I am a 26 year old half japanese man born + living in the US. I have a japanese passport as my mother is a Japanese native, and I've visited over a dozen times. Things are getting pretty rough in America, and that along with personal reasons has made me keen on trying a new start in Japan. However I have a few hurdles I'd like second opinions on.
- I have no degree. I work in a car parts warehouse and am forklift certified. I am willing to do manual labor. Would I be able to land a job of that sort easily to get myself income in a timely manner? What jobs are reliably obtainable for someone like me?
- My japanese is rusty. My pronunciation is basically perfect and I can have casual conversation, read hiragana/katakana but I struggle with kanji beyond elementary level. I have a lot of holes in my vocab. Will this kill my chances at getting a job?
- I have nobody over there that can reliably house me for any extended period of time. What would the process for someone like me to get a living space situated before arriving? I'd prefer near the Tokyo area but I know beggars can't be choosers.
I have a decent amount of money saved up so I won't immediately starve but I'd like some idea of how smoothly I can transition into living in Japan.
TLDR How can I get situated in Japan as a laborer/machinery operator with a passport and no degree
by nagesuteana
3 comments
You are Japanese, there is no other requirement for you to live in Japan. While you will struggle quite a bit if your reading and writing is poor, it’s something you can improve.
There is quite a bit of manual labor type jobs that don’t require a lot of reading and writing but you’re going to need to be in Japan to find any.
Get a room in a share house, get settled, find a job.
If you have even a little experience with cars, honestly go to Aichi and land an entry-level position at a Toyota-related manufacturer. Definitely manual labor at first, but I’ve heard you can use company housing, the pay isn’t all too bad, and you can get qualifications to get into better positions. You could maybe land in Tokyo and live in a storehouse for a few months first just to get your bearings straight while you find a job. This of course hinges on you having some savings to keep you afloat for a while.
With a Japanese passport though, you have no worries on maintaining a visa or anything.
When you first move to Japan, you’ll need to set up pension and healthcare payments. You’ll need a bank account. You’ll want to get a physical My Number card. A lot of boring paperwork coming your way!
As a citizen, you’ll have options. They won’t probably be high paying at first in comparison to where you are now, but you can probably set yourself up with a cheap student apartment pretty quickly and start out fairly low cost while you get yourself established. Living outside of the larger cities will be cheaper, of course.
I frequently see forklift, factory and warehouse jobs listed in my local Facebook jobs group (I’m not in a major city, it might be less common in the middle of Tokyo for example), generally requiring N3 language skills. The employment office I take my daughter to is full of postings for construction work, and also security work. If you have a drivers license, there’s a fair amount of driving work by the looks of it too.
You should take a look at the Hello Work site for the place you are moving to. They offer free training as well as job placement help – you can get a pretty good idea of what there is demand for there. They also have Japanese lessons, specifically geared towards work, but there are status or residence restrictions and I am not sure whether or not they accept citizens to that; if not most cities have free Japanese lessons you can join.
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