Hello,
I’m thinking of potentially living in Japan long-term. I’m considering taking the ALT path and applying to Interac, AEON, or NOVA (I know they’re notoriously terrible, but I’m solely using them for the visa with plans to find a better job as soon as I’m in the country).
I’m planning to use Workaway for a few months to make connections that’ll help me eventually find an apartment. Ideally, I’d be working in or next to Tokyo which seems to have a lot of hosts, but I’m not sure if I even have a say where I’d work. Would this be viable?
Lastly, is the visa offered specifically for teaching? I’ve been a copywriter for over 5 years and would like to continue my career here if I can. (also planning on taking language classes on my off days to better my chances.) Would I be able to work in another industry? Do non-education Japanese companies typically sponsor Humanities visas?
Sorry for this huge post, thanks for taking the time to read and answer my questions. Any advice would appreciated.
4 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
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**Advice on moving to Japan?**
Hello,
I’m thinking of potentially living in Japan long-term. I’m considering taking the ALT path and applying to Interac, AEON, or NOVA (I know they’re notoriously terrible, but I’m solely using them for the visa with plans to find a better job as soon as I’m in the country). What’s the best company to work for out of the three (i.e health insurance, etc)? I’ve read a few posts, but I’d like to hear from people’s experiences in 2023.
Additionally, for accommodation, I’m planning to use Workaway for a few months to make connections that’ll help me eventually find an apartment. Ideally, I’d be working in or next to Tokyo which seems to have a lot of hosts, but I’m not sure if I even have a say where I’d work. Would this be viable?
Lastly, is the visa offered specifically for teaching? I’ve been a copywriter for over 5 years and would like to continue my career here if I can. (also planning on taking language classes on my off days to better my chances.) Would I be able to work in another industry? Do non-education Japanese companies typically sponsor Humanities visas?
Sorry for this huge post, thanks for taking the time to read and answer my questions. Any advice would appreciated.
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>What’s the best company to work for out of the three (i.e health insurance, etc)?
r/teachinginjapan and use the search function before asking
>I’m considering taking the ALT path and applying to Interac, AEON, or NOVA […] What’s the best company to work for out of the three
They’ll all three be very similar experiences. Bottom of the barrel wages, legal minimum time off etc.
>for accommodation, I’m planning to use Workaway for a few months to make connections
I’d expect those three larger companies to all offer accommodations as part of the deal. They won’t be great places, and you’d probably be paying above market rates for them… But they’d be available and not a terrible way to start.
>Ideally, I’d be working in or next to Tokyo
Yes, you and 90% of everyone applying (and already working there) wants to live in the Tokyo area to maximize their potential to not have to keep working for them. More likely they’d assign you to a position as far from Tokyo as they’re able.
>Lastly, is the visa offered specifically for teaching?
Interac does ALT work in public schools, so you can expect an “instructor” status of residence. Nova and Aeon are Eikaiwa so you’d get specialist in humanities, which is more flexible.
> I’ve been a copywriter for over 5 years and would like to continue my career here if I can.
Are you fluent in Japanese? There isn’t much call for professional copy being produced in niche foreign languages. Seriously, I would be very surprised if English was in the top 5 foreign languages spoken here.
>Do non-education Japanese companies typically sponsor Humanities visas?
If you’ve got the skills they need then sure. Your largest barrier to success would be your ability to communicate at a business level in Japanese. The better your Japanese, the more options you’ll have.
I work here in the advertising industry; essentially there is near zero demand for english copywriting at least for advertising. Foreigners who speak English only are literally a segment of around 350,000 in a country of 125m people, nobody goes out of their way to advertise to that segment. It’s just not worth it.
Japanese companies that wish to advertise overseas will either in-house the copy through their overseas offices or will use a network agency that has overseas offices.
Its of course not impossible, but its going to be really tough. You may be able to find other work in the ad industry; mostly client management for foreign clients, but you will need to be bilingual with N1. You are probably better off doing remote-work as a copy writer for your home market to bring in some hard currency on the side while you live here as an ALT.
You may want to check the visa conditions, you might have to go Eikaiwa so that you are on the humanities visa to ensure thats all above board, i am not an expert though.