what are my possiblities now???
 

hi,
im going to marry a japanese in japan.
So im going to live in japan.
i have my spouse visa.
what are my possibilities to find a job now there?
i just have a highschool degree.
and i can speak 4 languages(French, English, Italian, Dutch, basic japanese)
dont be cruel hehe

Im not sure what kind of job ur aiming for. You should go to college. The spousal visa will let you stay in Japan but many jobs all over the world require at least a bachlors.

So you will now be a legal member of the Japanese workforce.

It will all depend on what skills you have and what experience you have. Not having a 4-year-degree is going to close a lot of doors in a lot of fields, but certainly not all. I knew a couple guys that worked construction who were in the same situation. Another owned a bar with his wife. Another was a bartender at night and performed weddings during the day. Of course, you need to know more than basic Japanese for some of that, but it will come.

Does your spouse's family have a family business? A family run store, restaurant, inn, etc is still a very common sight in Japan. If so, maybe you can work there, or maybe they have some family friends. I'd say use your connections to find something until your Japanese improves, at which point an interpreting job may be available somewhere.

Do you know this languages very well?
if so, then you can get a job in the airport
and be like a translator or something. haha :)

You can EASILY get a job teaching English (If you`re a native English speaker), or in pretty much any position where being a foreigner looks "cool". The key is the visa - once you`ve gotten that you can legally get pretty much any job in Japan. (But a question - you say you`re GOING to marry someone Japanese. As that apparently hasn`t happened yet, you can`t already have your visa.)

Having a university degree will seriously change your quality of life, but you will be able to get by with just a high school diploma. You could even do manual labor or work in a factory.

I started out without a degree on a dependent visa, worked, and managed to save enough to get my degree.

I am assuing he is speaking theoretically.

I assume so too, but it isn`t exactly clear.
Better safe than sorry - there actually are a fair number of people out there who think that you can get a spousal visa prior to the actual marriage - a la the US fiance visa.

well its not going to be easy, but hey be ambitious!
and it's worth a try right?
good luck! and hang in there!
im sure you'll be able to find a job and find someone special in Japan. XD

My honest suggestion would be to do something like English teaching whilst you study for a degree... seems like a pain, but it will make so many more jobs available to you!

Not much possibilities, unfortunately. You can teach English, but if you're not fluent in language and non-verbal communication, very difficult. Also important is where you live. My time is usually spent in the country side, there's nothing. If your tech or business minded you may find work in a company in tokyo or other huge town.
Also, most folk who stay longer than a few years tend to go bonkers. People I met who where there for six years tended to be a little bent. Strange look in the etye and never knowing the date.
Have your lady visit the states, too and you can decide where you want to stay!
Wishing you good luck!

head-hunting, it is even worse than the english teaching circus but u should be able to get a job there or at least be able to start there, the major problem in that sector is to keep the job.

that is if u got the visa, 配偶者, spouse visa.

What field of employment?

Having lived here for 10 years now... I feel a bit insulted by that.

You don't have to feel insulted. It's just an observation. You have to admit, that many of the gai-jin who stay in japan for a long time are effected by their time there. It's a stressful place to live, unless your in a large city surrounded by other ex-pats.
I knew a guy who lived in Ukraine and east Europe for five years, where outsiders aren't usially trusted. He imparted that the culture shock and difficulties in Japan are far more difficult in Japan.

Actually, I don`t find it particularly stressful to live here EXCEPT when I`m surrounded by ex-pats. Most everyone I know who had problems here developed them while surrounded by ex-pats.

I definitely do not think that is the way to go. You will always have someone next to you telling you that something means something it really doesn`t - or telling you why they hate Japan or Japanese people, etc. You never get a chance to form your own independent opinions before having that backdrop.

Most people I know who were relatively isolated here enjoyed Japan immensely and many of them are still here. It`s the ex-pat bubbles that ruin things for people.

Also, please consider that you've been in Japan since you were 17, and began udjusting while you were still psychologically more pliable. Most of us who do a few years in Japan start a bit later than you.
Also, please don't fall into the trap of being insulted by everything. these days people have thin skins and allow themselves to be hurt too easily. If we all become offended so easily, then we'll live in a society in which it becomes ipossible to express opinions or share ideas. A sad direction in the modern world.

I must agree with your last sentiment. Immersion is best. And we don't go to Japan to learn about other foreigners, right?

There are a lot more possibilities with permanant residency. Not needing a visa allows for all kinds of work, and not everyone wants to wear a suit and tie and live in the corporate world. He will have to understand that with only a high-school diploma, your choices are limited, but there is no reason why you can't be gainfully employed and support your family.

I have found that people tend to go bonkers in the first year or not at all. Many people here have spent more than six years in Japan, and they seem sane to me.

Agreed. education is key, or starting your own business is a good route. Knew a chap started importing surfboards.

And don't get me wrong - I never said insane, as you imply. Some folks just get a bit, cloudy or preoccupied.

Take this in the spirit it is intended. Psychologial pliability and stiffness has little to do with age. Some of the most hard-headed members at this forum are still teenagers. I taught high-schoolers for nearly a decade. That's not why Nyororin gets by.

She gets by because she gets it. It's a little like that day during your Japanese studies that you stop translating in your head and you hear the words in your brain. When you start dreaming in Japanese.

Some can do it, some can't. Japan isn't for everybody, and is designed for nobody not Japanese. Either you can nail yourself in, or you can't. Doesn't matter how old you are. A good buddy of mine moved to Japan when he was in his late 40s. He did construction to rebuild Kobe after the earthquake in '95. He's still there. I know some of the most outgoing people that could make friends with stop sign who quit their JET contracts after arriving in July before Christmas. Japan wasn't for them.

