Career Opportunities in Japan Without a Degree

I first came to Japan without any direct goal in mind just enjoying the moment through my own naivety and thinking that I wanted to somehow change my life. In the end it turned out all right, but I could definitely have planned my situation better.

I just thought I would share a few tips on how to reach the goal of landing a job in Japan without a university degree.

Surely it would be way easier to actually be in possession of a university degree when trying to get a job in Japan. In that case you could actually just come to Japan and immediately be eligible for any type of working visa if you have a company supporting your application.

In my case, I did not have a degree at the time of my arrival.
In order to become eligible for a working visa in such situation, you would need to acquire a diploma through some kind of school providing higher education. It basically comes down to 2 types of schools in Japan – University or Senmongakkou (a kind of vocational school usually providing 2 year programs).
I studied at a Japanese language school after coming to Japan, to get language skill enough to enter a Senmongakkou. After finishing a 2 year IT focused program at that school I got an internship at a IT company in central Tokyo where I stayed for 6 months, whereafter I started my job hunting to finally land a job related to my education.

As I mentioned, I didn’t really have a solid plan when I first came to Japan. I realize now I was rather lucky everything worked out as well as it did. A well thought-out plan would certainly make the process much smoother for most people.

My advice; plan, and study hard, both Japanese (really important!) as well as the work field you want to get into. It will make things way easier in the end. (obvious advice of course)

For those of you who are pursuing your goal of getting a job in Japan, what is your strategy?
Do you have a step-by-step plan of reaching your goal?

Also, for those of you who have already reached your goal. What did it take for you to get there?
What strategy worked for you?

I’m sure many of you who haven’t yet set out on this journey yet would be really interested to hear about this, so go ahead and share your stories by leaving a comment!

If you have any specific questions of how to deal with this, just leave a comment and I’ll try to answer to the best of my ability.

  • King_Oberon

    Thank god I found this blog post! I’ve been looking all over the net for someone to correspond with who managed to find employment in Japan in IT without getting a 4 year degree. Everyone seems to say 4 year degree for Asia in general or forget about it, but I was sure there were people who managed it. And here’s the proof šŸ™‚

    I’ve been in and around the web development/design scene for 7-8 years now and have a 1 year diploma in Comp. Science from what I’d imagine is similar to the Japanese vocational school. I’ve done design and light development and administration for the most part. I am currently learning Java.

    I’m in need of some guidance–OK, a lot of guidance–and have quite a few questions, if you don’t mind me asking. Apologies for the following wall of text. You don’t have to answer them all but I’d like to get a better sense of the steps I need to take to make this happen:

    1. You say that the first thing you did when you got over there you “studied at a Japanese language after coming to Japan”. I’m assuming you meant “Japanese language school”?

    1.1 How long did it take you to become proficient enough in Japanese to attend a Senmongakkou and confidently understand the tuition? I’ve spent some time over the past few years on various parts of the language (kana and some kanji) and the beginnings of grammar but I’m not very confident I have anything useful under my belt. I’m also rusty due to lack of use.

    1.2 What was the price of the language school and Senmongakkou? What were your total (including tuition) monthly living costs during these periods? Where you able to find menial employment to finance your operation? If so, what’s good for gaijin? Where to look? I’m trying to figure out what I’m in for financially as I have some savings but unless my bitcoins go to the moon this year, it won’t last 2 maybe 3 months. I’d need some form of income while there, I reckon.

    2. I’m 100 % willing to go to a Senmongakkou if needed, especially since I’m trying to beef up my programming skills, move away from design and get more into the development side of things; but with my diploma and industry experience, would this be the best solution? Is the Senmongakkou certificate an unavoidable industry/visa requirement?

    3. What sort of visas would I need during these various periods? You spent some time learning Japanese over there so I’m assuming that you were on either a cultural or student visa. If so, which one and how long did it allow you to study for? Did you have to change to a different visa when you started attending the vocational school and then again when you started working? Where you eligible for employment during the two preceding visas?

    We are pretty similar, from the love of Japanese culture, web development and micro controllers, so if there is a remote chance that you’d be willing to correspond, my email is errolburger1 AT gmail DOT com. I’d dig to keep in contact with someone who’s actually achieved what I want to accomplish.

    Thanks,
    Errol

  • Eric

    weak sauce