I am wondering if anyone knows what the filmmaking industry is like in Japan and if companies are willing to hire foreigners in this industry. I did some digging and it doesn’t seem very likely, but I would love to have someone’s opinion who is more knowledgeable than me.
I have worked for production companies and now I do freelance commercial work as my own company. I would say I’m fairly successful in this field, however I have no college degree. Currently I would guess I’m somewhere between N5-N4 in language comprehension. I’m a 23 year old American.
After reading some of the wonderful advice on this community I have formulated a vague plan of action, and would appreciate some feedback.
* Apply to a Japanese language school for a year. (Or longer if need be)
* Apply to a Japanese University for film after language school to get a bachelors degree. (It seems you cannot get a job in Japan without one)
* Apply to production companies in Japan or in America with hopes of transferring to Japan within the company.
Would any of this be feasible for a career in filmmaking?
I don’t mind things like a paycut, or long hours (part of the industry). I love the film industry and I even make short films whenever I’m not working on commercials. I’m mentally sound and motivated to throw some challenging adventures in my life, and Japan has been the destination for me for a long time.
3 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Filmmaking Career in Japan**
I am wondering if anyone knows what the filmmaking industry is like in Japan and if companies are willing to hire foreigners in this industry. I did some digging and it doesn’t seem very likely, but I would love to have someone’s opinion who is more knowledgeable than me.
I have worked for production companies and now I do freelance commercial work as my own company. I would say I’m fairly successful in this field, however I have no college degree. Currently I would guess I’m somewhere between N5-N4 in language comprehension. I’m a 23 year old American.
After reading some of the wonderful advice on this community I have formulated a vague plan of action, and would appreciate some feedback.
* Apply to a Japanese language school for a year. (Or longer if need be)
* Apply to a Japanese University for film after language school to get a bachelors degree. (It seems you cannot get a job in Japan without one)
* Apply to production companies in Japan or in America with hopes of transferring to Japan within the company.
Would any of this be feasible for a career in filmmaking?
I don’t mind things like a paycut, or long hours (part of the industry). I love the film industry and I even make short films whenever I’m not working on commercials. I’m mentally sound and motivated to throw some challenging adventures in my life, and Japan has been the destination for me for a long time.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I am wondering if anyone knows what the filmmaking industry is like in Japan
I do. I have worked in/around the Japanese film industry for nearly a decade as part of the Japanese branch of a major US post-production/distribution company.
>and if companies are willing to hire foreigners in this industry
To get the tl;dr out of the way up front: No, they’re not particularly willing to hire foreigners, especially foreigners who don’t speak the language particularly well. Which brings us to:
> I’m somewhere between N5-N4 in language comprehension
That isn’t remotely enough Japanese fluency to even think about working in the film industry.
Think about all the times you’ve been on set. Communication is key, right? Now imagine you’re working with someone who barely speaks the language and keeps slowing the set down because they need everything explained in the simplest possible words. You’d be frustrated and unwilling to work with them, right?
Film in general, and on-set work in particular requires everyone to understand everything that’s being said. Sometimes for safety reasons, most of the time because of the massive time crunch that every project works under.
>Apply to a Japanese language school for a year. (Or longer if need be)
You’re not going to get to the requisite level of Japanese in a year. If you’re self-assessed N4/N5 you’re not going to get to the requisite level of Japanese in the two years that you’re allowed to go to language school.
Working in film requires near-native levels of fluency. It’s going to take ***years*** to get there from where you are now.
>Apply to a Japanese University for film after language school to get a bachelors degree. (It seems you cannot get a job in Japan without one)
You need a degree to get a *visa*, not necessarily a job.
You would need to bust your ass for the full two years in language school to even get to a level where you could even think about film school, much less actually *succeed* in film school. Everything I said above regarding language will apply to film school as well, possibly even more so as you’d need to understand not only basic set discussions but a bunch of academic theory as well.
>Apply to production companies in Japan
Unlikely, for all the above reasons.
>or in America with hopes of transferring to Japan within the company.
Honestly? Still not particularly likely. I can count on one hand the number of production companies that have a presence both here and in the US. And even with those companies, they don’t transfer below-the-line people. Hell, they don’t even *transfer* above-the-line people. They fly the key people in on an as-needed basis while relying on
Being blunt: Working in film in Japan is pretty much a pipe dream. Getting my current position required me to get *extraordinarily* lucky multiple times. It was lucky that I got a job with the head office in LA early in my career. It was lucky that I was able to interact with certain senior staff while I was there. It was lucky that I made a good impression instead of coming across as a fumbling idiot (which I *was* at that stage of my career). It was lucky that I kept in touch after I went freelance. It was lucky that I decided to take a sabbatical to teach English in Japan at the *exact same time* they were planning to expand the Japan office from a sales office to a full-service location.
Luck, luck, and more luck.
>Would any of this be feasible for a career in filmmaking?
Feasible? Like the other commenter has said, probably not. But impossible? It`s not impossible.
I knew someone who applied for and got an artist visa as a filmmaker. However, they had a **Master’s degree** and had furnish proof of awards won for their work (quite a few) and lots of other documentation as part of the process of applying for the visa. I have also met another foreigner filmmaker who came on a spouse visa. The former could barely speak Japanese. The latter could speak some Japanese.
However, I don`t think the first person got that much work; they were basically a freelancer in Japan and had to rely on connections to get jobs. Needless to say, they didn`t get a lot of local jobs. The latter person, I don`t know how much work they got, but I vaguely remember saying that they didn`t have that much work either.
Either way, even if you ***do*** somehow get a status of residence in Japan, it`s still gonna be ***very*** tough to get jobs, and work those jobs.