TL;DR I'm mostly just shouting into the void + wondering about the opinions of those who have seen success in moving to Japan.
I'm sorry if this subreddit gets a ton of "I have a pulse and I want visa sponsorship" posts, but the political situation in my country is becoming concerning, and as an LGBT person, I'm not in the mood to stick around to find out how bad things get.
I have a bachelor's degree in Japanese but haven't taken the JLPT and am probably around a low N3, which is not nearly enough to be considered fluent. I'm mostly illiterate in Japanese, and can only read about 500-800 kanji. In December, I will finish my masters degree in Secondary Education with an English Language Arts concentration
So basically, the major disadvantages I have at the moment are:
- I am not already living in Japan. My study abroad visa expired 2 years ago after I spent 4 months there.
- My Japanese skill is only conversational
- No real work experience aside from one semester of unpaid student teaching
- No TESL certification
It seems like in the past, it was easier to find at least an ALT position that would sponsor visas for applicants and help to arrange housing, but at this point, I realize that the attractiveness of that type of easy entry strategy has made things super competitive.
I've been scouring LinkedIn and other sites, and at this point, I'm probably more likely to get a better job offer in the United States where teachers are desperately needed almost everywhere. I certainly don't expect stellar pay, but I really need to find a real job in a large city soon.
Should I give up on the Japan dream until I've already been working as a teacher for several years elsewhere? I stupidly told a lot of people back in 2023 that I would be returning to Japan within the next year, but decided instead to get another degree. Kind of torn between worlds here because it doesn't really seem doable without either a ton of luck or even MORE time spent studying Japanese and getting more certifications. I've heard it's also illegal to enter the country as a tourist and then pursue a visa while you already have the advantage of being local?
For those who have been able to move from America to Japan with a job secured, what was that like and how did you do it? On a scale of easy to nearly impossible, how difficult would you say it was to get that job offer without already being in Japan?
by Shadowbanish