Marrying a girl who I really love, getting a job, having some kids, and settling down in Japan will make me truly happy. If I have an opportunity to go to college in order to make even more money to support my family, then please believe that I will take it, without thinking twice.

My circumstances are......a bit different than the norm, and a bit more odd. I'm not comfortable saying them here, but to make a long story short, I have a girl who is willing to marry me, and parents will support it also. (I believe luck was a big factor in this as well)

i have no problem with any of that
i really dont
shit as long as your doing you
go for it

Very wise words, my friend. What's your plan, I'm curious?

ill soon have a degree as a aviation structural specialist
ive been teaching myself japanese since the middle of 07, but i know myself that ill need to attend proper schooling to learn hirigana and kanji so after i graduate and do my internship ill be taking regular classes for a few years to learn...during that time i plan to visit japan a few times. if i feel like im making the right choices then after i get my masters degree (age25 maybe) then ill look into moving out there if things go right. to be honest im not a cocky dude, at all, but pulling a female overseas shouldnt be a problem for me but im maybe not as strong a person as you idk but i wouldnt feel comfortable not being able to support my family
ive been poor be4, its not fun, once my fam got out of being poor to upper middle class i always told myself id never go back, the main thing for me is my priorities have always been straight so that part of me will hold me back from serious things like marriage and children until i know for sure that my money is right..


BUT, id be lying if i said i didnt want to pull a Jero, and get into some acting and modeling in japan

Nice! ^^
Wish you all the best luck.

Does anyone else live in Japan via a spousal visa? (besides Nyororin)
I don't think I've seen anyone else...

No wonder you wigged out on the Marry thread. You are planning on doing pretty much the same thing.

Yes, It is a sensitive subject for me.
ha

Hm. Have we ever seen alanx and Hellkite in the same room at the same time...?

;)

Dang, you caught me! ;)

lmao
thats funny
jackie chun and master roshie is the same person

Who's Jackie chun?

In Dragon Ball, Muten Roshi entered that Budokai Tenkaichi Martial Arts tournament and used the alias "Jackie Chun" since he didn't want Kuririn or Goku to know that he as participating in the tournament as well. He had changed his appearance too. Guess you could say that he was testing their abilities, as he did train them months beforehand for the tourney, and it would be easier to do that without their knowing that he was really Muten Roshi. Neither were literally seen at the same time...sort of, since they were both the same person.

Like most things in Dragon Ball, Jackie Chun was probably a pun for Jackie Chan.

haha im glad u answered that 1st
i thought everyone saw dragonball dbz and gt
guess not

As it should be.

Congratulations. Your spousal visa puts you in the same situation as the hundreds of thousands of able bodied Japanese citizens looking for work in one of their worst economic climates.

Your ability to beat the system only means that the Japanese govt has missed their opportunity to weed out an individual who may end up leeching their system.

Have you thought about the type of skills you can present which will put you head and shoulders above the competition? Your knowledge of English is probably the obvious skill but you'll be competing against university graduates.

That's a pretty bold statement for someone who's never even visited Japan.

BTW, I'm not trying to pick on you. I'm just treating you like the dozens of other starry eyed members who stroll onto this site to tell us that they've decided to move to Japan.

alanxI was following your post, so do you plan on getting a degree anyways? And by when? I keep hearing that you want to get married to a Japanese girl in 2010, so thats next year, how old are you now? And how old is this "Japanse Girlfriend" of yours? How do you plan on supporting yourself and her once you are there? Her parents won't be too fond of it if you can't proof to them that you can at least provide shelters and food on the table for her..

Hi... I'm new here. My name is Oscar... I just turned 22 on march 6th. And I'm getting a Major degree in International Business.

I've studied Japanese since 2006... I'm currently 4 Kyu to be exact. And it's supposed that I have the knowledge of a 4 years old kid (respecting to the language). I've studied English since I was 12 years old... and I also know a 30% of Italian... maybe a little bit more. Oh, my mother tongue is Spanish... Cuz I live in Mexico.

Do I have a chance in getting a job? I'm interested on commerce and business... specially in imports-exports.

Your background and everything else looks great, I am not sure how strong an international business degree will be, but it definitely worth something

Unfortunagely, current economy is not in your favor. I think you should wait a few years and look into a job in teaching foreign language?

I really don't know enough about the Business and Teaching field, but to me, your background looks like you are a strong candidate.....

