Hello,
Only now have I noticed this, but there are eikaiwas that would directly lie to you and tell you that there are other requirements for the humanities visa than there actually are.
Funny enough, in all those months of looking for work, I didn’t directly apply to AEON. I wanted to do that now, and I see how they ask for 10 years of experience or a bachelor’s in English or any bachelor’s with 3 years of ESL experience. The visa requirements say nothing about the 3 years or English. They do say related field, but there are way more related fields. Mostly, anything that has to do with education/training is related.
I am fine with those being the requirements for the company, all fair there. But why post something like this saying it is for the visa? That just throws people off.
Seems a bit shocking to me, now that I’ve noticed it.
Discrimination behind the scenes based on nationality is one thing. This is all out misinformation. Unless I am missing something.
Edit: I want to make it clear that I am not complaining over a single company having higher requirements than I can meet. The way they are presented is what worries me. Even if it turns away less informed “competition.”
7 comments
So what’s the goal of this thread? To complain about the semantics of a job opportunity because it doesn’t fit your work experience?
Local redditor discovers that eikaiwas arent bastions of transparency. More news at 11
Yeah, the downright lies and deception of these eikawas needs to be brought to light and challenged. Too many people have a ‘that’s just the way it is’ attitude.
misinformation and lack of info is rampant in many fields. so frustrating how some promise visa support but actually mean they accept visas they don’t have to sponsor (like spouse) and a lot don’t mention visa at all, so do i waste time to apply and find out or keep digging for a needle in the haystack???
The first thing to say is that the rules for specialist in humanities/international services/engineer visa keep getting revised. Currently the rules are a strange and contradictory mishmash of old and new requirements that different people interpret different ways.
Here is what the [AEON website](https://www.aeonet.com/application-requirements/) says:
>In order to be issued a Specialist in Humanities/International Services Visa, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires applicants to have relevant experience. This can be any one of the following:
>
>A Bachelor’s degree in any major from an accredited institution in an English-speaking country and at least 10 years of education from schools where English is the primary mode of education.
>
>OR
>
>A Bachelor’s degree in a subject related to English or English Education.
>
>OR
>
>A Bachelor’s degree in any major and at least 3 years of verifiable experience teaching ESL.
The thing is that AEON is not lying exactly. These actually are the requirements for getting a specialist in humanities visa. However, the way they’ve organized them is not exactly correct and their interpretation is a bit overstated.
The actual requirements and can be found on immigration’s website [HERE](https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001343658.pdf) which more or less says that same thing as the AEON website except it also adds, almost as an afterthought: 「大学を卒業した者が，翻訳，通 訳又は語学の指導に係る業務に従事する場合は実務経験は不要です」(University graduates who engage in translation, interpreting, or language instruction do not need to have work experience. [AI translation]). So, the third option is only true for people doing things other than translating or teaching English.
My guess is (because I don’t speak for AEON) that they are being overrun with applications from people who don’t want to be English teachers but instead are only using them for a visa. Right or wrong, blaming the visa rules is an attempt to cut down on applicants who are only visa seeking.
One a side note, I’ve always felt that this idea of taking an English teaching job just to get a visa was bad advice because it was going to provoke a reaction. I feel bad for the OP because he or she seems to genuinely want to be an English teacher, but has fallen victim of the consequences of other people’s bad actions.
The OP should be upset with AEON, but he or she should also be upset with all of the people who took jobs knowing that they would quit at the first chance, as well as everyone on places like reddit that recommended people to do this.
If I were the OP I would go ahead and apply to AEON and try to somehow make it clear that he or she is actually interested in teaching English.
EDIT: Trying to get the formatting on the quote from the AEON website to look right.
I think it’s quite possible that the people who wrote the job post just are not clear about what the actual eligibility requirements are for the status. Most people are not, so it’s somewhat understandable.
Language instruction generally falls under the “International Services” subcategory (rather than the “Specialist in Humanities” category as most people assume), when the instructor is teaching their native language. The eligibility requirements for this subcategory are a university degree or 3 years of work experience in the work in question. It is possible that whoever wrote this job posting mixed it up and thought that both are required.
The requirements for the “Specialist in Humanities” subcategory are a related university degree, an accredited Japanese senmonshi diploma, or 10 years of work experience in the work in question. A case where someone may fall under Specialist in Humanities while doing eikaiwa work may be, for example, someone with no native English speaking background who has a degree in English education.
The eligibility requirements are spelled out in this ministrial ordinance: [https://elaws.e-gov.go.jp/document?lawid=402M50000010016](https://elaws.e-gov.go.jp/document?lawid=402M50000010016)
Incidentally, per the internal interpretation of the requirements for many years now, the minimum level of “university degree” is understood to mean a degree at least equivalent to a Japanese 2 year 短期大学士 degree, which means that an American 2 year Associate degree, for example, would meet degree requirements for typical work visas in Japan (while this is clearly spelled out in the Immigration Services Agency’s internal written guidelines, these guidelines are not publicly available per se). So the “common knowledge” that you need at least a Bachelor degree is also incorrect (or at least, a large oversimplification).
AEON has certainly changed their tune. When I was hired, the recruiter literally said that they could teach people how to teach, but they couldn’t teach people how to smile.