Well, the story is like this, I am now living in Japan with a Humanities visa and teaching English, but I have an engineering degree and would like to pursue postgrade studies in a Japanese college / university someday. Is there a validation process? and how does it work? I realize I need to be very functional in Japanese before doing this, but I can already communicate and read to some extent, I think that with another year studying at my current pace I could give it a shot. I wouldn't really like to have to start a new career from scratch but information on that would be useful as well.

If you want to do the university thing full time you'll need to get accepted into a program and then get immigration to change your visa status to student.

Getting accepted usually requires some sort of testing. Most likely in Japanese. This will be very difficult for a foreigner without excellent Japanese skills. Some universities have programs in English and let foreigners test into them in English or use a more American style of acceptance involving the GRE test....There are also government sponsored programs that allow foreigners to get into Japanese universities through the back door through recommendations from the Japanese embassy in their home countries, try googling "MEXT graduate scholarships" for more info on those.

What do you want to do with your graduate degree? Keep in mind that Japanese companies rarely recruit from Japanese graduate programs so it might be extremely difficult to find a job after your studies.

So basically anyone (assuming excellent Japanese skills like you said) with a degree in hand can try this "sort of testing", is that what you are saying?. What I am asking is, how does validating my degree works? Can I just walk in and show them my diploma and be allowed to participate in the testing process?. That would be great.

Well, actually my plan is to get in uni after I get the permanent residence or citizenship, that way I can study and work at the same time without the hassle of laws that won't let you do just that.

Oh that, most schools will want some sort of official notarized translation of your undergraduate transcripts. Just check with the schools you are interested in attending.

Shizumi Wrote:Well, actually my plan is to get in uni after I get the permanent residence or citizenship, that way I can study and work at the same time without the hassle of laws that won't let you do just that.

Uh, are you planning to get married? Because permanent residence is about to become nigh impossible to get.

@vix86 Really? Where do you get this from?

Shizumi Wrote:@vix86 Really? Where do you get this from?

The current rule-of-thumb for getting a permanent residence is you have to have followed this line.
Work visa: 1 year -> 3 year on renewal -> Permanent

This was easily doable for many. However with the new change in the system here in July. they are now adding a new level on the work visa.

Work visa: 1 year -> 3 year -> 5 year -> Permanent

They don't hand out permanent residence visa's unless you have a very good reason and many people of the people that have talked about getting it have said that getting it before completing that kind of progression is next to impossible. Generally you'll be married before you get it. I'm not sure if if its official policy for the permanent or what, but it was talked about on another forum. There was a bit of arguement over whether the offices would take stuff on a case by case basis or if they would follow the book. Many people have 3 year visa's now and were hoping to jump to the permanent one next but it was up in the air whether they would make you get the 5 year or if you could get the permanent (most were banking they'd force you into the 5 year).

It's kind of common knowledge.

Even before the new changes it usually took multiple 2-3 year renewals before getting accepted for permanent residency. Usually at least 8-10 years.

I've never heard of anyone going from a 3 year visa to permanent residency in one shot.

kitakitsune Wrote:Even before the new changes it usually took multiple 2-3 year renewals before getting accepted for permanent residency. Usually at least 8-10 years.

I've never heard of anyone going from a 3 year visa to permanent residency in one shot.

Ah. Didn't know that. From the people it sounded like you at least stood a bit of a chance if you had gone through a 3 year renewal at least once. I guess having other factors helps too.

You would have a shot at around the 6 or 7 year mark but I wouldn't get your hopes up of getting permanent residency in Japan without 8-10 years of continuous residency.

Even people who get married are sometimes required to go through multiple spousal visa renewals. I know a guy who lived in Japan five years on a work visa (JET + 2 years of eikaiwa work), got married and switched to a two year spousal visa. He then applied for permanent residency when the marriage visa was expiring, got denied but retained the marriage visa for another two years. He was finally accepted for permanent residency after 9 years in Japan, four of which being married to a Japanese national.

While it's unfortunate that permanent residency is kind of difficult to get I think the odds on it aren't bad. I mean if your Japanese is good, you put together a number of years of gainful employment in Japan, and you date Japanese people then I think eventually odds are you're going to marry someone anyway. I know not everyone wants to get married on that sort of time scale or at that point in their life, but the odds are in your favor.

I mean most people in Japan are getting married between 25-35 now. If you spend those years of your life in Japan then you're much more likely to end up married to a Japanese person than, say, someone from your home country.

I know some people are going to take this as kind of callous. I'm not advocating anyone get married just to stay in Japan. I just think it's unrealistic to think that if you're putting together 3-5 year periods of living in Japan that you wouldn't also be having a normal social life as well along with that. Part of that social life is dating, having fun, and maybe finding someone you'd like to spend the rest of your life with.

I just think to be realistic you have to factor that kind of stuff into your life plan. You're already talking about wanting to live for a long period of time in a foreign country. This stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum. There are implications for your social life that should be taken into account. It sucks, but unfortunately permanent residency is tied to that social stuff rather than your job stuff.

However, as long as you continue to have a job decent enough to continue getting visa renewals then you can stay in Japan as long as you like.

