Everyday in Japan

Japan Guide: Working in Japan

When I was a student in university, I was offered the opportunity to teach English in Japan or China for 6 months. It was definitely a great opportunity but I didn’t take it due to the fact that I wanted to graduated as soon as I can. The job posting was right smack in the middle of my semesters. I already had my TESL teaching certificate then. I have to say that till this very day, I still regret it.

Anyway, this post is about working in Japan. And it is to my knowledge that many people from English speaking countries are working in Japan as language instructors for English. And the demands are as high as it gets because not everyone in the world speaks Japanese, hence corporations are more than glad to hire an instructor to teach their personnels how to speak proper English. Of course, language instructors aren’t the only job offered. You can work in translation, IT, modeling, gastronomy and entertainment.

So what do you need to know about working in Japan?

1. Look out for the work visa and see which category you’re in - Types of Visas

2. Learn Japanese - whether you’re going to be an English teacher or an engineer, you need to learn the language. What good would it do if no one understand what you’re trying to say, much less teach?

3. Be in Japan - You need to be inside the country so that you can attend any interviews should you be shortlisted. No one in going to wait for you to fly over and i heard it can get quite competitive to find a job there.

That’s basically what you need to do to get yourself started on finding a job in Japan. Since the language teaching sector is pretty big for foreigners, I thought I’d show you what it’s like to be an english teacher to little kindergarteners in Japan.

Omg the kids are so cute. Now i really regret not taking the opportunity to work there for 6 months - would have learned some japanese too! :(