Advice on my plan for moving to Japan

8 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Advice on my plan for moving to Japan**

   Hi!

   As the title says, the purpose of this post is to gather opinions, recommendations, comments on the plan I’ve been working on to move to Japan.

   First of all, I am 24 years old, I’m a native Spanish speaker and I am finishing my Computer Science degree, with 0 work experience.

   I’ve been planning this for 5 years now, and the goal is to emigrate to Japan when I turn 30 approx. The idea is not just to work in Japan for a couple years, I want to eventually get the PR, that’s why I’m taking my time and not rushing.

   Since 2019 I have been improving my English skills to be able to understand it perfectly, but I do not have any international certificate, and my speaking skills are not that good. I started studying Japanese 1 year ago at a slow pace and I’m still a beginner (< N5). In this last month I started to focus more on Japanese, with the idea of getting at least N2 in the next few years. At the same time I’m looking for a job, as I want to get 3 years of experience in the IT field before trying to move.

   As long as I know, these are my options for achieving my goal:

   – High Skilled Professional Visa + Landing a Job
   – Working Holiday Visa(29 yo limit) + Landing a Job
   – Apply for a master scholarship in Japan (34 yo limit) + Landing a Job
   – Marry to a Japanese person (Not going to force it though, I’ll let fate decide on this one haha)

   In my opinion, the best path for me is to finish my degree, get at least N2 (N1 if possible) and get 3 years experience in my country while I’m still in my late 20’s. That way I have the potential to get 70 pts for the HSPV, the possibility of applying for a scholarship for a master’s degree, still being eligible for the WHV, and also increasing my chances of landing a job in Japan.

   As a bonus, if I managed to move to Japan and work there, I would have the potential to get 70 pts and reduce the PR waiting from 10 years to 4.

   The WHV path has the advantage that it would allow me to get to know the country on my own.

   One doubt I have is whether it would be more convenient for me to focus on learning Japanese or getting an English certificate (at the cost of time that I could dedicate to Japanese). Personally I think that I would have more chances having, for example, N1, but I know that in IT there are a lot of foreign companies where they only speak english.
   Honestly I don’t like English that much as I like Japanese, but I’ll study it if I have to.

   That’s all, I hope someone will read this wall of text and give me their opinion, if there is something I didn’t take into account, or if there is any other possibility that I didn’t consider.
   Thank you!

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2. Oh, I just realized, when I say “Landing a Job”, I mean a Job that sponsors the work visa. I’m aware of the job restrictions of the study and wh visas

3. Im only a teenage girl who lurks on this subreddit for fun but this post actually interested me. First of all I think you got pretty good options and choose the one that fits best for you and your studying situation. In terms of learning languages I think you should, if possible focus on both languages but a little bit more on Japanese since in Japan most people only understand and speak Japanese. From what I’ve read in your post it seems like you have a pretty good english aswell so focusing a little bit more on Japanese won’t hurt. And yes, finish your degree and collect work experience it will be important in the future. Good luck with achieving your dreams you can do this 🙂

   Edit : focusing more on Japanese would be wise since Japanese is a way harder language to study and master ( kanji, hiragana , and katakana) also writing , reading and pronunciation!!. I’ve studied some Japanese myself and the only easier thing for me were katakana and hiragana 😭( I stopped studying after like 6 months so I forgot almost everything :()

4. >High Skilled Professional Visa + Landing a Job

   This is backwards. You can’t get the HSFP visa without a job.

   In fact you can’t get *any* working visa without a job lined up.

5. For the HSPV visa whatever company that hires you is sponsoring your visa. You can’t just get the HSPV without a job. Otherwise, that sounds like a good plan. It’s wise to get some experience in your career, save money and study japanese to a conversational level prior to getting to Japan. Get your b.s. degree, improve your spoken english, get N2 or higher and work visa & your chances to land a decent job in japan will be good!

6. Don’t worry about getting HSP visa. If you get 3-5 year work visa (typical for CS), then you can apply for PR using the same point system as HSP after 1 year. The benefit is with work visa you can job hop. A downside is that you can’t hire a maid. You can also change to HSP visa later by working with your HR, depending on the company.

   You’ll have more options this way.

7. You can also take a student visa to learn japanese, and search for a job in japan that will eventually sponsor your working visa.

   But you will require to hone some skills that they would want to hire.

   A student visa also costs money and you will have to go to the language academy and not miss classes. But it is a pathway.

8. Hi OP, may I know the reasons why you want to move to Japan? Is it common among young Spanish to do that?