Studying Auto Mechanics in Japan?

[GustSergeant]

I'd love to go live in Japan, I love the cars they drive there. As such, I want to start a career in auto mechanics. But as I see it, if I learn the trade here in Canada, there's not much reason a Japanese employer would hire me over any number of local skilled tradesmen unless I possessed some special knowledge/skills. That's disheartening, as I really love car culture there, but I'm not experienced/interested enough to tread town the English teacher path.

So, I figure the catalyst could be applying for a school in Japan and learning the trade there. Now as it stands now, I basically know very little about working on cars, apart from some enthusiast knowledge about some Nissans and Toyotas (i.e. an S13-15 has an SR20DET, etc..). Of course while I'm doing this, I'll be making a (continued) effort to learn Japanese.

So would doing this increase my chances of finding work in Japan within this trade? If so, how could I go about doing it? What are some good schools who offer courses in auto mechanics? I'm currently not enrolled in any local college/school, so I can't be sponsored; I'd have to pay on my own. I'd also need some sort of job to pay for living costs.

 

[Mike Cash]

Your idea is interesting, but impractical if your goal is to find some path that would allow you to live and work in Japan long-term. The problem is that even if you found a vocational school to accept you with inadequate language skills, managed to finish the course, pass the national licensing exam (in Japanese) and somehow actually finish everything....at the end you'd still end up not being eligible for a visa to live and work here as a mechanic. If you somehow managed to get married to a Japanese citizen and thus became eligible for a spouse visa, then you could stay and work. But just based on the level of education, training, qualification, and experience set forth in your proposed plan, the whole thing would come to a crashing halt when your student visa status ended.

 

[GustSergeant]

Damn, that is no good.

Okay, so I'm fine with continuing my education in Canada; my apprenticeship would take 4 years and at the end I would become a skilled Journeyman with a fair bit of knowledge in auto mechanics. Within that time I'd definitely take some local language courses to try to get closer to fluency.

What could I possibly do at that point (or sooner) to be able to live and work in Japan within my trade? Is there anything I can do??

 

[nekojita]

There was a thread somewhere on here, a long while back, about someone looking at the Honda training college . Note that they require JLPT N1/2 to even apply, it aint cheap, and it's not clear whether even the 4 year course then makes you eligible for a work visa but they could probably confirm that.

It really is the visa that's going to stump you. It would be the same for a mechanic from Japan wanting to move to the US, of course. Generally speaking, for pretty much any country in the world: if the job you are looking at could be done by a local, the government don't want you coming over to do it. Hence the requirements for additional qualifications/experience, or allowances for particular jobs which they know they have a shortfall in (e.g. nurses).

One suggestion - have you considered aiming for a more engineering test/development sort of career, the sort of thing they do at MIRA in the UK? (Don't know what the US/Canadian version would be). Or something along those lines that's more specialised.

 

[GustSergeant]

There was a thread somewhere on here, a long while back, about someone looking at the Honda training college . Note that they require JLPT N1/2 to even apply, it aint cheap, and it's not clear whether even the 4 year course then makes you eligible for a work visa but they could probably confirm that.

It really is the visa that's going to stump you. It would be the same for a mechanic from Japan wanting to move to the US, of course. Generally speaking, for pretty much any country in the world: if the job you are looking at could be done by a local, the government don't want you coming over to do it. Hence the requirements for additional qualifications/experience, or allowances for particular jobs which they know they have a shortfall in (e.g. nurses).

One suggestion - have you considered aiming for a more engineering test/development sort of career, the sort of thing they do at MIRA in the UK? (Don't know what the US/Canadian version would be). Or something along those lines that's more specialised.

Well I can certainly work towards challenging the JLPT, and that Honda Challenge looks pretty interesting. However like I mentioned, I'm more inclined towards Toyotas and Nissans. Hondas are fine, but...ehhh... If there is a similar thing for either of these manufacturers, that'd be awesome.

I see; so basically it's an 'if there's no demand we don't want what you supply' kind of situation....I can understand that I guess.

I honestly have not considered a career in engineering, but I like the sound of it from what that link you had showed me! I think I would still like to follow through with my auto mechanics apprenticeship, as I still want to learn how to work on and fix cars. Could I maybe use this path as a sort of short term career to help save money for school and other things? It'd be something I enjoy, and would certainly beat any number of retail jobs or burger flipping.