Hi,

I applied to study at a Japanese language school for the summer. I did not bother with a visa since it's a 4 week class and some information on their website gave me the impression that I did not need one, since I'm staying for less than 3 months.
They mailed me some letter of acceptance + schedule and one more paper saying to show this at customs.
Now, with very little time before departure, I'm worried that this will complicate things, as I might actually have to get a student visa (which should have been done months ago).

It seems, though, there are a lot of people using the summer to take a short class in Japan and do so as a tourist, ie. no visa.
If you had this experience, were there any problems at customs? Did they tell you to request a study visa for the short class?

I did study at a short term course last year and I had no problems doing it with a tourist visa. As far as I remember they didn't even ask about my purpose of entry when I arrived. And if they did, they were contempt with me saying that I came for short term study.

raluca Wrote:I did not bother with a visa since it's a 4 week class and some information on their website gave me the impression that I did not need one, since I'm staying for less than 3 days.

Typo... or just really naughty student?

thanks for noticing, edited.

Definitely not a problem. Immigration is a breeze here. They don't even talk to you, just look at your passport, stamp it, and wave you through. You will have to give your finger prints and let them take a picture of you, though.

In fact, it's not technically a "tourist" visa. It's a short-stay visa and you can do almost anything so long as you aren't actively getting paid for it (and even then, no one will check you... it's just technically not legal). Coming on business trips, for religious reasons, as a tourist, or even to study Japanese, if it's less than 90 days then it all falls under the short-stay visa.

That being said, most countries are not required to get the visa. It can be waived when you arrive. It depends on what country you are from. The list on the website says people with passports from China, Russia or NIS countries, or Philippines need to have a valid visa, and pretty much all other countries are OK to get waived on arrival.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/...ovisa.html