I realize similar questions have been asked to death and beyond the grave already but bare with me.

I'm a Canadian resident who is interested in visiting, and working in Japan for an extended period of time as an English teacher. As a Canadian citizen I meet all the prerequisites for a 6 month WHV which may be extended up to another six months by the Japanese Immigration. 6-12 months just doesn't seem like a whole lot of time to me so I was wondering under what conditions I would be able to extend my stay for at least an additional year or two - assuming this is even possible!

From what I've read after finding employment with a school they might be able to sponsor you for extended stay but correct me on this if I'm wrong. Sadly I don't have a degree, I opted for community college a couple of years ago after getting out of high school instead so I only have a diploma in computer science (with honors if that counts for anything). I'd like to think that I have a pretty good head on my shoulders though, and I can be pretty tenacious about finding employment.

I'm planning to head over to Japan on a WHV in 2-3 years so I have enough time to become moderately fluent & save up a healthy sum of money. Should I instead spend this time upgrading to a degree if that's the only way of staying in Japan for a few years?

Any help would be much appreciated!

It would definitely be much easier if you had a 4-year degree. I'm sure plenty of people have made it happen without one, but there are a lot more people available for these jobs than compared to ten years ago so you have a lot of competition that will have that piece of paper.

I know one guy who came here to work for a dispatch company (most English teachers don't work directly for the schools), went through all of the training, had a school all lined up, then when it came time to sign the contract they found out he just had a community college degree. He had been told before he came to Japan that it would be sufficient, but they were mistaken and he had to go back home, all on his dime.

I always see 4-year degree mentioned, but degree courses in the UK are typically 3-years. Is that an issue given that you still receive a BA/BSc?

Javizy Wrote:I always see 4-year degree mentioned, but degree courses in the UK are typically 3-years. Is that an issue given that you still receive a BA/BSc?

Not an issue, as far as they are concerned the 3 year degrees in the UK are 4 years. This is because for us a work placement year is part of the course and since this is often optional we can have it completed in 3 years. If you do it in 3 years the 3rd year is actually considered the 4th year