Hello,
I just graduated with a BA in Economics and Business but I would love to live in Japan for a few years and learn the culture and language. I want to move within a year. Should I look for a job before moving, or would it be fine to move and then look for one? What does the job market look like in Japan? Any advice/tips is appreciated!
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**Moving to Japan fresh out of undergrad.**
Hello,
I just graduated with a BA in Economics and Business but I would love to live in Japan for a few years and learn the culture and language. I want to move within a year. Should I look for a job before moving, or would it be fine to move and then look for one? What does the job market look like in Japan? Any advice/tips is appreciated!
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You’d need a job to get a visa for any long term stay. You could alternatively do language school. Since you didn’t state your current Japanese language abilities I’m going to assume it’s none, which will make finding a job related to an econ degree insanely low, basically impossible without any experience. You should also browse the wiki as it has answers to your questions.
[Moving to Japan -](https://www.reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/wiki/index/#wiki_general_advice)
Have you check the moving to Japan wiki ↑ ? Especially the visa section.
Get your work/visa sortout first and then move.
Usually you have to find a job before moving as your prospective employer needs to apply for a COE which gives you the visa and right to live in Japan.
You can go to language school, but with 2 years of learning, I’d say a practical achievable benchmark is about N2, unless you have a real talent for learning languages.
N2 is kind of considered intermediate Japanese about on par with a 1st year JHS student probably. It’s usually enough to work in places where Japanese communication isn’t the primary skill required like factory work, programming/IT or science/tech jobs.
Business finance econ however will be much heavier leaning on Japanese communication skill so your Japanese level will need to be significantly higher.
If you want to do something with your degree and have a serious career, start your career in America, demonstrate some capabilities, and then come here with a bit of work experience and credibility. You may be able to get a real job.
Coming as a new grad with limited language skills, you’re just not going to find a career-relevant job, so you’ll blow a couple years making no money and developing no relevant experience.
Japan just isn’t built to support the dream of “have an adventure for a while before you settle down back home” unless you accept English teaching as your activity, and it’s going to be hard to turn “I taught English for two years in Japan” into an interesting job when you get back to America.