Hello, Im a 25 years old brazilian guy.
I always loved Japan since I was a kid and want to live and work there in the future.
I have graduated in an animation university(mainly focused on 3D for movies and games), and want to follow my carreer on game industry or anime industry.
I know that its low wage, a lot of overtime work, but I dont mind it, I love Japan and I love what I do, so Im willing to sacrifice myself for it.
So my plan is to get better at japanese(currently N4~N3) in the next 2-3 years while I work here, getting more experience and saving money, and also search and apply for jobs in Japan if I get lucky enough.
After saving enough money and getting at least a properly N3 I want to go to a japanese school to get N2 or possibly N1. And if needed, I would also be ok studying 2 years in a vocational school if it would help me getting a job in Japan in a easier way.
So what I want to know is, how easier is it to get a job while in Japan compared to when outside?
Will I still need a lot of experience in my area to get jobs while there?
Is my plan realistic?
Or should I look for an english teacher job and stay there for some years and maybe later look for something in my area?
Thanks for the help!
4 comments
No game, movie or animation studio is going to hire you (unless you get really lucky) without experience. Build yourself a portfolio of work, try and get work experience in your country and visit Japan – especially the trade shows. Build connections and relationships with people working in Japan in the industry you are interested in. Japan can be one of the hardest places to find work in these industries if you don’t have connections, experience or something that companies are looking for.
People always try and rush to get to Japan – but it doesn’t work like that. Japan isn’t going anywhere.
With any skilled career, the best way to get a job in Japan is to have an incredible resume. Two years of language school or two years of vocational school are nothing compared to two additional years of impressive professional work.
If you’re currently N4-N3, and you’re planning to work in Brazil for 2/3 years, there’s no reason you can’t get yourself up to N2 – maybe even N1 – without going to language school. Get fluent in Japanese, get professional work experience, apply for jobs in Japan. I personally don’t think the career gap is worth doing anything else.
Brazilian here moving to Japan next month, my advice to you is forget Japan for a moment and try to get experience in your area (better if is a experience overseas like Europe or US), if you have the right skills + xp it’s done, at least that was I have done. I’m a hardware engineer with +9 years of xp.
>I know that its low wage, a lot of overtime work, but I dont mind it
The problem is that any entry-level animation position is quite simply not going to pay enough to qualify for a visa.
Immigration requires that a job pay a living wage in order to issue a visa. The number is not published, but based on some of the salaries that *do* get visas, it’s around 200k yen/month (2.5 million yen a year)
“A 2019 survey by the Japan Animation Creators Association found that anime workers aged 20-24 earned an average of 1.55 million yen (US$13,434) per year.”
1.55 million isn’t going to get you a visa.
>Or should I look for an english teacher job and stay there for some years and maybe later look for something in my area?
Getting an English teacher job as a non-native speaker is *really hard*.
You can’t be an ALT (Teacher in the public schools) unless you have 12 years of education in English. That’s not “Took English classes for 12 years”, it’s “***ALL*** of my classes were in English”. It’s an almost impossible bar for someone from a non-English country to clear.
Eikaiwas (Private language academies) will hire non-native speakers, but the business is heavily biased. They have thousands of native-speaking applicants, so getting them to even look at you is hard. Doubly so if you’re not “Western” in appearance.