If you are totally confused as to where to even being looking for your options for getting to Japan, your local Consulate General of Japan is generally always a great place to start looking.

Not only will they have practically every method by which a citizen of your country can get to Japan to work, travel or study, but they will also have up to date information on Japanese cultural events happening in your country! Japanese study classes! Institutions that conduct Japanese lessons! And a ton more. The Japanese consulate will generally provide you with all the details, requirements and deadlines for study abroad programs, working holidays, tourism visas (whether they are required or not), etc.

All the information is generally accessible online, but a lot of the times consulates will also have libraries, or know the location of libraries full of Japanese study material. So it is always a good idea to go and check out your local Japanese consulate in person. They are always willing to help out those interested in studying Japanese or going to Japan. If you don’t know where your Japanese consulate is, a simple google search with the keywords “Japanese consulate” should come up with a recommended search in your geographic location. For example, since I’m in Toronto, all I’d have to do is type “Japan/Japanese Consulate” and the first suggestion to pop up will be “Japanese Consulate Toronto”.

Generally, Japan Consulate General offices will be in major cities. So if you are from a smaller town or city, you might have to invest in some gas money or hop on the local train/bus for the biggest city near you. But, if that isn’t an option for you for whatever reason, fortunately we live in the digital age in which 95% of information is accessible online! So quit yer’ complainin’ and be fortunate you have internet access!

Happy Japanese consulate hunting!

Let’s say you are in university and got still got some more months or years to go before you graduate. If you are already studying something Japan-related (like East Asian Studies, Japanese language & culture…) then going to Japan for at least one semester is more or less a must! Otherwise you study for about three to four years and all you know about Japan is from some study books or seminars. But to make sure you get some hands-on experience, you want to go to Japan and see it, feel it, smell it and just experience it yourself. If you got the right motivation, your desire to go to Japan should be really strong so there should be no problem. (For more info about motivation, go back to step one – motivation and goal setting!)

But even if you are not studying something Japan-related and it’s still more like a hobby, it might be considering doing one semester at a Japanese university anyway. Here are some reasons!

You can gain lots of international experience as you study at a university in a metropolitan area with an international crowd or you could even take up the challenge and go to a university in a… let’s say less international area.

You meet people from all over the world, which is always great to widen your horizon and learn about other cultures.

You have the opportunity to field-test and work on your Japanese as well as to explore Japan and experience the culture yourself instead of just reading or watching videos about it.

Last but not least, it helps you to build a network in Japan, make local and foreign friends. Having a strong local network can be pretty useful if you want to look for a job in Japan!

The first place to go should be the international department of your university. There might be some partnership with a Japanese university already and you just don’t know about it. Especially if you study something Japan-related, the probability that your university has some connections to Japan is pretty high. Even if they have no partnerships, they can usually tell you where you can get information. Another pretty contact point is JASSO, the Japanese Student Service Organization. Check their website for details about universities, language schools and scholarships if you need some financial support for your studies in Japan

During the information gathering, also make sure you can transfer the credits from the Japanese university/language school to your home university. Preparation and application procedure takes quite some time, so make sure you apply at least 6 months in advance.

If you’d rather gain some work experience instead of studying, check out our post about internships in Japan!

Any recommendations, additional information or comments? Feel free to leave us a comment or send us a mail at Fab@GETtoJAPAN.com!

PS: Of course you also have option to study all four years in Japan instead of studying in your home country or somewhere else and just going to Japan for a semester or two. But that’s a totally different story we’ll try to cover in a later post

Let’s say you are in the middle of your studies – maybe done with your second year – or even graduated already.

But before you start working as a regular employee, you might want to do an internship first. There are several good reasons for that.

1. You actually don’t really know in what kind of industry or even department you want to work in. Doing an internship – not necessarily in Japan though – gives you a perfect chance to get some first insights into certain industries.

2. You want to get some work experience before you start working. Especially if it’s an internship in another country like Japan, it looks pretty good in your resume. By the way, I would recommend to never do anything just because it looks good in your CV. It’s a nice side effect but shouldn’t be your main motivation.

3. You want to test if you can live and work in Japan first before you really bag all your bags and move to Japan. A 6 or 12-month internship is a great opportunity.

4. Maybe you studied about Japanese companies and their business culture already and want to know how much of it still holds true.

Whatever your motivation might be, here are some tips on how to do it. First of all, the idea of working for a company while you are still a student or even after you graduated for just a few months is not really popular with traditional Japanese companies. For them it doesn’t make sense to train you for a few month and then let you go again. They would lose all their investment – the time and money they invested in you. So, when you talk to Japanese people, be aware that they might not really understand what you are talking about when you say you are doing an internship. By the way, they understand the word インターンシップ but the understanding and the concept behind it is just different.

