Job Discussion Forums

uberscheisse · Joined: 15 Nov 2004 Posts: 94

i have a friend who just visited japan for the first time and is now quite enamored with the place.

he can't teach english, he doesn't have a 4 year degree of any sort. he has, however, 2 years of film school sound production and a hell of a lot of experience in a studio. he is able to record/mix/produce sound for film, TV, video games and any musician you throw his way.

now, talent aside, i'm sure he would be locked out of his chosen vocation by people who can speak japanese. but he's good at what he does, and is emailing his (pretty damned good) resume to japanese studio folks as we speak.

what do you all think his chances would be, 1-10? so far, i've met a lot of people doing a lot of different jobs here.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Just exactly how much experience does he have? What sort of work visa do you or he imagine he'll be shooting for?

If you don't know, then you have not read the regulations enough.
(Go here and read IV, V, and the appendix. http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/index.html )

For an engineer visa, he'll need 10 years (combination work and study).

However, you yourself said it when you wrote about a lack of Japanese ability. Until he can communicate to some degree for contracts, interviews, and pretty much office chatter, my opinion is that his chances are far less than 1 in 10.

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

I'll jump in on this because I'm a little curious-sort of in the same situation. If someone doesn't have a four year university degree, is there any chance of them getting a visa that will let them stay in the country if they were to do part time teaching or something like that? This person is American by the way, if that information helps.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Four-year or 3-year degrees hold the same weight if they are called bachelor's degrees.

For Americans (most of whom would get a 4-year, not 3-year BA/BS), if he doesn't have a degree, he cannot get a work visa unless he has at least 3 years of work experience. That includes PT work. Work is work.

Get a degree/experience, get the visa, work on it for a year, and then you can keep the visa and "self-sponsor" it thereafter with strings of PT work if the total income meets immigration's standards (nebulous).

Or get a student visa or cultural visa, and with special permission you are allowed to work PT.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

If he really, REALLY wants to come to Japan, he should just bite the bullet and get a degree (and then in all likelyhood teach English, until he can figure out a way into his chosen industry within Japan). See if he can use the college (?) credits and experience to get some transfer to a Bachelor of Fine Arts (or a Bachelor of Arts) in Film Studies (or possibly some sort of interdisciplinary Fine Arts program, if he does a lot of music stuff as well- they use sound guys in opera and stuff as well). He may only need two and a half or three years full time (or however many years it takes part time) to get it done.

Try thinking of it the other way around... what would the chances of someone from Japan (or any other Asian country) with zero English ability and lacking the basic requirement for a work visa have of working in the US, Canada etc be? Answer: None.

Is he emailing his 'pretty damn good' resume to Japanese studio people IN JAPANESE? If not, they may not even be able to read it. And even if they can sort of understand it, what are the chances of them getting back to him... IN ENGLISH? And if they get back to him in Japanese, how will he handle that?