Have you been to Japan? I'd recommend taking a trip there to go see it first to see if you like it. Many people I talked to were thrilled to move to japan but changed their mind after 1/2 year of working 14 -18 hours daily

This thread is really helpful. I'm not going over for a couple of years and I'm looking to learn all I can for the meantime. The culture shock thing doesn't worry me as I've lived abroad a fair bit but it's great to get practical advice like this.

Thanks for your reply. I haven't yet. But at this point I'm not too interested on teaching languages, because I've tried to teach Japanese or Italian to my brother and I didn't have success. They got the point, but it was hard.

I want to get a job in exports and imports. But I'm almost sure that there's room for me. Mainly because my country has too many things to offer. For example: Fruits, Vegetables, Meats, etc.

I don't know those business well enough to suggest whether works are available in that sector, there are a few other locals on the forum who maybe able to offer more help. As suggested in this thread (and others), it is very costly to sponsor a foreigner, so most company will need to see a real benefit in doing so before they will even consider it.

Teaching is such a popular option because they trust that someone from outside the country can bring better and PROPER English skills in the country. While for all other type of business, the ability to communicate in another language fluently (Will explain in a bit) is a bonus but not a must.

My uncle and cousin had a discussion with me concerning foreign worker. For the most part, a lot of industry who need someone with alternate language skills will only need the basic, so any locals who have basic knowledge of the language and can write/communicate with the supplier is good enough from their perspective. So in the case of an import and export business, it is totally acceptable if the person managing such functions write something like "We like top grade meat, how much per kilo, ship express please" to the vendor, this level of English is managable for many in Japan these days, so is there a real need to higher a foreigner to do this kind of work?

For export its a differnt story, especially if they are selling things outside of the country. You want to be able to impress the customer, but if you look at major companies that sell globally, they have offices setup in alternage location, giving them the geographic advantage. Communication are handled internally in which case.

So would anyone care to tell me what opportunities their are for travelers on working holiday visas in Japan? Tokyo spacificly. It may have been covered in the past fourty something pages.... my bad.

Say I would like to take twelve months off of my current 'degree-less' job here in Australia and experience living in the most densely populated city in the world. Your telling me there is so much compatition in Japan for unskilled work , me as a gaijin would have next to no chance over a local of getting a job say cleaning?
What is it I would need to be able to offer to pick up after people?

Interviewer man- (insert sarcastic tone here) Ahh yes sir i'll just need to see your ahh degree in urban sanatation engineering and I don't see any problem in you be able clean our hotel rooms. :rolleyes:

i have a question but it may have been covered already (sorry if it has). but i was reading the earlier posts and it said that a lot of people didn't want to "lower themselves" to teaching english.

what's wrong with teaching english????

I know someone who got a job offer in Japan to teach English and I'm studying to Teach English as a Second Language.

Nothing's stopping you from applying for those type of jobs but degree or visa aside, what can you offer a potential employer? What makes you a standout over the other candidates?

Unless your Japanese is at a near-native level, your presence could actually become a hindrance as they're forced to spend extra time translating written work instructions, daily bulletins, etc. Jobs which involve potential interaction with the public could also be harder to get as well.

For example, a hotel cleaning job may look simple enough but like it or not, you're also representing the hotel while you work. If a customer comes up to you and starts blabbing away in Japanese only to have you look dazzled and confused, it makes the hotel look bad. Especially in a country where customer service is taken very seriously.

With that being said, there are tens of thousands of non-Japanese working in unskilled labor. Jobs which involve rough/hazardous/dirty manual labor, very long hours, harsh working environments, etc.

However, I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to leave Japan learning more Chinese, Korean, Portuguese or Persian than Japanese. ;)

I completely agree. TTvTT;;

Since I'm Canadian, I want to teach English or French, so I'll work hard to get my grades up to get in a good college now! ^^b

Very good.. at least we have a few people listening on this board :)

Just a suggestion, if you are already majoring in English, do consider some more additional studies (Master or maybe even a PHD).. give yourself more option, maybe you can get a job as an assistant at a local university.. you never know

Yes some very valid points made. I think this is the most helpful thread on the forum. For me at least. It has helped put some reality into a dream of mine. I cant help but find it a little sad that it's such a harsh city for foreigners to get work in. It has definitely changed my approch on planning my stay. Thanks.

I am trying to go there after I graduate from college, English I guess :P, but I have a question: How is "informatic" going on Japan?
Is it a good work? Or someone can tell me the best jobs that I can get there?
Thanks.

I agree with the OP, and that is exactly what i'm currently doing.