I am not going to discount your experiences, as we can all tell "I know a" stories, but Japan doesn't "wear down" on all foreigners who choose to live there.

Generally, young people are more prone to change and allowing new ideas to permeate their psychology. There are always exceptions to the rule, such as your examples. The ones who "get it" and can nail themselves in are the minority. By far, most folks can only live there for so long without at least going home for long breaks.
Also, most people are there because they enjoy it. but we all knew people who couldn't come back. Certain prime years slip by, a few years puts one behind the times in their own countries and they feel like it's almost impossible to leave. we've all met them.

I am not interested in debating this topic as I think we probably agree. Some people are meant to leave their home country, and some aren't.

But there are thousands if not tens of thousands of non-Japanese who do this every day and have been doing it for years...if not decades. Not all people who move to Japan get weird.

Living in Japan changes you...there is no doubt.

If you spend a little time on these forums you will see that there are a lot of people that have never been there that dream of going. People like Nyororin and I, (and several others), try to point their ideas toward reality. But also try to not crush dreams.

Understood. I agree with you and I very much enjoy encouraging the youngsters. But I also prefer to be realistic and tend to (for better or worse) present the good bad and ugly. Warn of pitfalls. Like you, i've seen people go to japan as a way of running away from themselves and completely break down in a week. Look forward to more of your insight.

I disagree that my age had anything to do with my ability to "adapt", as I never suffered from any real adjustment period. Nor do I feel I have changed all that much as a person from around 15 to now. Yes, I`ve accumulated experience, but my fundamental views and beliefs have changed very little. I`m just far more mature and able to express them more clearly. Coming to Japan didn`t change me much as a person.

The largest advantage my age gave me was the ability to pick the language up more quickly than I would have been able to later.

Yes, I know of plenty of people who were completely unable to deal with life in Japan... But as MMM mentioned, they were usually unable to deal with in the beginning - not after years of being here. They all had strange expectations to begin with, and it wasn`t so much that they couldn`t handle life in Japan... It was that they were shocked that things weren`t as they had expected, and that life wasn`t suddenly a world of happiness just because they were away from some past problem. They feel betrayed, and that feeling turns to bitterness that clouds their view of anything in Japan.

And you ended up sounding like that type by coming in and saying people who are in Japan long term sort of break. I apologize for mistaking you for the type that goes around trolling boards, looking for opportunities to bash Japan.

very profoundly said. nyororin, u r my hero of the day and it will make it so much easier to commute home while seeing the ex-pats take the taxi to their roppongi hills home from now on.

Easy on the emotional reactionism. I lived there over three years, visit regularly and my daughter has dual citizenship. I have no reason to bash Japan. I never mentioned anything negative about Japan. Most of these posts are mellow even if we don't agree because it's about an exchange of ideas.
I'm sorry you haven't observed the same things I have, but your personal example doesn't quantify an observation of a set or population. You may be the exception to the rule, you may be correct, but please relax.
And can someone really say they haven't changed since they were 17 after ten years? Anthropologists and doctors would be astounded. Buddhist priests would be amazed, a living entity that never changes.

You`re taking my message in a far far more emotional way than I wrote it in. I didn`t particularly think that I was being very emotional at all when I wrote it.

I didn`t say that I never changed. I said that the fundamental beliefs and feelings that I had at around 15 or so have not significantly changed. The same drive is still there. Experience has shaped the way I go about following and expressing them, but that doesn`t mean that the central bits have changed. You can keep the same goals and beliefs over time.
I never meant to say that my personal example was something that could be applied to anyone other than myself. You said that I had things easier having been younger when I came to Japan, and I answered about myself. Note that "me" is italicized. Coming to Japan didn`t change me all that much as a person - that is something I believe is true. Whether that is true for anyone else, well, that`s not what I was talking about.

As for assuming you were someone coming in to bash - there are a LOT of people who do such things. The first post of yours I read was saying that living in Japan wasn`t a good idea, and that people who lived here for a long time went a bit strange. Whether it was your intent or not, you sounded quite a lot like how a fair number of them start. I meant the apology for mistaking you for one of them - it wasn`t sarcasm.

In the past, I offered a spare room in my home to people coming to Japan through similar paths as the one I took when I first came. I`ve been screwed over a number of times but have seen a few successes. That is what I was talking about in the paragraph about people who have misplaced expectations. It wasn`t a reaction to you or anything you said. If anything, I was just giving my experiences.

ETA: A quick look back, and I noticed that my bit about living in Japan not changing me all that much was in response to MMM`s comment "Living in Japan changes you...there is no doubt. " and not to you at all. I was just stating that I didn`t find a move to Japan to be a particularly life changing experience.

Message received and understood.

I think what Paul11 meant by it being easier for a younger person is that, if for example you have a family move to a different country with a different culture to their own; you will generally see that the parents have a much harder time adapting than the children would. At least that was the case with me whenever I moved countries... I'm from Algeria; when me and my family moved to England, it was so hard for my parents to get used to the culture and different life style. Another factor is that it's much easier to make friends when you are younger because you are given more oportunities. On the other hand, for me and my brothers it was extremely easy. It was an adventure and I knew that I could do whatever I wanted to do, wheras my parents had a certain path (eg career) to take and changing it at their age would have been almost suicide.

So basically, it is generally easier for younger people to adapt because they havn't had a certain way of life engraved in them. Younger people are still growing and searching for themselves until their early 30's at least...

i want to thank all of you to take the time for answering my question!
thanks alot!