MMoving to Japan

Best ways to find employment with visa support in Japan from overseas?

  • November 12, 2024

Hello,

for personal reasons, I'm planning to move to Japan (Osaka) in early 2025. Currently looking for jobs and was curious on how others went about it.

From what I've noticed some far, most decent jobs require you to either have a visa already or to at least be in Japan, so I've been wondering about the best way to go about it if you can only apply from overseas.

I'm from Europe, but not elligeble for work and travel, so I'm trying to find something to at least get the visa situation sorted before I arive there. (That said, I am able to go to japan for 3 months at a time with a tourist visa)

My questions are:
Is is ok to just apply for sort of anything when you first go just to get a visa and then look for a better job as soon as you get there or should I try and find a decent job from the get-go?

and

What are some of the ways to find a job from overseas apart from Gaijonpot and co?

I've got work some 2-ish years of experience in both sales and education with a B.A. for the latter, but I'm generally open to most jobs.

My Japanese is conversational and I can read a decent amount.

by Wormic

2 comments

  1. So to clarify: you’re not moving to Japan on a tourist visa. You’re going as a tourist. No one will legally rent you an apartment or allow you to open a bank account or get a residency card on a tourist visa.

    Terms of tourist visa also make it illegal to search for/interview for jobs. That’s the nature of what you’re seeing for jobs being offered. Sponsored jobs outside of eikaiwa are few and far in between and competition is tight.

    Having a bachelor’s will help, as that’s required for a work visa. Otherwise depending on what your job and experience line up to, Google is your friend. But again, finding a sponsored job is difficult. Read through past posts here and wiki.

  2. What are you qualified to do/what skills do you have? Do you speak Japanese? What kinds of jobs are you planning to apply for?

    There’s no great secret involved – people who have been offered jobs from outside of Japan have desirable skills or experience that an employer in Japan wants. Without knowing what you are looking for, it’s difficult to suggest places to search as this can be very industry-dependent.

    You say you have a BA in education – are you a qualified teacher? Do you have a teaching licence/registration? With several years of experience in a classroom, you could apply for international school positions.

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