ video games realm. You’re going to have to find another way if you want to work in Japan.