So my name is Ashira (21), and I’ve been considering a transition from the US to Japan for quite some time. However, I’m about to graduate college with a BFA in Costume Design because I was set on doing theatre as a career. However, my luck in finding anything related overseas is slim to none. I’m wondering if a better option is to go the route of something like the JET program or something alike to mend the fact that I don’t have a common degree. I don’t want to entirely give up designing, but I want to set expectations because moving to Japan is a realistic goal for me that I want to come first.
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Jobs/Degree**
So my name is Ashira (21), and I’ve been considering a transition from the US to Japan for quite some time. However, I’m about to graduate college with a BFA in Costume Design because I was set on doing theatre as a career. However, my luck in finding anything related overseas is slim to none. I’m wondering if a better option is to go the route of something like the JET program or something alike to mend the fact that I don’t have a common degree. I don’t want to entirely give up designing, but I want to set expectations because moving to Japan is a realistic goal for me that I want to come first.
*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.*
Disclaimer: I’m assuming here that the types of work that you’d be interested in are able to give you a working visa. I’m not entirely sure about that, so someone correct me if I’m wrong there.
> However, my luck in finding anything related overseas is slim to none. I’m wondering if a better option is to go the route of something like the JET program or something alike to mend the fact that I don’t have a common degree.
How’s your Japanese? Openings for theatre-related work aren’t likely to be posted online in English. For art-related work in general you will likely need (near-)native levels of Japanese proficiency. Unless you’re already _fluent_ in Japanese I don’t think it’s realistic in any way to expect to land a theatre-related job straight out of college: You wouldn’t have much to offer over native Japanese graduates, with the additional caveats that you’d lack the necessary language skills and cultural baggage, and (unless you have Japanese citizenship) you’d require visa sponsorship.
Doing JET or other forms of English teaching isn’t likely to bring you much closer to your goal of working in theatre in Japan either, since you’re effectively outside of the field and you’re not likely to be placed in a big city. And just to emphasize: English teaching in Japan pays about minimum wage (JET supposedly pays better but is limited to 5 years if I’m not mistaken) and isn’t really feasible as a long-term career due to lack of career progression.
I think you’ll have to make a choice here between working in theatre and working in Japan. If you want to stay in theatre you should work in the US for a couple of years to make a name for yourself and to network. You might be able to leverage that experience and network down the road to get a job in Japan. If you just want to get to Japan for a few years you can do JET or do other English teaching, but (as I mentioned above) those are generally only useful as a gap year-type of job. And transitioning to any job in Japan that isn’t English teaching you’d likely require decent Japanese language skills, since you don’t have specific technical skills to bring to the table. It sounds harsh, but your bargaining position as a foreigner without specific in-demand skills isn’t amazing. The bare minimum proficiency level for office-type jobs is usually quoted as JLPT N2-equivalent, and arts-related jobs will have significantly higher requirements.