Do I Need a College Degree to Keep Living Here?

10 comments

1. By technical school, are you referring to senmon gakko?

   If so, this can be a pathway to a working visa but unlike a bachelor’s degree, it has the massive caveat that you are strictly limited to the industry that you studied in.

   Your industry goes belly up for one reason or another and you can’t find any other position in it? Probably back home it is.

2. It is not so much finding a workplace willing to sponsor you, but more so the specifications immigration sets out for a visa. A workplace can say they will sponsor you all they want to, but if you’re not hitting the criteria set out by immigration then no visa for you.

3. I would highly (HIGHLY) recommend finishing your 4 year degree. If it’s one of the common fashion technical schools, a high chance it would be a waste of money. If you are truly talented on the creation side then you can focus on fashion after your 4 year degree. If your talents are on the business side of fashion you will be better off with that 4 year degree.

4. Highly recommend to finish your degree as it makes life much easier in general.

   However, it is one of the immigration requirements to have a 3-4 year degree. But it’s not impossible to make a case and get accepted without one. If you’re willing to shell out a decent amount of cash (something like 150-250k yen) you can get the help of an immigration lawyer to mKe your application best suited for a visa. Not guaranteed but not impossible either.

5. Finish your college degree

   It will make your life easier, whether you stay in Japan or you go to another country in the future

   You’ll still be able to work in fashion once completed anyway, especially in Japan where they are willing to train you from the beginning if the job allows it (fashion should be)

   While you are finishing you college degree just build a portfolio on side

6. You really need to finish a 4-year undergraduate degree. It is the key to many, many more career options. A degree from a technical school is far less valuable and will permanently limit your options and earning potential.

7. Finish your degree. Period.

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   In other countries the advice would be different.

8. Finish your bachelors. You will have an easier time remaining in Japan with it, as well as career outlook in the future if you end up moving around, I promise you. Don’t gamble 2 to 3 year of grinding for 20 to 40 years of missed opportunity. I’m 26 with a BS and MBA and let me tell you, those are great impressions and have opened doors that have nothing to do with my fields based on status alone

9. I was in this exact same situation (I did go to senmongakko for fashion). There *are* ways to get employed with such a degree, namely that the diploma must be from a Japanese school (so you can’t just come in with an associates from overseas and start asking around for jobs) and the work you get *must* be tied to your diploma, so your options as far as work goes are super limited. For instance, you could get a job at a fashion company as a patterner, but not as a secretary in HR. It makes job hunting exponentially more difficult and limits your options pretty strictly.

   One option you *do* have is, depending on the senmongakko you’re looking at, you could simply transfer on to a university that will accept your credits after the initial two years and get a 4-year degree that way. That’s how the vast majority of my peers did it.

10. Daddish advice here. A simple and important rule of life:

    Finish what you started.

    If it’s tough, you’ll learn grit.
    If it feels misdirected, you’ll learn big ideas and transferable skills.

    The simple act of getting the Degree paper will give you many more options. Skew your subject choices and assignments towards your area of interest. Go to senmon gakkō after you get the Degree. I knew a few people who took this path and all went well for them.