I live in Japan now as a student at the Akamonkai language school. As of now i’ve had some help from my family which took off the first 6 months of rent off my shoulders. But after the next 4 months I’ll have to pay for school again and then rent. My plan is to move out the dorm into a share house so I can pay month by month for the same price pretty much. But for you guys who have been in school here for like 3 years how do you keep up with it? Im hoping to get a part time job ASAP but even with one i can’t see how i could pay tuition and for school. If I can it’ll have to be on a crazy strict budget. I want to go to university here so I’m just trying to see how I can set myself up to be able to pay for everything after January.
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When I was in language school my parents paid for my tuition and the first three months of my dorm. I got a part time job within those three months and took over paying for my dorm. My school fees I paid back to my parents after one year, three months before I graduated.
Well… Language school is basically something mostly aimed at people with money to spend as a ‘get into Japan EZ’ deal.
A lot of people already have money. Or their family does if they’re young.
But 6 months without working and only relying on your family. Oooof.
I feel like if you started working immediately part time while having your family subsidize your rent you could’ve easily worked/saved up enough to keep you going by now.
People had money before coming, work while here, or in the case of uni – get scholarships/grants.
I can’t really be surprised that someone who hasn’t worked a single day in the past half year is concerned about how to pay for things.
It’s tough, but the time to figure this out was before commiting. You should be confident you have the funds or means to do anything before doing it. Take it as a lesson.
Budgeting isn’t extreme, it’s normal adulting. If you can only earn x but your expenses are larger than x. You need to cut your spending. There’s a reason for the poor college student image. You’re paying all the normal expenses as a regular person and tuition.
I know plenty people from developing country that comes to japan as language student, aiming for tokutei ginou in future.
They worked… hard.
Some of them even worked more than 28 hours (with cash salary to circumvent the limitation).
One of their daily schedule is like this :
Wake up 8am
First part time 9am – 12am
School 1pm – 5pm
Second part time 6pm – 1am
The best time to ask questions is before..the second best time is right now – so good on you for looking ahead (you got 3 more months of rent paid already). No suggestions for you, just wanted to say you’re being proactive which is good. Find a job, reduce expenses, and study hard. Best of luck.
I did 6 months school in Japan some time ago. I worked weekends, plus “travel allowance” and free food from volunteer Eikaiwa after school. I envied class mates who had everything paid by parents and could simply enjoy the life.
I think one big part of managing, is by budgeting your funds, being careful with your spending, and tracking it.
Being clear of the difference between what you want, and what you actually need, can help reduce unnecessary spending. Finding cheaper alternatives, and calculating the unit cost of items to figure out which gives you a better bang for your buck adds up along the way. Reduce/eliminate luxury spending as much as possible.
Track your funds carefully (both income, and spending), and review it month to month to see if there is anything else you can do to trim the fat. Carefully review “recurring costs” and see if there are cheaper alternatives that you can switch to (eg: lower cost mobile phone plan, investing in a bicycle if your daily commute is a reasonable ride away, etc).
You don’t have to be “crazy strict”, and live a life of a pauper (unless you’re one), but being aware of your financial state will give you a good idea if you can afford to treat yourself to that cheesecake to reward yourself, or if you should put that 600Y towards tomorrow’s lunch instead.
I saved up before I got here, I worked every day as a student.
I was just spoiled.
But most friends did some kind of baito at restaurant or whatever . Or if you’re good looking host/hostess(yeah yeah, not legal but chances of getting caught are slim to none).
A lot of language school students work part time either in the food industry or konbini I thought. Talk to your school’s administration about resources to help you find a job.
As others said, most people there are either
1) here on their savings
2) here on their family’s dime
3) here and working part time
4) here and working online / remote.
For point four you probably wanna tread lightly since your visa dictates what kind of work you can and can’t do. I’m not saying following the rules to a T but I’m also not saying break them
Japanese students get loans for tuition, and live off part-time pay + the occasional allowance from parents
with the 28h/week cap and tax threshold for working part time as a student, max amount you can earn as a student is around 110k per month until taxes cut deeper into your earnings
with this it is barely feasible for you to pay for living cost and tuition (inaka + public university tuition)
I would suggest looking into scholarships and income based aid from your target uni, or 教育ローン
I went to a Tokyo based school a few years ago and it seemed like people were living off their savings (as i was). It was a good school, but it was treated by most students as a holiday experience; most did a couple of months of courses only, and were not on student visas.
Personally I wouldn’t work and study in Japan – the lifestyle is really rough. It looks like people doing that just live to study and work, with little downtime.
One more long-term option to consider is a scholarship like MEXT. It’s a far bigger commitment than language school of course, but comes with a lot more financial security. You still need a good pool of savings though! Just like moving to any country really.
Another alternative is to enrol in a university back home, and then explore university exchange options.
Working
Part time english teaching – 3000 yen an hour
Then i also did restaurant work – 1150 yen an hour, but just so i could use japanese. I could have gotten more hours english teaching instead if i needed the money.
I work full time and do online school part time
it was to late for you start looking for baito after 6 months knowing you need to pay for everything after 6 months…. You should have done it on your 2nd day here
Studying in Japan alone is really hard. I have been in your situation before. Quick background: I was an independent student in 専門学校 I used to pay all my apartment rent, food, etc.—literally everything. So yeah, here are some tips that might help you.
1. First, regarding your tuition fee, please ask your school if JASSO, which supports students regarding loans and tuition fees, supports your school.
2. If you don’t want to bother your school, you can directly contact JASSO and ask for help. They will give you a loan to pay for school, and after you graduate, you will pay them little by little.
3. To pay your daily needs PART-TIME Jobs are a must. I used to work at Sagawa at night, where I sorted mail and packages.
4. If you want to save money on food, remember 100 yen. Lawson is there.
I was living in the mansion at that time, which cost me 50,000 yen for rent and utilities.
I used to also live in a shared house, but for me, it’s a no-no. If you are okay sharing things with strangers in the house, bathroom, or kitchen, I think share house is okay. If you want to look for a shared house, search GG House; if I remember correctly, it cost 40,000 with rent, water, and electricity.
Remember, you only have a really small room just for you to sleep in. and for stuff.
6. Let me know if you have any questions or want some tips and hacks for living here in Japan.
Don’t give up; remember, there’s always beauty in the struggle.
They spend 300 yen a day on food and work the max 28 hours a week.
Or their families pay for everything.
If it’s the same price don’t move, share houses can be extremely disgusting and the management companies won’t force mandatory maintenance. Unless you don’t mind it a little roachy.
Students usually take loans or use savings, otherwise parents pay.
No offence but if you are looking at going to university and having money issues on month 3.. you might want to reevaluate before things get really tough.
Pretty sure there are only 2 camps in language school:
1. Independently wealthy/rich mummy and daddy/ saved alot and want to enjoy Japanese “life” for a year.
2. People from less privileged countries who work their ass off.