Next year I'm applying for University, but I won't be enrolled on any courses. I've been thinking about whether I could spend some of that year in Japan teaching english or farming or something. I get the impression that at least some of the people on this forum have done something similar, and was hoping you could share your experiences, or just pass on information about opportunities you've heard of. I don't have enough money to be eligible for a working holida visa.

Thanks for any help.

I have asked the same questions many times on various forums. Almost always the answer is "go away japan doesnt want you, no way will a foreigner find a job in a japan without a degree). I have no idea if this is true or not, I have not tried it myself, however I have done a lot of research into this matter and 90 percent of the time it is answers like the one above, the other 10 percent is people who have actually found work in japan without a degree, so yes it is possible.

And despite what some may say, you can get a job in japan without a degree, I asked a japanese official at the embassy in the USA this question and they confirmed this.

Yes you can get a job without a degree, getting a visa is difficult though (maybe impossible) if you don't have a certain number of years experience in your own country.

If you are from a country that allows you to get a working holiday visa then that is the best way to go. It says you need proof of 2000 dollars (strange they give it in dollars considering Americans can't apply for the visa). Try working for a bit to get this money together or get a relative to temporarily lend it to you (then pay it back as soon as you have a bank statement with it in your account).

To be honest if you don't have 2000 dollars it's going to be quite tough to go out there and survive anyway. You'll have to pay airfare, then have enough to survive on until you get a job and then maybe another months living expenses until you get paid.

So if you're short on money the only option is probably to have something arranged in advance e.g. farm work (WOOF), seasonal work (ski resorts) . It will be almost impossible to arrange english teaching work in advance though, because schools want people that they can interview face to face, and those companies that recruit outside the country want people with degrees.

Another option is to look at companies offering gap year style placements. These are not full jobs, but you may recieve an allowance depending on the company. They will also help you get a visa (probably a working holiday one). These companies offer you a lot more security than just turning up in the country but you probably will have to pay them a fee, plus survive on a low allowance. So again if you can't get together a reasonable amount of money it could be difficult.

yeah... if you don't have the money for a working holiday visa, it's better to just take a holiday really. A holiday visa is 3 months, so that's plenty of time... but really, money doesn't go very far in Japan, so it would be pretty difficult to stay even that long. You could maybe make it 3 months WOOFing, but travel is really expensive there... they do ask for you to have that money for a reason - it'd be hard to get a job in that time otherwise.

there are some places you can ask for a job, i don't know though, you'd probably still have to get the money for a working holiday visa somehow though...

http://www.boobooski.com/index.html do both summer and winter seasons, and there's also a place called British Hills, though it's in Fukushima, so i dunno if you'd want to go... or if they'd have any visitors anymore...

Zon70 Wrote:I have asked the same questions many times on various forums. Almost always the answer is "go away japan doesnt want you, no way will a foreigner find a job in a japan without a degree). I have no idea if this is true or not, I have not tried it myself, however I have done a lot of research into this matter and 90 percent of the time it is answers like the one above, the other 10 percent is people who have actually found work in japan without a degree, so yes it is possible.

And despite what some may say, you can get a job in japan without a degree, I asked a japanese official at the embassy in the USA this question and they confirmed this.

The problem is getting a visa. It's not that having a degree is an absolute requirement; it's that most of the easily available opportunities for foreigners (like most of the English-teaching gigs) require a degree.

The OP mentioned "farmer"; to be a farmer in Japan as a foreigner you would have to have a visa allowing you to work as a farmer. Japan isn't really like the United States where there are all kinds of low-paying jobs for immigrants. You can't really just show up and see what you find.

Everyone I have ever heard of who got a job in Japan had one of the following:
- A college degree
- A Japanese wife/husband
- Experience in a specific field that they could get hired for (i.e. tech)

I'm not saying that it's absolutely impossible to do anything without that, but your chances are very low, especially if you have no connections in Japan.

UNHELPFUL RANT/
Japan is not Bizarro World, so in my opinion getting a job in Japan is just as difficult as getting a job in your country, if you were a immigrant with irregularities in his/her documents, problems with the language and no social safety net (though being British, you are better off than a Filipino, for example).
I mean, how easy it is to get a job without experience anywhere in the planet?
Japan is the same as everywhere else, I don't know why the hell people think it should be easy to get a job there.
How many foreigners that can't read your language are working/studying in your current workplace/school? You can expect just as many in Japan.
Not to mention the 2,3 month time-frame, who hires people without commitment to the job like that?
If in your country you can just drop by without knowledge of the language and get a job that is not backbreaking/disgusting/humiliating and you actually get paid, please tell me where it is, because I'm going there next week.
/UNHELPFUL RANT

Now, ON THE OTHER HAND, I'm a huge proponent of the "Just Go And See What Happens" school.
Just go, try to find a place full of hipster kids, for example, and tell them that you just went to Japan on a whim, young people love that "spontaneous" shit. Maybe they will help you find something, who knows.
At the minimum you get a nice story to tell.
And as a Brit, your chances of being in any real physical danger lower considerably.*
If you have mighty social skills you can get by anywhere in the planet.

*If you are ethnic non-white, maybe not.

Thanks for all the replies, you've given me alot to think about. I was thinking maybe there were some voluntary organisations that would provide accommodation and sustenance in exchange for labour. Their was also at least one person who posted about a company that didn't require degrees for teaching English, though from the replies to that thread it sounded like a living hell. When I mentioned farming I was considering WOOFing, but thinking about it I'd rather stay in England than do that.

The http://www.boobooski.com/index.html thing looks like exactly the kind of thing I want to do, so thanks a lot for the link, Icecream. It also seems that if I did manage to secure a place on one of those (though they seem pretty hard to get ) I wouldn't need to worry about spending the money required for the visa, which might actually make this possible.

Thanks again for all the advice, even if it wasn't really what I wanted to hear. I know that it's going to be difficult but I'd rather fail in the attempt than not bother trying.

visualsense Wrote:If you have mighty social skills you can get by anywhere in the planet.

If only I did.