Hi Reddit!
I'm a 26yo canadian woman who's considering applying for the working holiday visa next year and I have a few questions about the logistics and the prep I should do ahead of time. I would like to avoid Tokyo and move somewhere slightly less metropolitan (I'm considering Fukuoka). My japanese is functional, I was fine when I went on a trip last year but I'm far from fluent, more around N4, but I'll keep taking classes until I leave.
- How much money should I have saved when I fly to Japan? It's looking like by fall 2027 I would have roughly 7000-7500 CAD of savings, minus the plane tickets. Is that a safe amount or should I wait for 2028?
- Is it realistic to think I could afford to live on a full-ish time konbini salary (or something similar)? I would probably aim for a room in a sharehouse, but I would also need to keep paying part of my rent in Canada (roughly 7-800 CAD). Obviously I know I won't be living the high life, I just ideally want not to starve lol. I'm a dev so I could always find part-time contracts if need be, but I'd rather avoid working a full-time remote job cause I think that would drive me insane.
- Do you have tips on finding work/housing? And how early should I start looking?
Feel free to share your advice, I've only recently started considering the WHV option so I still have a lot to learn 🙂
by celebSeventeen
1 comment
Hello! I’m just coming to the end of my WHV. I’m 23F and also from Canada! Also around N4.
1. With that amount of savings, you’ll have more than I did lol. I should have brought more than I did, as it took a little longer to find a job than I thought. I think the biggest kicker here will be the rent in Canada you mentioned, as that will it through that faster than in Japan.
2. Definitely check for options besides share houses! I was originally looking at them and ended up finding a rental agency that does short term leases on apartment and it was about ＄300 cheaper per month for my own 1K than the share house bedrooms i looked at. I think you could afford to live on a full-time konbini salary if you’re used to the typical Canadian income to housing ratio, but again I think the Canadian rent will potentially push you over the top, especially if you’re paying that with the yen you make and transferring it back to Canada with something like wise. The exchange rate hurts going back that way.
3. I started looking for housing before I left, and got it sorted and signed for before I left Canada! I travelled around a bit before I moved in but it was nice to know that I had a set place with a move in date. I didn’t want to start working immediately and wanted to travel around first, so I arrived in June, started looking for work in September, got 2 jobs in October, and started working in November.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll see if I can answer them! I was near Vancouver so that’s the consulate I applied through, and I paid Go International about ＄90 to check my documents and submit my application on my behalf. They also mailed my passport back to me when I got it back, so I only needed to go to Vancouver once. I think that alone was worth it for me lol.
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