Move to Japan.

26 comments

1. Without a university degree you’re going to have a very hard time moving to Japan.

2. u gotta enlist and get stationed in japan or become a contractor on one of the bases

3. No matter where you run, you’ll only run into yourself.

   It’s not going to be any easier here in my opinion. Go back to school and get accredited in something?

4. Dude, you have no chance. You need a degree or a specialization in a field with fluent Japanese. You’ve got neither. Your advice is to properly sort your life out where you’re at now. Work towards a degree, work towards a better job, work towards getting independent.

   Japans work life is quite brutal tbh. You think you have it tough now? You have NO idea what’s expected of you in Japan.

5. You can’t work without a visa and you need to have marketable skills and Japanese language skills or a company won’t sponsor said visa. Teaching English needs a Bachelor’s degree, rare cases Associates at least.

6. It’s difficult without a degree, let alone without a high school diploma. Depending on your financial situation, maybe you could save up money to go for a language school in Japan and get a student visa. It likely won’t end up with you getting to settle in Japan but at least you get to experience it for a while. After that you might just find something else worth it to keep on fighting!

7. All the main visa categories for jobs require a degree, job experience and N2 or higher. Which is obvious since you will be using japanese.
   Without those it’s not possible to get a work visa

   Only other ways are language school( after this you still have to enter senmon or university to get a degree before getting a job) or apply for one a those cheap ass labour visas ( These are exclusive to Asian countries only and have horrible pay, rights and work conditions).

8. When you move to a new place, you bring yourself with you. Consider stabilizing your life without moving. It’s hard work. Best of luck.

9. Take off those rose tinted glasses and find out more about what japanese society and culture is about and assess for yourself if its suitable- Living in japan and being a tourist is entirely different.

   Start researching and budgeting, ie cost of living vs potential income from menial work.

   >i don’t have any diplomas, i dropped out twice.

   >barely know any japanese

   If you’re gonna want to be employable in a foreign country, you’re gonna have to at least be able to converse in their native language, start learning japanese.

10. Save up some money,get a student visa and go to a Japanese language school in Japan.

11. Move to another country in Asia and study Japanese for a year. Meet other expats and see how they do it. Try teaching english somewhere. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you it’s impossible, but you should research Japanese culture, in particular the work ethic expected of you. Do you want to work in a factory or office environment 18-20 hours a day? And then be expected to go out drinking with your coworkers afterwards? This is the actual reality for Japanese people. There is actually a term for people who work themselves until they die, it’s called Karoshi. It’s a real social problem.

    I had a very romantic dream to go be a zen monk in Japan about 20 years ago. I actually did it. In a way it was a kind of enlightenment experience when I realized Japan is not what you read about in books or anime. It’s a real place with real social and economic problems like everywhere else. It has rare geniuses and cool people but mostly jerks and sheep who obey the status quo without questioning it. Most importantly, Japanese people are xenophobic. That means they’re actually afraid of foreigners. They are extremely polite and accommodating people but there is a real racism against gaijin, even if you were a Harvard educated person at the top of their industry you would have a tough time, because there is a natural resistance against outsiders. It’s important to understand that no matter how much you love Japan you will never be accepted. You can visit, you can live there, you can hang out and Japanese people, a lot of them actually think it’s cool to have experiences hanging out with people from different countries. But there is also a really paralyzing isolation you’ll feel.

    This is why I say go live somewhere absolutely dirty cheap in Asia, you can get a sense of what it’s like. People love anime and Japanese culture everywhere. You can meet weebs and gamers and anime people and pay 5% of what you’d pay in Japan, even with the current weak yen. You can get most of your dreams accomplished and when you speak conversational, or fluent Japanese, depending on your work ethic, then you’ll see a totally different Japan because you’re ready.

    I don’t know your situation, there are definitely subconscious / mental things you need to work out in terms of like thinking you’re a failure, describing yourself as desperate, you need to fix that first. Fix it by setting very simple goals like “do 5 pushups” and then if you do 10, you’re winning big today. Set up a subconscious winning streak before you start trying to hit a home run of moving to Japan. You will feel a lot better even getting small “wins” and then keep going and keep getting more wins. Learn 1 word of Japanese today. Get flash cards and start teaching yourself Hiragana, Katakana. Don’t set a time horizon of immediately, look into neighboring countries. A lot of people who were 100% obsessed with Japan end up falling in love with South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, because they are vastly cheaper and vastly more accepting. Japan can be a big goal of yours but be realistic about the fact that, like someone trying to move to Switzerland or the Netherlands, these are very small countries with very protective societies that don’t really want to be overrun with foreigners. You will be kind of seen as an enemy, so make yourself the best version of you that you can be, and speak their language, and understand a lot about their culture and make that your full time job, and then go after a couple years. Think in terms of a 5 or 10 year horizon. You’re super young and you can evolve a lot in that time.

