Please let me know if this would be better suited for the Stupid Questions Thread.
I’ve been looking into studying to become a clinical psychologist (臨床心理士) here. I’ve found plenty about the requirements to get the certification, as well what difficulties foreigners may face in getting the certification and finding employment. A few English-language resources mention non-Japanese having passed those hurdles, but with no indication how. I have not been able to find tangible information listing what/who the Certification Board for Clinical Psychologists considers to be accredited places for “residency” (a comprehensive list of organizations would likely be too long, but some indicator of places where English-speaking psychologists are in some demand would be nice).
Practically speaking, point of licensure/certification is credibility for potential employers, clients, and the government (visa-related), as well as peace of mind for clients. I am aware that you can practice as a therapist here without certification, so long as you avoid certain descriptors in doing so.
The benefit of studying in Japan vs anywhere else is lower cost and not needing to leave and come back. Learning the Japanese approach to psychology will likely also benefit me more if I take the route of integrating psych with my current career in the form of consulting.
I’ve considered reaching out to someone listed on the International Mental Health Professionals Japan website, but most of their foreign members are licensed in other countries, and many of them appear to be married to Japanese nationals and/or have been here long enough to qualify for permanent residency (important for visa reasons).
If you have experience becoming or working as a psychologist/therapist/counselor here, I would love to hear your story, advice, what has and has not worked for you, etc.
^(Sources I’ve checked (off the top of my head) are the Ministry of Health, IMHPJ, the Foundation of the Japanese Certification Board for Clinical Psychologists, Japanese Union of Psychological Associations, Meguro Counseling Center, The Japanese Psychological Association, and a handful of Japanese career blogs. I am also slowly working through a list of faculty at the universities I’m most interested in and contacting them to see if they have any helpful information (so far, none have worked with foreign students). Reddit search brings back mostly searches for therapists, with some info detailed in the sources mentioned above.)
8 comments
Currently PhD 2nd year in Psychiatry. From what I understand, it is pretty hard for foreigner to get a counseling license here. People usually got a license somewhere else (mostly America or Canada) and practice here.
Hi! I’m a therapist working in Japan, but without the local certification. Got my license and clinical psychology degree in my home country, now getting a phd at a Japanese graduate school. Public universities in Japan do not have faculties of psychology – which already says a lot about this field here – so I’m doing my degree as a part of wider “human studies” program despite belonging to a psychology-oriented lab. Had an opportunity to take a lot of psychology/clinical psychology lectures for bachelor and master level students.
—Below is just my personal opinion and experience—
Honestly, if you have a choice I would advice against studying psychology in Japan. It may be cheaper and more efficient to do an online degree at a European university – you would get a much higher quality education in both theoretical and practical aspects. I see a lot of Japanese therapists getting degrees abroad too and then getting their clinical psychologist certification in Japan just to be able to work in public institutions, but this way they are able to work with both expats and locals. In Japan classic western-style psychotherapy is not popular as much as it is in other developed countries, because it does not fit well into the current culture. Psychotherapist is not recognized as a profession by the Japanese law, so what they teach at universities is oriented towards old-fashioned school counseling and clinical assessment/rehabilitation for psychiatric patients or forensic situations, which clinical psychologists most often do here.
So to summarize – getting a counseling degree in a western country will most likely prepare you for practice with both expats and locals, who are willing to get a foreigner therapist. Getting a Japanese degree majoring in psychology (which would probably be called something like like “Education” or “Human coexistence” or “Neuroscience”) – will somehow prepare you to take the local clinical psychologist certification exam (you will still need a lot of cramming) and will most likely not prepare you for therapy work at all, so you will need a ton of additional practical education and a higher intensity of supervision. Also, Japanese degree will be quite difficult to use to get licensed in other countries or even get a phd afterwards, because it will not list “psychology” as the primary course name in the diploma document. This may be different with private/international universities, but I don’t know much about that.
About employment, compared to looking for a job as a foreign psychologist at the local mental health institutions (which do not have a good reputation in terms of pay and work culture in general – but again it’s just my experience) it will be easier to get a contract using your home country license/degree at international counseling companies such as Tell.jp and other similar initiatives. There is a huge pool of expats who experience mental health problems here and the demand for therapy in English is high.
Step 1: Avoid anything related to Burgers…
I know somebody who works for TELL Japan and was actually my counselor. That person got the degree from my country (we have same nationality, hence became my counselor). The counselor is still currently working in TELL Japan and started working here as a guest lecture in Tokyo University.
If you are interested, maybe I can introduce you to my counselor. of course I will need to ask the person first.
Just chiming in to say that now there is “公認心理師” as a national qualification, parallel with the formally private but defacto nation wide qualification “臨床心理師”. While currently they are somewhat mixed, it is likely the new license will dominate the old one, and it will be easier to find jobs with the new license (I’m not clinical psychologist so if there’s anyone who find mistakes please correct them).
This whole sub works as a marriage counselor roughly twice a week
I believe the highly regarded therapist Marc Bergé browses this subreddit.