Hi everyone!
This is really long, and I apologise for that, but also I’m in a really weird and stressful situation out here and I was wondering if anyone here had any info or advice they could give me about it.
I’m a Japanese and Linguistics graduate from the UK living in Yokohama, and I was hired by a decently well-known/infamous Eikaiwa company in September to come out here, so I left my job and (slightly) reluctantly took the chance as the border situation was still unclear and there weren’t many other options at the time.
Communication was spotty at best in the UK, with updates on my CoE and timeline only being found out through me having to make international phone calls (at 3am UK time) to the company, and they were very unwilling to give a lot of the information over readily, or they simply were not aware of some important changes, such as the date of the ERFS system being removed. They also were very weird about e-mails, even though I actively e-mailed them to ask for updates and to give them info they asked for, they never acknowledged any of them, but still had the info on file when I would next call them, so I assumed this was a (weird) standard practice.
Anyway, I got my Humanities visa sorted, and I had a work start date of the 7th of November, so I arrived in Japan on the 22nd October, let my company know I was here, got no response from them as per usual, and started usual Japan setting up life stuff like ward office, bank accounts, and moving in with my partner, who lives in Yokohama.
Fast forward to my initial start date, and I have heard nothing from them, and so I called them in order to see what was going on. They told me they had missed my e-mail, and despite having me on record as starting on the 7th, had never thought to follow me up, and so I was in their system as ‘pending’ still. They also had not given me any further information about which branches or where I’d be working, apart from a vague ‘Kanagawa’. They apologised and said they’d correct it and find me work ASAP.
I got an e-mail from them simply asking ‘Is the 21st OK?’ with no further info, and so I e-mailed them back asking if that was the training or the work start date, where I would be working, and for further clarification, etc. I tried to contact them more times, and I received no response until the evening of the 19th, when I received an automated e-mail telling me to come to their Shinjuku office for training on the 21st, and only on the 20th did I receive information about where I would be working.
By this point I’d already starting talking with recruiters and started applying for other positions, and I respectfully informed them that 36 hours notice after essentially 2 months of no contact was not something I was confident in pursuing. I expected them to kick up a fuss and try to drag my visa into question or try to manipulate me, but they essential just peaced out, which I found out is because the contract I signed with them was actually a dummy used to obtain the CoE, and so they had no actual sway over me.
That brings me to now and the questions I have. I’m currently in my job search, with a Humanities Visa that runs out next October, and I’m basically asking, what are my options?
I’m 24, I have exactly one post-uni job under my belt, and 7 months working as an ALT here in my gap year. I have my degree, I have JLPT N1, and I studied for a year out here at Keio as part of my degree. I really would like to break into translation of some kind, which was also my original plan after a year working at the Eikaiwa, and I have some experience in it from university, but no actual experience or certifications yet.
I’m extremely nervous about the tenuous nature of my visa right now, I definitely do not want to be deported or kicked out of the country because of all of this, especially cause I also have just moved in with my partner (who also isn’t Japanese) and we haven’t be able to see each other for 2 years due to the pandemic and closed borders.
Any advice or help about, pretty much any of this would be helpful, as I can’t find much of a similar situation anywhere at all, and the longer I don’t have work, the more I feel my lack of it will become more and more conspicuous.
宜しくお願い致します！
6 comments
Big issue right now is the hiring freezes hitting most industries… Basically everyone is freezing non essential hiring until after the first quarter of next year. That’s not to say there is no work but it will be harder for you. If you don’t have money to hold out best option is to leave and wait out the uncertainty.
English teaching will never totally freeze hiring so there is that but they do follow the trends so it will be reduced.
Good luck.
The rule for immigration is that if you don’t have a job you must find another one within three months. However, how strictly this is enforced is unclear.
I may actually have a translation position for you. DM me if you’re interested.
To be fair, they probably did you a massive favour in avoiding the awful 1st here working for a crap school. Free entry, woohoo.
I wouldn’t worry about your VISA, just register that your looking for a job. Be more worried about actually finding a decent position.
With those qualifications you should have a good chance of finding a job – ideally in a field with better long term prospects than Eikaiwa. Do you have enough funds to spend a couple of months searching? The humanities visa covers a lot of areas.
Sounds like you dodged a bullet! Keep looking for jobs – you will probably be able to find something as there’s an influx of people coming in from overseas for tourism and also international exchange programs and stuff that was put on hold for nearly three years and people will need help communicating. Perhaps freelance at first but you have a little time and I think showing what you can do could lead to full-time work.
If you already have a visa, it’s yours, and there are no restrictions on *type* of employment (full time, part time, etc.) as long as the activities are covered under a humanities visa. So if you’re interested in freelance you can actually apply for those kinds of companies. Plenty of dispatch and temp companies out there too. (Note that freelance would take a while to get started, but it’s one option available)