If you're gay or have a moral problem with the idea of marriage then I do feel for you. I hope the situation gets better for people who are unable to get married right now. It seems like Japan is moving forward on some of this stuff, but only at a kind of glacial pace.

kitakitsune Wrote:Getting accepted usually requires some sort of testing. Most likely in Japanese. This will be very difficult for a foreigner without excellent Japanese skills. Some universities have programs in English and let foreigners test into them in English or use a more American style of acceptance involving the GRE test....There are also government sponsored programs that allow foreigners to get into Japanese universities through the back door through recommendations from the Japanese embassy in their home countries, try googling "MEXT graduate scholarships" for more info on those.

You can get the scholarship by being recommended by the university too, I can give advice about this if anyone wants to know about the process (I imagine it'd have to be a reasonably good school though).

dizmox Wrote:You can get the scholarship by being recommended by the university too, I can give advice about this if anyone wants to know about the process (I imagine it'd have to be a reasonably good school though).

I am a bit interested in this since I am looking grad school. I'm looking at good schools too though,　東大・大大・京大・京王・早稲田 anything less isn't worth schooling in Japan honestly IMO.

There's not much to it really, you just apply how you would normally would to the graduate school, asking your potential supervisor (assuming you've found one) if he'll recommend you for the scholarship, then send the required supporting documents. These include:

-research proposal
-academic transcript
-certificate of graduation or anticipated graduation
-passport copy
-undergrad thesis or similar evidence of ability if available
-JLPT certificate or other proof of Japanese ability (if course is not taught in English)
-certificate of health (this was the most frustrating for me to get because of all the medical checks involved)
-letter of recommendation from your previous university

It seems that each faculty at those kinds of universities can make one or two recommendations a year, so you stand a good chance if you apply to something with a low number of international applicants (aka not Japanese). You can only apply through one university per year though. If two universities end up recommending you to the MEXT board you'll likely be disqualified.

By the way:

Quote:京王

慶應 京王 is a railway company.

It seems that native Japanese people typically take out student loans for 修士 and rarely receive full funding, so MEXT seems really generous to foreigners.

dizmox Wrote:There's not much to it really, you just apply how you would normally would to the graduate school, asking your potential supervisor (assuming you've found one) if he'll recommend you for the scholarship, then send the required supporting documents. These include:

-research proposal
-academic transcript
-certificate of graduation or anticipated graduation
-passport copy
-undergrad thesis or similar evidence of ability if available
-JLPT certificate or other proof of Japanese ability (if course is not taught in English)
-certificate of health (this was the most frustrating for me to get because of all the medical checks involved)
-letter of recommendation from your previous university

It seems that each faculty at those kinds of universities can make one or two recommendations a year, so you stand a good chance if you apply to something with a low number of international applicants (aka not Japanese). You can only apply through one university per year though. If two universities end up recommending you to the MEXT board you'll likely be disqualified.

Thanks for the info. So its actually not possible to decline one MEXT from one Uni and go with the other? That sucks.

MEXT Uni reccs don't have country restrictions right? So Chinese and Koreans can apply just as easy get them yes? I feel those are the people that you have to compete up against the most since they make up the largest portion of Int'l student populations at most unis in Japan.

Are the MEXT Uni reccs. based on per department? Or is it actually a limited number per university?

By the way:

Quote:

Quote:京王

慶應 京王 is a railway company.

Was too lazy to double check that one, suspected the company and Uni might not be the same lol.

Quote:It seems that native Japanese people typically take out student loans for 修士 and rarely receive full funding, so MEXT seems really generous to foreigners.

I find that odd because I've heard from a few people (Int'l students), that getting funding from the school was possible. The kicker was that you had to be a student, meaning if your school didn't have a English breeze-me-through route, then you were often stuck cramming for a year while taking classes as a research student to take the 入試 with all the other Japanese students. Of course you had the help of a supervisor and probably some friends, but still nerve racking. I've read on some school pages they have stuff like tuition waiving and what not. I'm also sure TA positions are quite universal so there is that too.

Thanks for the info.

Quote:Thanks for the info. So its actually not possible to decline one MEXT from one Uni and go with the other? That sucks.

Yeah, that's correct.

Quote:MEXT Uni recs don't have country restrictions right? So Chinese and Koreans can apply just as easy get them yes? I feel those are the people that you have to compete up against the most since they make up the largest portion of Int'l student populations at most unis in Japan.

Yeah, though for the department (I don't know about the faculty as a whole) I applied to there were only a couple other international applicants and they didn't bother with MEXT. Not everyone is very aware of it/confident enough to apply for it I guess. Also the most academically strong Chinese/Korean people will tend to apply to America/UK, so that cuts down on the top end of competition.

Of course if you're applying to one of the best universities in Japan you'd need a strong academic background regardless. You might want to add 東北 to your list, by the way. I doubt that gets many international applicants, especially after the tsunami.

Quote:Are the MEXT Uni reccs. based on per department? Or is it actually a limited number per university?

When I applied there was one place in the faculty I believe (which contains more than one department).

Quote:I find that odd because I've heard from a few people (Int'l students), that getting funding from the school was possible. The kicker was that you had to be a student, meaning if your school didn't have a English breeze-me-through route, then you were often stuck cramming for a year while taking classes as a research student to take the 入試 with all the other Japanese students. Of course you had the help of a supervisor and probably some friends, but still nerve racking. I've read on some school pages they have stuff like tuition waiving and what not. I'm also sure TA positions are quite universal so there is that too.

Maybe I'm just misinformed... but I know that a lot of people take out loans for it. Funding for Master's courses is pretty rare in the UK and we don't even have student loans for them.