    Finally here’s Elon Musk in a quick video talking about the difference between focusing on [pursuing something of value, vs. wishful thinking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtaxU6DZvLs). And being really rigorous about the difference in those 2 things. There is always this romantic notion that you’re gunna just escape somewhere and it’ll magically “fix you”. Look at all the people who move to Florida for example. Now Florida is full of assholes and has the highest road rage of anywhere in the USA. It is not a magical place and doesn’t fix you. This might come off as a bit jaded, but like, think about how you can be useful to Japan rather than expecting Japan to just magically fix you. Think of Japan as a beautiful woman. Do you want to be able to talk to her? Do you want to be able to afford nice clothes, do you want to develop skills that can impress and fascinate her, and ultimately add value to her life? Focus on accomplishing that stuff. Pick a place which will support you in developing that stuff and not brutalize you financially in the meantime.

    The easiest way to make your dream real, is just to get started. Do something toward your goal each day. Anything. Resources that helped me: Check out the book Fluent in 3 Months, he actually argues that he’s had better luck learning languages NOT in his target country but somewhere else abroad. That book will inspire you for sure. Read Rolf Pott’s Vagabonding which will show you that you can actually travel the world, on not much money. It comes down to how resourceful you are and how realistic you are about your own skill set and ability to add value.

    Again I’m not joining the nay sayers here that “you can’t move to Japan,” of course you can. All you need is money. But to really ENJOY Japan, you gotta put in quite a bit of work, which going back to Elon’s video up there, put in work that develops you into your best version, and then add your own stuff to Japan and make Japan better, don’t expect it to fix you, it will just as likely kill you if you go over there with that expectation. Hope this was helpful.

12. Japan has a shortage of human resources, so it is looking for foreign workers in the fields of nursing care, construction, and agriculture.
    However, most of the jobs are in rural areas. And you cannot choose your job.
    If you want to work in Tokyo or other places, it will be difficult.

    [https://www.jitco.or.jp/en/](https://www.jitco.or.jp/en/)

13. You have very few avenues on making this a reality.

    I advise you look into community college and get yourself a degree.

    I also advise, if you don’t plan on going back to school, to learn how to code (memes aside).

    It’s one of the few professions you can make a convincing portfolio without any academic experience.

    This isn’t to say JPN is thirsting for devs, but if you are able to get a job domestically first, build YOE, then you may be able to at some point make your way over to JPN.

    Another option is to get a TEFL license and a goodass story for why you should be teaching in Japan over other people. This would be tough, given your situation and no degree.

    You also need to think about money. I don’t know what your plan is, but how are you expecting to move there and pay for anything?

    I think you need to figure out your life domestically. Try out your “get away from here” tactic in the scope of switching states.

    Then, once you’re financially able to support yourself solo and have some of the bare minimums for working in JPN, come back and start looking at your next steps/options.

    Life is a marathon. Anything is possible but you need to put in the work. There are a lot of people in your situation that have gone through all the steps to ensure they meet some of the requirements that JPN would look for.

14. I’m not sure what your circumstance is but I think to me you’re looking for an ‘ideal’ country to start new which in reality is not going to work out the way you want it to.

    I’ll be blunt, your reasoning is full of naivety.
    Going to another country where you barely speak a language, don’t even have a degree for and will ‘take any job’ to make your dream work is really not going to get you very far.

    As others have suggested, it will be better for you in the long run if you do some proper research because there’s going to be cultural clashes as well as expectations. Asian working culture is not like the west and this is something you have to realize.

    Focus on what you want to do, and failing that – may be worth getting a job to support your studies in learning another language. There are probably other routes that will be easier, but the one you’re on definitely isn’t.

15. Depending on where you are from you could apply for a working holiday visa. If granted it’s for one year but if you find the right job you could change to a work visa afterwards.
    https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/w_holiday/index.html

16. Depending on where you’re from, you can get a working holiday visa for 12-18months, once, before you’re 30. You could use that as a way to experience life in Japan for a time.

