I’m sorry for the question, please delete it if you decide it’s not appropriate, but I really want to move to Japan. However I don’t have experience in the field I graduated, but am fluent in English and have studied French and Spanish as well ( currently working on my Japanese). I contacted the Japanese embassy in my country (in Eastern Europe) about the JET program, since I see many people go to Japan as ALTs (at least in the beginning ), but they told me that applicants from my country are not in demand and there were only 2 people ever who were chosen (on some sports program) . According to the conditions my country has , people can stay in Japan up to 90 days without visa and if they aren’t employed or providing paid services.
All the job offers I see are for people already residing in the country. Are there other programs other than JET who provide similar conditions and opportunities? I can’t afford to go to a language school or university there.
P. S. Native English speakers, you have no idea how jealous I am of you.
2 comments
Which country are you from exactly? And how old are you?
If from one of these countries, and 18 to 30 the working holiday visa could be a lucrative way for you to legally come live, and work (or “Holiday” as they call) in Japan, whilst also technically legally job searching too: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2350.html
Unfortunately as a Bulgarian you’re classified as a non-native speaker. Even if you’re fully fluent, in order to get the instructor visa to be an ALT you have to prove the you have “12 years of education in English.”
What that means is that you need 12 years of school *conducted entirely* in English. It’s not “I took English classes for 12 years, it’s “***all*** of my classes were *taught* in English”. Basically you need to have gone to an international school.
If your core classes were taught in Bulgarian, you won’t be able to get the visa. If you can’t get the visa, you can’t get an ALT job.
It sucks, because plenty of non-native speakers speak better English than native speakers, but that’s how they’ve decided the visa works.