Becoming a professional expatriate

SovietStriker: Much better idea to go when you have a degree, if you're actually wanting to "live" in Japan. No degree = no working visa = short trip.

1080: Japan is different things to different people. I might've been the first person to scalp YJ on a daily basis for a long period of time, and never got any shit for it. Same with making several trips to Akihabara a week. Never got any negative flack for it. Even had Japanese collector friends help me find stuff in cities that were too far away for me to visit.

 

I'd imagine that like anywhere else, your reputation with other collectors and sellers would be directly related to the manner in which you conducted your business, but I could be wrong.

The college degree thing is pretty tough, tho. Getting out of a flawed university system that doesn't give a shit if you're able to afford it was one of the driving reasons behind looking at skipping town. I figure if I'm going to be a temporary dropout and work to save up enough to finish school, I might as well take the chance to get a change of environment and get out from under the bullshit of lower middle class America. I wouldn't mind trying for that student option and going as an exchange student, but if I'm having a hard time affording a lousy public university in the US, I doubt I'd be able to afford Japan. Unless the government there aren't total dicks about financial aid.

 

I hear you man, I hear you loud and clear on that. I'm not eligible for financial aid either, so I'm relying on a scholarship and money I've made working the past few years of my life. Still, it won't be enough and I'll have to take out loans before it's all said and done. The middle class gets the short end of the stick every time.

 

GSL:

They're worse about financial aid, and the education system is far more a joke. As a college graduate and proud member of society, as shitty as it is, the university system dosen't get much better than the US. State universities are really cheap, and you can get a great education. You should really concentrate on getting your degree (even a liberal arts one) now, while you're young. It's much easier. Trust me, young grasshopper.

Out of curiosity, how much school do you have left?

 

What are the chances one from the US could land a good or well paying job on computer/mechanical engineering in Japan? Would univeristy foreign exchange programs increase one's chances in getting jobs over there?

 

You can get a good job like that, but the following will be HUGE factors.
1: Can you speak/read Japanese?
2: Do you already live in Japan?

If you answer number #2 with a no, you'll need to be transferred by a company to a Japanese branch in almost all cases. Getting the job outside of Japan with no visa is very difficult unless you're at the top of your field.

 

GSL: You might as well go and get your degree if you've already started. You may not like it and you may not like the system, but at least you'll have some sort of qualifications at the end of it.

From my experience, people who drop out of college (unless they do some trade apprenticeship or go into some family business, or join the army or something) tend to get nowhere in life. I think it's a really bad idea.

I'm thinking of doing the JET program after I graduate (hopefully!) in 2007. I'll be 22. Anyone done this? Would there be any chance of me being able to get some job related to my degree (IT & Telecomms) after I get some sort of competence with Japanese? I'm planning on doing the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) too after graduating, which hopefully will help qualifications-wise.

 

Youre gunna be bored out of your mind for CCNA. After taking the class, I didnt even take the certification test, there was no way Id ever do that for a living lol (I know, qualifications, but still lol).

 

I wish you great luck! :smashed:

 

I was not a JET, but I had many friends that were. I would say the main thing, is you need to be close to Tokyo if you're interested in persuiing a career other than teaching, as that's where all the jobs for whities are. I basically did that. Went, taught for a year and a half, brushed up my nihongo, and got an entry-level job as a help-desk monkey. The rest is history.

A friend of mine told me if you want to be near Tokyo, request to live in Kawasaki. You'll have to make some weird excuse why you want to live in an ass suburb (say it was recommended). With a little luck, You'll be between 20 and 30 minutes by train to Shibuya, which ain't bad. Don't request, and you could be in a cabin in the woods.

I don't know how it woks when going from JET to normal worker. It's definitely a visa change, but may not require you to leave the country. Student->Work, Work->Spousal are relatively easy transfers. JET is a government-sponsored visa though. I doubt it'll be much of a hurdle.

I would suggest to study your balls off when you get there, and submit an application to a head hunter a good several months before your JET program is up. Timing is everything, and you may even need to get some shitty teaching job to get on a normal work visa if you can't get a tech job when your JET contract is up. Considering you'll have no experience in your field, you'll want your Japanese to be your selling point. Mine was anyway. I didn't study computers at all in college -- only a hobby. I read a few NT Server books and got my first real job b/c they needed a bilingual w/ a pulse that knew about computers. Learned what I could there, and moved on.

 

If you want to get rich in Japan selling stuff on ebay, don't sell games, sell cars and parts.

I had a friend who used to live in Osaka and he was clearing close to $200kUSD/year with said items, absolute bonanza.

 

He was probably selling cars to the UK and Australia -- profits are much higher. Too many hoops to jump through in America. The bad side though, is that there are many people that already doing this...especially the Aussies.

 

Russia, New Zealand and Ireland are much more popular with Japanese import cars. In Australia AFAIK imports are limited to sports and SUV/off-road stuff, and imports haven't really taken off in the UK - it's still very much a niche market for cheap higher-spec SUVs and the sports models they never sold in Europe.

