Teaching in Japan

[drinksun1]

Hello,

Am Tesol qualified British guy presently living and teaching freelance in the Philippines. I would like to teach in Japan but only really to IELTs and Corporate students. I am 46 with associate degree in financial services. I spent many years in management training and sales with a well known global banking group. I took redundancy and embarked on eco touring as a Diving Instructor and owner operator of a diving eco tour business, most of my customers at that time were Japanese with limited English.

Japan seems to be a hard market to break into, as it appears associate degrees are not recognised, even though there is substance to my 'real' life qualifications.

Anyone have any thoughts? or a starting place

Thanks

[Margy]

A fellow teacher here in Japan got their work visa by showing the visa office his Advanced Diploma issued from Australia. In Australia a Diploma is generally 1 or 2 years study, so an Advanced diploma would only be a few more months of study I assume.

Anyway, this guy got his visa based on his Advanced Diploma. I suppose the only real way to know is to travel to Japan and try to get a company hire you and subsequently sponsor you.

Officially, a minimum of a Bachelor's degree is required. However, if you get a nice visa officer, and the school shows the visa office they REALLY want you, then it's definitely possible to get a work visa.

Have also seen teachers who aren't native English speakers get their work visa in Japan to teach. But what they did was applied to the visa office as a translator to work at the school. The school doesn't though use them as translators, but as teachers.

What I'm trying to illustrate is that there are ways to get a work visa in Japan without holding a Bachelor's degree.