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The Best Degree to look for a job in Japan?

Rurouni said:
The interesting thing is the difference in pay though.
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I have no idea about this english teaching route thinggy. But in Japan It does seems the pay = the qualification. I'll get on to it in a bit down below.


Untrue and misleading A Degree is not required but a qualification is needed. To get a job in Japan you either need minimum 2 years Senmongakushi (A diploma) or 4years Degree, or Master and above. In short, Degree is not required. There is a whole load of people came here after high-school and went into Senmon gakkou and got a job and a work visa

I have to say its interesting to see 2 different point of view/way of seeing and doing things between a westerner and an easterner(me).

Over my side of point of view is, the easiest job to get with a degree or senmongakushi, is actually IT-Related jobs. But the starting pays differs as with your qualification. e.g. Senmon - 195k yen/month, Degree 200k/month and graduate 215k/month. And yes this is the real thing, the real pay currently for most of the firms. (maybe not the big ones)

dan_j said:
just woundering if theres any jobs in multimedia /computers in japan for me?
i no a sum japanese words

thanks
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NO.
Thats what I wanted to say. Sadly there is quite a few accepting people without Japanese ability, and most of them are non-japanese company. But from your post I'm not sure about your english skills but since you're from an English-speaking country........err Maybe.. I guess.

If you want to work in a Japanese IT/Comp/Multimedia-related Company then Its most likely a no.



In short, if you're not going through the normal English-teaching route (Which I'm not since I'm from the same country as OP with the same reason for not being able to teach English), Japanese skills is seriously needed. And job-related skills that need to be great enough of a reason for the employer to choose you over other Japanese candidate. (Pretty much the same thing what Glenski just said on the post above.)

*edit*
NOTE: The reason I say 'senmongakushi' rather then a diploma is, a normal diploma(from college{not high-school} or 3 years University) from your own country WON'T get you a job here in Japan. Nor they will get you a visa. period. They are not recognized here in Japan. Thus making Ewok post true to some degree and makes me look stupid.

But, It is still true that you wont need a degree to find work here in Japan. Like I said others country diploma is not recognize but the Japanese one is. So you can get a Visa and a Job with that.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rio Lee wrote: I think Ewok was writing about what is needed for a teacher to get a work visa. The basic rule of thumb is that you need a bachelor's degree (or equivalent) or a minimum of 3 years of teaching experience. Period. VISA
Of course, if you don't have either of these, you may still be able to get work as a teacher, but under a different sort of visa (spouse visa, dependent visa, student visa, cultural visa, working holiday visa).


Rio Lee wrote: Three years is all that's required to complete university in places like Australia for a bachelor's degree, and people with those get work visas and jobs. Are you talking about something different?

Please don't use the word "normal" without qualifying what country. The USA considers a 4-year degree to be "normal", but other countries (as I mentioned above) have a shorter route.

Ewok wrote:
I don't know if what rurouni wrote was incorrect, Ewok. Look at it this way. If you have a PhD, you are qualified for university teaching and can get a much higher salary than people who don't with just one FT job (university). That's comparing apples and apples. I can point you towards the salary ranges for university teachers, if you would like to see numbers. PALE SIG Bulletin
Show me someone with a BA or MA who makes that much (high end = 12 to 14 million yen/year) teaching in just one job (and has an equivalent amount of paid time off. The potential is indeed there.

Now, if we change directions a bit, it is possible for people without a PhD to make quite a bit of money. I don't have any figures on that, because these people mostly just string together tons of PT work and/or have their own business. No PhD needed. Perhaps (I don't know) they make that same staggering amount of money teaching in such a way, but are the benefits also there? I've only seen an occasional anecdote from the eager beavers who choose to post about their million-yen/month salaries, and in all cases, they work 6-7 days a week, which contradicts the paid time off from a university teacher as described above (and the other benefits).
 

My bad then. I thought he wasn't putting it mainly on English teaching. If so then my post would be meaningless. I apologize.



Yes I'm talking about something different.

Maybe something is lost in translation here, or maybe something like diploma doesnt exist over there? or a diploma is actually a bachelor degree in your terms?. For me(from my country. The same as the OP), a normal diploma is not the same as bachelors degree. I can't seem to find a way to explain it, but, a semongakushi in Japan is equal to the diploma I'm saying, a bach degree is on the higher level.

And if Australian's 3-years degree is recognized and can get a visa with that, then I apologize for the misunderstanding that I might caused to any Australian that are reading my post. Since in my country a 3-year degree isnt recognize as a degree by the Japanese goverment. You need a 4-year to get a work visa. (I have a 3 year degree.)

And I apologize for not stating the country. I forgot that some country have different education system and/or if there a different wording for it.
As an info for the OP the information written still stands true.


Just to clarify my point of view :
High-School -> 2-3years College/University (Diploma) or 4+years University (Bach Degree) -> 1-2years (Masters or PhD).
 
Rio Lee said:
High-School -> 2-3years College/University (Diploma) or 4+years University (Bach Degree) -> 1-2years (Masters or PhD).
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yes it's the same system here in Australia, except that there are some University Bachelors Degrees that are internationally recognised that take just 3 years to complete. Most Bachelors Degrees are 4 years though.

so in Australia.

High School then either 2 or 3 year diploma (3 year is "advanced diploma") or if you like 3 or 4 year Bachelors degree, then masters Phd level post grad study.
 
To me, diploma is what you get when you finish high school. To Canadians, I know it means what you get after a 2- or 3-year college stint.

a semongakushi in Japan is equal to the diploma I'm saying
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That means a technical school or vocational school, which in my home country (USA) is a 2-year thing. Not enough to get you a work visa in Japan.

Some rare person may report that he slipped past immigration with such a thing, but I wouldn't bet the farm on doing it most of the time.
 
Depends on the job. The degree makes it easier, but for many jobs, you can get work visas (if someone is ready to sponsor) based on either the relevant experience or for some jobs like IT with some Japan-approved certifications from some other countries. Most of those training and certification tests may be in the local language of those countries. However, there are always solutions. For example, the Philippines offer these Japan-approved certifications in English. You can check this quite detailed article about visas. Please note that though this article mentions "engineering visa," but it is one visa that covers the widest range of professions in Japan, and the full name of this category is Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa
 
Pay is less linked to your qualifications or position, but more to the company that you join.
Join a high paying company your pay can be 15M vs. exactly the same job at a lower paying company paying 4M.
Also you must consider changing jobs after 3-5 years as new grad. Because all raises are based on previous salary, and due to new gradate salary being so low, it is common to see that even in the top tier companies the pay difference between people who rose up through new grads vs. mid-career hires being 2x-3x or even more.

Major I do not think matter for new grads. What matters is your SPI test scores, personality test results, and answering the standard interview questions correctly (there are books, you should just memorize and repeat answers to common questions from the books)

I dont recommend IT jobs, Japan is one of the worst paying countries for IT positions. It is very hard hours, low stability, low pay, and not much opportunities for career advancement. And a lot of IT jobs are hakken or contract, difficult to get full time as well.

Japan dont really value Ph.D.s or graduate degrees in general. Getting Ph.D. is not going to get you higher pay. In most companies, the ~10,000 to ~20,000 / month bonus pay for graduate degrees would get wiped out in 1-2 years upon first grade promotion, as everyone will just be promoted to the salary of the next salary band.
 
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