Asking for opinions from foreigners who have graduated from an university in Japan

3 comments

1. > what is the end goal for you as a foreigner living in Japan? Is it to settle down here? For example, are you planning to get a passport or get PR?

   I don’t see myself living anywhere but Japan, but who knows, that might change.

   Could I see myself getting citizenship one day? Sure. But it isn’t a priority, and I am not exactly eager to lose my current nationality.

   > Like what do most foreigners opt for doing in such a scenario? And why? What are the perks of these specific pathways?

   Everyone walks their own path, and they all have their own plusses and minuses. You need to think about what will make you happy / what you will be happy doing. Then do that, and don’t care about whatever anyone else is doing.

2. Being from the EU, for me it is PR. As long as my country does not leave the EU, there is no meaning in naturalization. After all, kids would have EU citizenship and better acces to education within the EU.

   In principle, settling down here, but if I don’t solve my issues with language proficiency and certain career progression, I may pack it up.

   Also, seeing how economically stagnating Japan is, there is a chance my home country might have higher salaries in a decade or so. If my purchasing power would significantly drop compared to purchasing power in my home country, I’d need to reconsider my future plans.

   Not sure what are your life priorities and goals, so if you are looking for advice, can’t tell you much.

3. Hello!

   I graduated from a university in Tokyo in 2014. It was a standard four year degree program. My degree was liberal arts related.

   In my third and fourth years, I did not take job hunting as seriously as many of my peers. However, I still succeeded in finding a full time job in Tokyo and started work 2 months after graduation while still on a student visa.

   After 2 or 3 months at work, my performance was considered passable, and the company sponsored my work visa, allowing me to leave my student visa behind.

   At the time I did not know exactly what to expect. My job was at a company that planned , arranged, and operated tours in Japan sold by foreign travel agencies.

   Quickly I discovered a bit of a knack for I.T. and some coding. After automating some stuff at work, I moved to a full time IT job at a large “data center”.

   There, I learned more serious engineering on the job and was able to transition to my current role, an engineer for satellite on board sub-systems.

   Along the way, I met my wife after just 5 months at my first job after university — they were a coworker (also not born in Japan), and now we have a family; one cat and one child. We both got P.R. eventually. The point system was hard, but eventually we got it….took over ten years of being on working visas though.

   ​

   Telling my life story is really to give at least a tiny bit of credence to my actual advice:

   1. Don’t worry too much about having a long term plan right away. Things adapt as you continue to grow up.
   2. You can totally change to different industries in Japan even outside the field of your education if the need arises.
   3. Don’t sweat the small stuff. I had part time jobs in high school, but never really learned what it meant to be an adult in my home country. So no point in me trying to compare ways of doing things with my home country. No thinking and not comparing has worked wonders over the years.
   4. Sure, home ownership is nice now. But me in my early 20’s was happy in a shoe box and rooming with old college friends. Not sure property ownership is a goal, but it is a perk. Some countries have really rough housing markets right now.
   5. Japanese level will always improve over time. Sure, you might have got N1 years ago, but ability and just being more natural will always grow over time.
   6. All my problems are basically a “me” problem. I haven’t found any time to blame Japan for problems in nearly 15 years. I chose to come here and make a stand one way or another. Not sure if that counts as advice but…anywhooo. That’s all.