Here pretty much anything gets imported - from a Daihatsu Midget (microscopic pick-up truck), to a Starlet Glanza with the Loudest Dump-Valve In The World Ever®, to a boring old Toyota Corolla or Nissan Pulsar, to a bad motherfucker of a tuned Skyline GT-R. Plain family car imports aren't as popular here as they used to be as more people can afford to buy new cars these days, but there's still a lot - great for cheap-ass students ^_^

The Russians are crazy - they drive on the right but import cars from Japan (right-hand drive land) anyway

 

Australia does have some sort of weird law... like one person can only import one car every two years or something. I had Aussie friends that used to get paid about a $1000 for signing a paper, saying the car was theirs. Loopholes all over the place.

 

GaijinPunch, how is IT market on Japan for foreigns who speak just basic japanese?

 

Clart: It is my honest opinion that a man with your kinda mind would certainly enjoy a stay in a gaijin house. I am speaking from very limited experience, of course, but my own experience was very positive - hanging out with eccentric (in a positive sense) people from all over the world, good atmosphere, in some way like a college dorm, I guess. I think it's quite important to have a place in Japan to converse with *non*-Japanese people as well, you'll need it ;-)

Oh and please don't drop out of college, of all the people I know that did that, nobody's story has had a positive (at least in the financial sense) outcome. Heck, I'm fed up as heck with Computer Science as well, but I'm at least going to bite the bullet and finish my BSc before I move on to something else.

 

It is not bad, but it does limit your options somewhat. I guess it really depends on your tech skills to match. I started off as aquarium scum (outsourced support desk) so Japanese is really what got me in the door. My tech skills were basically limited to what I had read in an NT Server book, and skills I picked up on my PC.

My only comment on this would be that a gaijin house isn't always the best place to pick them. Hell, you're not really picking them at all... they're being delt to you. This is a rather harsh, but not necessarily wrong view on what you can expect by moving to Japan. Of course, I really had very little of what's found in this forum. I made very good friends within about 3 months (still in touch with many of them now, 8 years later on opposite ends of the globe...literally).

 

Say I've got a Oxford certificate proving my English skills(it's an exam, and if you pass it you get a certificate showing that you know English so well, that you can easily follow an English study), would that be enough to become a teacher for one year, as a break between high school and going to college(I'm planning on taking it either way, but this sounds quite interesting hence the question). The type of teaching doesn't really matter, it could be elementary/high school. Oh, and I sort of speak Japanese(writing=not so great, but I speak enough to hold a conversation with someone, with some hand gestures to support the conversation), which is a plus if you ask me.

 

you may be joined by me then too. I graduate from university in 2007 (will be 22 too). Got a few questions that I sure people wont have any answers too since they are specific to my degree (Geology/Earth Sciences).

Ok a few years ago I got landed citizenship in Canada (since my family moved out there for a few years and then back to the UK). My parents applied for a visa based on their UK jobs/degrees while still living in the UK, presumeably I could do the same with Japan?

As for work, are you guys saying it would be hard for me to pursue a job based on my degree by not doing it through a company? Since Japan is one of the most tectonically active countries in the world (my degree is relevant and sort for in the EU/N. America); would you say the best way to get a job I want is too apply for a company (be it western or japanese) and express my intentions, instead of going through the emmigrantions office?

Currently my plans are not set in stone (and actually moving to Japan is only an option); at the end of the day ill probably take a gap year and get an internship in Hong Kong and stay in Japan for only a few months as a backpacker instead. But your advice would help.

 

Giel: Are you a UK Citizen? If you are, then the only way you could do this for a year is on a working holiday visa. I'm not sure how they'd feel about hiring someone so young though, so consider that.

asnozz:

No. No way in a million years. The Holy Grail is easier to attain than Japanese citizenship. To get it, you basically have to play sports and be really fucking good. Soccer, Baseball, Sumo, etc. Japan also doesn't allow dual citizenship, so you have to give up your other passports to become a naturalized Japanese. Technically, they can't really do this, but if they find out you use multiple passports, they'd likely revoke your citizenship. Keep in mind, half Japanese half whatever citizens have to chose one of their passports when they turn 20. Of course, they all keep them both, but the law states "only one".

The only attainable option for is permanent residency, and even this is hard. To get it, you generally need to meet quite a few of the following.

-Already lived in Japan for 10 years
-Married to a Japanese
-Employ Japanese
-Make pretty good cash
-Speaking shit-hot Japanese helps

I have no clue on Earth where you would find a job for your major... in either country to be honest, so I'm probably not the best to ask. BUT, the easiest route for anyone (that's not the best in their field) is to go to Japan, teach for a year or two, then get a job as a local hire in Japan. Expats (hiring from outside the country) are different visas, and have different requirements, and I believe are required to be paid more. Makes getting them harder. Besides, if you're in Japan, the company loses almost no time on interviewing you.