MMoving to Japan

Finding part time work – enough to be comfortable?

I’m planning to live in Japan for 6 months via working holiday visa. I plan to live in Osaka.

I know that I can work part time with this visa. I know that the average hourly wage in Japan is around ¥1,100~1,300.

I’m worried about finding work in Japan. My main concerns are:

1) How long will it take me to find a job in Japan? I know globally there is a shortage of jobs, but in my country, it’s really bad. It takes about 6 months to 1 year for people to find a job due to our small population. I work in recruitment (put simply), so I’m not exaggerating.

2) Will the pay/hours of a part time job be enough to sustain me for 6 months? Or would I need to use my savings quite a bit?

3) How many weekly hours do people usually get when working part time in Japan? In my country, part time is usually considered 10-20 hours, which is not much to live on!

I guess I’m struggling to grasp Japan’s concept of work when my country’s concept is so different.

About me:
I am a native English speaker (from NZ)
I have a bachelor’s degree
I would prefer English teaching jobs

Thank you. Keen to hear your personal experiences too

by ajeq30a1h69jpv2-1

1 comment

  1. So there is a labour shortage but it is not really applicable to english-teaching because there’s an infinite supply of English speakers wanting to teach. As well, the bigger companies will be reluctant to hire a WHV (source, I tried and luckily failed and got a better job).

    The shortage is most visible in service industry and manual labour jobs, the former will require some Japanese (judging by my local 7/11 not much at all though…) And the latter you may simply not want to do, though it does pay a bit better.

    As for comfortable, you’ll want to do the maths yourself but under ¥300,000 a month (gross) isnt gonna really qualify as ‘comfortable’ if you want to travel around the country a lot.

    Of course any savings you have will change the dynamic.

    Other than Japanese language ability, the most important thing to leverage is going to be network. Research now where you might meet other foreigners and make some friends. Go there to IRL things and make connections, not only will this be generally more fun, but this is the major way you will find your way into casual work without Japanese.

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