I'm currently going to DeVry University in the CIS program, and around August I have to pick my track courses then it's home stretch for the Bachelors Degree and i'm thinking about choosing Enterprise Computing / IBM System Z.
My original plan for going to DeVry University was to become a software engineer but now I just want something that is a bit new and seem like it'll get me to japan better, since Enterprise computing is newly offered at DeVry and one of my professors was one of the lead man in charge of showing/teaching system z to other professors to teach devry students.

but idk I just hope this will help me get a decent paying job in japan after I get a bit of experience working here first or asap :p

Sometimes you just need a degree for your visa and a technical skill to make life...
But as I see the Japanese Speaking and Writing skill is far more important.
I'm chinese,working as a software engineer in Jp for 2 Year right after I graduate from college in China.I spent the time after school to pass the JPLT level 1 when I were in college.But still feel tough when speaking or writing Japanese. although confident in writing and listening.
I think for most of foreigners in JP,the most difficult thing is just communication like real Japanese... this make me feel that the degree I have got in Beijing cannot get me the equal return。。。
PS: Anyone want learn Chinise or Japanese can send me a messege.I'll be very happy to make some friends here...;)

^ so you're doing okay over there right out of college? i was planning on working in the US for about a year to get some experience and during that time practice/learn japanese more and start trying to take those tests and try to get to japan via the company or just by myself, but it'll be a lot better if i get sent over there by the company or at least get t he opportunity to go to japan for a couple weeks or other countries like my uncle who is a systems engineer, he gets sent too all different countries and state for a couple days to weeks by his company and he could move there if he wanted to and still be making the same if not more

yeah,your plan sounds great...
hope you come japan as soon as possible!
Have fun..:vsign:

For those who want to challenve the OP post, I suggest you watch a J-Drama name Dragon Zakura.

The main char. comment's about Todai is extreme, but he said something really really true: Much or of the society and its justice system is built by a group of people with knowledge, knowledge that was acquired from school. That is why, the society always operate in a manner that is in favor to those that has the proper education, simply because these rules and regulation are set by a well educated group of people. For the rest of the population, they will just have to live in a sub standard life.

While I don't totally agree to to this, it does hold true to show how important an education is in Japan. The general society call people who didn't end up in a University as "Baka", we understand this as "Stupid", but it really has a strong implication as "Retard".

Another thing with hiring someone with no degree is that, what will happen if this person need to see a client or business partner? What kind of image will the organization be presenting by sending someone without a degree? Thats a potential deal breaker as the other party may just consider this as a lack of respect.

These are good points.
on top of this, we have to remember the hiring process in Japan and dedication to ones company. This is the thing that so many people either don't understand or choose to forget.

A person in a company is the person in charge of hiring. Chances are he isn't the president/owner, unless it is a small company.

That person has to find the person who is the best for the company. If the person works out, then great. However if that person messes up, the boss is going to look at the person who hired him for an explanation. If the employee that hired him can show the screw-up had a good resume and had graduated from college, then he won't be the one to blame.
However if the person he hired had no college degree the boss will probably fire (or some sort of punishment) for hiring incompetent employees.

This is why "taking a chance" on an employee without a degree or credentials isn't very likely. The guy hiring you doesn't want to lose his job taking a risk, despite the fact you are obviously a wonderful and dedicated worker who just couldn't get around to college.

An addition to your point MMM, my uncle owns a garment manufacturing company in Saitama, if he hired someone without a degree and send this person out, not only that it will be seen as an act of disrespect, they will also question his ability to lead a compnay, because they will judge him and consider that as a poor decision, and will start having doubt on his ability to make sensible decision

Unfortunately, thats just how Japan is....

It can be the same way here too, especially if you want more than just an "Everyday Job". Exactly why I'm going back for my Bachelor's now.

I know this goes against your post on your thread, but would going to an (english, if possible) art school in Japan after learning Japanese for a few years before I graduate from high school be ok? I am actually aiming to become a musician and I am more interested towards the music there because they are more wide in variety in terms of music that I would like to play. And yes, I would be fairly proficient, in terms of music; art being a hobby and it can go vise-versa if all else fails for my music hope and dreams.

However, until I get sure confirmation I think I'm going to take your advice and graduate from college first.

You will not be accepted to any accredited college in Japan before you graduate from high school.

I guess it depends on how you want to live there. It may be possible to do a simple exchange with a family, not necessarily get a job that might require a four-year degree. An adult can also go to Japan as a volunteer for a year or so, for which most programs don't require college education; and then of course, there are exchange students who are still studying and don't have their degree yet... There are a lot of options besides having to go to college.

This was directed not at people who want to visit Japan or do an exchange, but those that say they want to drop everything and live in Japan, i.e. more than a year or two.