    There are many companies that hire foreigners with minimal Japanese for seasonal work in hospitality or on ski fields etc. The pay is usually pretty bad but it’s a good way to make friends, learn the language through immersion and experience the culture for a while. You will need a foundation in Japanese (no matter which route you attempt), but you can do that over the course of a couple of months if you’re driven.

    [Here’s one](https://www.boobooski.com) particular company that does the hiring process online, so you can line up work before you come.

17. If you keep fucking up your life, you should consider going to therapy before you go to Japan.

18. Not trying to mean, trying to be realistic. But postpone japan to the future if you really want to move here. Move far away from your home if you really want to, but do it somewhere you can succeed by speaking your native language. I’m assuming it’s English. The COL is way lower in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand. Learn to be independent and build your career there. The only way you’ll get into Japan right now is through language school…and then what? You’ve spent 20k and now you have to luck out for a work visa for something unsaturated like fashion design? Do your due diligence and write out a REALISTIC concrete plan. Seriously.

19. You could look into applying for a Working-holiday visa, then taking a flight over and trying to find some sort of tutoring gig or something. It’s risky as you won’t have anything lined up beforehand, but it’s possible. Also you’d need to have a certain amount saved up beforehand (~$4k) so that the embassy will even consider you. Not sure which country you’re from, but I’m going through this process right now. I have no post-secondary, but I’ve also been learning Japanese for 4-5 years.

20. If you’re going to Japan to escape your life that’s falling apart, I seriously doubt it will solve your problems. If anything, it will probably make them much worse because you don’t have diplomas and don’t know the language, hence it’s very unlikely you’ll get a decent job. Or even a job at all.

    Contrary to what many seem to think, the Japanese society is ruthless and no one will come to your rescue if you end up in trouble there.

21. Jobs without a degree for foreigners are incredibly rare but exist. This is excluding teaching English and most things because that requires a degree. You’re only going to find that kind of job like bar tending as a foreigner or something if you know somebody. I know a few people who have done it though. If you’re not opposed maybe try to go there for education at a Japanese university, and you can get a job on the side having a university visa. Seems to be the easiest way in. If not I suggest getting on a plane, and trying to make connections at locations foreign residents frequent and maybe you’ll find something.

22. Getting a visa without a bachelor’s degree will be very challenging.

    Also, your problems won’t vanish just because you go to Japan. You will be the same person in Japan as you are in your home country. That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing, but if you’re pursuing it as a “solution” it will absolutely not work.

23. Do you speaks English fluent? Do you have savings?

24. So what if you go to Japan and your life falls apart again? No degree, no japanese fluency, and not to sound like a meanie but I’m not sure what kind of job you’re going to get studying fashion design (especially without Japanese fluency).

    You have to take your life into your own hands, nothing you read here on reddit/or online or hearing other people’s advice will change your life really. It has to come from within. I advice you make a 5 year plan. Write it on a piece of paper and stick it on the wall or something above your computer so you see it everyday. If you want to work in Japan you need a bachelors degree. It’s not a suggestion it’s a visa requirement.

    – Consider going to community college since its cheaper and then going to a unversity whether its a brick and mortar or something like WGU.

    – Ideally get JLPT N3 or N2 before coming to Japan. N2 definitely if you don’t want to go to a language school. You really need at the minimum N2 for looking for work (and just general life).

    – Realize that Japan is just another country. Just remember wherever you go…there you are (baggage included). To me it sounds like you have rose tinted lenses on. Your life is going to be much much more difficult if you just decide to yolo it over there with no japanese fluency and/or no skill of some kind.

25. Get a bachelors at a community college and then apply to a contract company for ESL. Study Japanese between now and then.

    Your problems won’t disappear moving to Japan, but it may give you a fresh start.

26. Japan is a lot of fun, and I think you should plan an extended stay there (like 3 months).

    Sounds like you could use a break, and you will definitely get a different perspective being overseas for a few months.

    It is true that wherever you go, there you are. But I also think it is 100% fine to follow your gut, pursue your dreams, even if it is a visit to another country.

    I lived in Japan for 2 years, and there are plenty of people who get by speaking absolutely zero Japanese (not me, I studied the language before I went, but lots of folks don’t).

    Then plan to come back with new experiences under your belt.

    Good luck.