Where to look for a "contact person"?

[Lomaster]

I'm in the process of picking a language school to enroll in 2019. Since i am lookining for advanced courses - the choice of schools is rather limited.
Now one school i am particulary interested in has this application requirement:
④The applicant must have a contact person residing in Japan.

A "contact person" living in Japan is required when applying to the YMCA. On top of preparing and turning in the student's application materials, the contact person will be asked to help and support the student's life in Japan once he/she arrives. The contact person may also be asked to assist the student with their studies in cooperation with the school. The student's specified contact person must meet the following requirements: Any nationality is accepted. ①The contact person must be a relative, friend, or acquaintance of the student, and must know the student and his/her family very well. ②The contact person must be well settled in Japan, and must have a firm understanding of the Japanese language, laws, culture, and customs.

Has anyone fulfilled that requirement without having close friends or relatives in Japan? Can you share some suggestions for overcoming this obstacle?

 

[HanSolo]

$

Same story as "invitation letters"; there's always someone ready to commercialize just that.
Their requirements are:
- acquaintance plus "must know the student and his family very well" -> exchange personal details and details about families + meet them when you arrive.
- will be asked to help and support the student's life in Japan once he/she arrives -> if that happens, they say "OK", in practice it'll probably mean nothing
- may also be asked to assist the student with their studies in cooperation with the school. -> in practice this is probably nothing (the people who write these documents are not the teachers)
- The contact person must be well settled in Japan, and must have a firm understanding of the Japanese language, laws, culture, and customs -> basically narrows it down to Japanese or long term expats who've got a JLPT grade.

Craigslist exists in Japan (mostly used by expats), so you could put up an ad to this effect. You could also search if any company exists that offers this service (like "guarantor companies" in the case of renting).

If they genuinely care about this requirement (which would indicate something about the clique / "insider" nature of the school), and you're not Mr Smooth who can some how make a friend over the internet who'll become this person for them, then not sure how you can get it other than buying it somehow (plenty of broke long term English teachers who'd do this for a bit of cash).

 

[Lomaster]

@HanSolo
Thak you for the reply. They explicitly mentioned the requirement when i asked about it: "Please remind (sic) that a contact person in Japan or an overseas-study service agency is required for applicants with student visa."

I'll have to resort to such agency services i guess (or choose another language school)

 

[cez]

Did they specify what they mean by "overseas-study service agency"? I'm curious.

 

[Lomaster]

Did they specify what they mean by "overseas-study service agency"? I'm curious.

There's no need to specify it any further. There are plenty of such agencies around the globe. You just pay the buck, send them your documents and they handle everything else: translate the documents, verify the translation, provide "contact person", provide (fake) sponsor, account statement, and whatnot.
Such services cost around 500-600 USD where i am from.

 

[cez]

OK. In Japan I've only seen guarantor services for renting an apartment. That's why I asked.
I didn't know about and didn't expect such a requirement to study at a language school.