Wow, I would have bet my life he was in America.

Good thing you didn't.

Yeah, everyone here wants me around so bad.



(sarcasm, if you somehow couldn't catch that)

Ok,

I've lived in Tokyo for 6 years and met 10,000's of Tokyo natives. Ask any of them, and they'll probably agree that most Tokyoites are rather cold. Countless times i've seen people who were in need of help and i've watched 100's of people just walk by. Anyway, that's not my argument.

Yeah, if you want to get a degree, learn Japanese, find a job, a place to live, study the culture, work out every last detail before you come here, then do it.

Fact is, neither me nor any of my friends did all that, some even came here without a degree and found teaching jobs (not illegal if you get someone to sponsor you, so enough already with the 'laws are to be disobeyed' etc...etc...bs)

If you're an uncreative, unimaginative individual who has lived in a small town all your life with your parents and live in a fantasy world with Chinpokomon, then I would strongly advise you to follow all of the steps above. If, like my friends and I, you're a quick-witted, on-the-ball, resourceful person who can easily adapt to different environments, then I beg to differ that it's essential/necessary/recommended to take all these steps and you should probably just take the plunge.

After all, if you're just trying to find companies/schools/modelling agencies etc...to sponsor you, then what's the worst that can happen? The answer is you wouldn't find a sponsor and you'd run out of money/your tourist visa would expire, and you'd have to come home. Hardly a 'life ruining' experience IMO, actually it could be quite the opposite. Does no one here believe in taking chances? Believe in learning by your mistakes? Obviously not. Sure, you can go through life the safest possible route, that would be a very 'Japanese' thing to do. But is it necessarily the best route? For me- no.

I guess you can do that if you must absolutely have to live in Japan kicking and screaming. I read taking the plunge with no preparation as "you better find a English teaching job or else".

The taking uni degree route is for people who want to go to Japan and actually get a job they want to do, that is not teach English.

I don't think there is much more I can add to this thread, but just that Tokyo is not necessarily representative of the rest of Japan. Tokyo is like Los Angeles: a city of people who are from other parts of the country. I agree, people in Tokyo are colder than in other parts of the country, and like I have said to people that ask, you could have two heads and walk down the street in Tokyo and no one will give you a second look.

That doesn't discredit my observation that in other parts of Japan, neighborhoods are more community oriented. I gave examples why I felt that above.

I like Tokyo a lot, there are a lot of great places to see, but if I had to live in Japan again, I can think of many places I'd rather live than Tokyo. The description of Tokyo killyoself gives is part of the reason why.

This is a bit of an exaggeration. None of my friends came here kicking and screaming. They came here well aware of the challenges that face one moving to a new country in that situation.

An English teacher or model, recruitment consultant, PR, waiter etc... If you're good at what you do, are a quick learner and have good interview techniques then i'm sure there are other companies that would consider sponsoring a person without a degree , they're just way more difficult to come by.

Even for someone with a degree it's almost impossible to find a 'job one wants to do.' After all, what percentage of English teachers do you think have a degree? 90%? Even if you do get a degree, for the majority of people you still have almost the same opportunities in Japan as someone who doesn't, it's just a more sure-fast way to get a visa from the get-go.

That is only true if and only if you can't speak Japanese, otherwise what you are saying completely does not make sense. (Why have universities at all in that case). PR? Recruitment Consultant in Japan that doesn't speak Japanese?

You are worthless if you can't communicate regardless of skill. English teaching is so popular because you only need English to do the job.

That's why people here advocate education + language skill unless all you want is a stint in Japan and don't care what you do, in which case, like you said, you don't need anything. Just pack and go and find either English teaching jobs or manual labour.

According to what I am reading from Japanese government websites, the requirements to be an English teacher are getting tighter, not looser. There is no shortage of people 1) wanting to work in Japan and 2) have degrees and/or extended experience. Killyoself guessed 90% of English teachers in Japan have degrees. I would guess the % of Visa-carrying full-teachers (not tutors) with college degrees is probably well over 95%. All JETS have degrees. ECC, Geos and other schools are getting more strict to require degrees or a decade of experience. (I am guessing they have been burned in the past.) It is difficult in the US to get experience teaching without a degree. That leaves private schools, which are in the extreme minority in terms of volume of teachers in Japan. Of the handful of private school teachers I have met in Japan (working for someone else or starting their own school) all had college degrees.

What is "only true if and only if you can't speak Japanese?" that you can find a job that you really want to do? Come on dude, it's so difficult for a foreign person to become an integral part of most Japanese corporations, even if they do speak fluent Japanese. You're still going to hit a glass ceiling. Same for women.

Incase you didn't know, a lot of PR staff are employed with no Japanese skill. Same for Recruiting consultants. The reason being that most of the big foreign recruiting consultant companies are recruiting English speaking Japanese staff to work for overseas companies. One of the easiest ways to get past the front desk is just to repeatedly ask for xxx-san in English, eventually the receptionist will put you through as the only piece of information they understand is the name your saying.

Except for English teacher, PR, Recruiting Consultant, model and bar staff.

Thanks, my point exactly.