International companies are usually familiar with the concept. Some companies offer internships constantly and provide quite good working conditions. Many car manufacturers in Tokyo like BMW, Mercedes, Mitsubishi-Fuso offer internships and even embassies do (but their working conditions are except the working hours not really good). Some companies provide you with a apartment or a room in their dorm, they cover your transportation costs and might even pay up to 130.000 Yen. But that’s more or less the best you can get. Other companies especially architecture offices don’t provide anything and don’t pay you even 1 yen.

So, where to start looking for an internship? One good website to start is KOPRA. KOPRA is a German NPO providing information about internships and even some regular jobs with a main focus on Asia. The service is 100% free. You can contact the companies through the website but then you have to sign up for a free account first, or you just contact the companies directly via e-mail. KOPRA also organizes a monthly get-together where foreigners can meet Japanese people and make friends which might be a big help if you just got to Japan and don’t really know anybody. Another option, of course, is to check out the website of the company you want to work at and see if they offer internship positions in Japan.

You might be wondering like “but my Japanese isn’t that good yet” or “actually I just started to learn Japanese…”. Don’t worry. Especially in international companies in Tokyo or Japan in general, it’s unlikely that you are the only foreigner there and in some international companies the official language is even English. Of course, being able to speak is definitely a plus but it’s not a must in most cases.

Doing an internship in Japan is really a valuable experience as it helps you to gain first work experience, experience of working in an international environment and you’ll meet people from all over the world. You can do it after you graduated, before you start your master’s degree or you could even take a break for one semester or one year while you are still studying. It’s definitely worth it and an experience you’ll never forget!

Time to take a look at the options you have for going to Japan.

Depending on lots of factors, like where you are at in life, how much money and time you have, and where you are from, you can chose from a wide variety of options for going to Japan. For example, travel, working holiday, exchange program of your university, JET, internship etc…

Travel is obviously the easiest one. You can decide when and where you want to go, for how long you want to stay and what you want to do once you got there. Of course you have to check how much money and financial resources you have. Japan is not really cheap, so something like a three-months backbacker tour like you could do in Thailand would cost you a fortune in Japan.

For the flight it doesn’t matter how long you stay in Japan, the flight will cost more or less the same and it is probably the biggest chunk – as long as you are from America or Europe – so it makes sense to make the stay in Japan as long as possible. You can check flights e.g. at Skyscanner (http://www.skyscanner.com/cheap-flights-map) and hotels and guesthouses at http://www.sakura-hostel.co.jp/. For travelling across Japan, we recommend to get a Japan Rail Pass which let’s you ride (almost) all trains and even some ferries as much as you want. You can even ride the Shinkansen – the famous Japanese bullet train! There is a one-week, a two-weeks and a three-weeks pass. Make sure you get it before you leave for Japan! For further information check http://www.japanrailpass.net/.

Working holiday is another option. It basically provides you with a visa, that allows you to work to supplement your funds to travel and stay in Japan even without knowing in advance where you are going to end up working. If the working holiday program is available for you and how long the visa will be depends on where you are from.

At the moment the working visa is only available for 11 countries:

Australia

New Zealand

Canada

The Republic of Korea

France

Germany

The United Kingdom

Ireland

Denmark

Hong Kong

Taiwan

For further information check http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/w_holiday/index.html.

Knowing you options II

Apart from travelling and working holday, you can also chose to go Japan on a exchange program of your university, JET or you can do an internship at a company in Japan.

As there are a lot of Japanese universities holding partnerships with universities abroad, there might be an exchange program that allows you to study at a Japanese university without paying the tuition at the Japanese university and your home university. As Japanese universities are everything but cheap. The easiest thing to do is to go to the international center of your school and consult them. They should also be able to tell you if the credits you earned in Japan are transferable to your home university or not.

The JET programme is another option for you to get to Japan especially if you have already graduated from university. The programme is in ist 24th year and was initiated to internationalize Japanese students and build mutual understanding between Japan and other nations. You will get send to a Japanese middle school or high school and work as an assistant English teacher. Further information can be found here.

No matter if you are still at university or already graduated, an internship at a company in Japan is a great opportunity to gain first experience in working in an international environment. As the internship concept is not really popular with Japanese companies, it might be hard to get an internship at a Japanese company but international companies offer internships and some of them with pretty good conditions. Some companies provide you with a place to live, cover your transportation and pay you around 100.000 Yen while some others don’t give you anything. You can check the companies website if you already know where you want to work or you can check KOPRA. KOPRA is a German NGO offering a free web-based internship and job database specialized on transnational internships offered in or related to East Asia and also offers lots of internships in Japan.

We’ll get into more detail about all options step by step, so make sure you stop by again.