Living in Japan as a foreigner is easy. Once you get a full-time job that will give you the visa and will pay for your living expenses and also if you have built up a network of friends that got your back whenever situations arise, trust me you’ll do just fine.
The cleanliness, safety, and quality of life japan can offer are worth every sweat. Most Japanese I know here are very respectful and kind to foreigners like me.
My life in Japan “really” started when I had to look for a J. O. B. I opened my browser, typed in “jobs for foreigners in Japan” and saw a lot of websites that offer job listings but only found Gaijinpot.com to be the most helpful because It is where I found 2 of my part-time jobs and worked there for almost four years because it was such a fun job.
If you have a bachelor’s degree or higher and have taken and passed the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test), you’ll have a better chance of finding a job related to the field you have studied, but it was not the case for me. I studied Design in the Philippines but have not taken and passed the JLPT so I had fewer options during the job-hunting process at the time.
I decided to work 2 part-time jobs teaching Japanese kids English. How did I get my visa? It’s easy, if you have a total consistent salary every month of 200,000 yen or more you will be eligible to apply for a work visa called Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services.
Initially, as a part-time worker, they will give you 1 year, and depending on your performance and your company they can give you up to 3 years the next time you apply for extension from what I heard from a friend that has the same visa as me.
I only got 1 year under the same visa for 3 consecutive years so I ask my company every year for the documents needed to apply for the visa extension:
- company registration
- an employment certificate
- a contract including your monthly salary
And the other easy requirements like passport, photo and the application form filled up by me and some by my company. You can read more about it if you click here.
After submitting all these documents to the immigration office in Japan I will be good to work for another year after I receive the confirmation of the approved application I submitted.
That is all I wanted to share with you. If you can't get a full-time position yet, no problem, get multiple part-time, add it up, and gather the required documents from both company, make sure you have all the requirements before going to the immigration and you'll still be able to enjoy the sushi, sakura, sake, and the Kobe beef.
If you want to know more and if you have questions that I have not covered here yet, you can send me an email at any time at this link: Let’s Talk, let me know your thoughts, and let’s have a conversation. Thanks for reading!