How and why?
 

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread about all the different ways of going to Japan.
Feel free to tell us something about your first time going to Japan and how you managed to get there.

I think this is a great idea. It should have it's own category.

I plan on going back to Japan after high school sometime. Don't know exactly how for sure yet. I thought about teaching English, but it doesn't seem like a guranteed way, you know? Like, what if I went to college to get a degree in English, and I still don't get hired? Then I just wasted 4 years of my life getting a degree in English for nothing.

I dunno, maybe I'll get some better ideas.

You don't need an English degree to be hired to teach English in Japan. Basically you need to be a college graduate.

Okay..but still. That's not really what I mean.

If I go to college to become a college graduate, and I still don't find anyone to hire me. Like, I mean, graduating college doesn't promise you a road to Japan. It just improves your chances. That's what sucks.

Hey! There are plenty of things to be done with an English degree other than teaching. That complaint about it being a useless degree is bull.

With my English degree I was:

Newspaper reporter
Newspaper editor
Press Secretary
Fundraiser
Marketing Staff
Copywriter

...and English teacher.

Anywhere communication skills, especially writing skills are needed, you will find a job. It may not be in Japan, but I came here because as much as I wanted to, it made economic sense for me to do so. If It didn't make sense for me to do so, I would have stayed in Korea or gone back to America. Your priority should be getting a job you like that pays you enough to support yourself. That may be in Japan, it may not. But a college degree is NEVER a bad investment. Never ever ever.

I agree with everything you said. It still doesn't promise you a road to Japan, though.

I think luck has a big role in it also.

You were all those things in Japan? Or Korea?

No, no. Everything up above, aside from English teacher, was what I did in the US before the economy took a nosedive, and my political career (Press Secretary/Fundraiser) went south. What I am saying is that I feel looking at Japan as a "by any means necessary" destination is bad juju. If you would be successful in your chosen career in your home country, and you enjoy doing it, and your Japanese ability meets the intended qualifications, THEN I say look for a job in Japan.

I love teaching. Absolutely love my job. The only job I like better is driving warships, and so I'm probably going to go back to doing that. But my point is, I would love that job if it were teaching native speakers in high school just as much as I love teaching my students here. Just as much as I look forward to teaching the sailors I will have in my shipboard division. Teaching is teaching is teaching. And it's something I enjoy doing.

I know a lot of people who come to Japan to teach and they hate the job. They're not cut out for it. Korea, even more so. Even if they love the country they have moved to, it usually isn't enough to keep them from going mad. You have to have a job you love. Understand the easiest way is to teach English, but the easiest way is often not the right way. It may very well not be the right way for you.

Well said Tsuwabuki. I can't tell you how many teachers I met in Japan who loved Japan, but hated teaching. Some didn't realize that it is an actual job with actual responsibilities.

If I don't get into university for Japanese Studies (which I have applied for) I was thinking of visiting Japan to study the language and learn more about Japan itself. Now (by the end of this year anyways) I will be a college graduate graduating from my 3 year course in music studies and have been getting overall high grades in music. I've already deciding I'm emigrating as soon as I can to somewhere when I get the abilities to make a decent living there (I know it may be generic and/or lots of people here seem to think it's a bad idea but I have always loved teaching whether it be music theory or something else and language teaching sounds interesting to me). It's not that I've ever been looking at different countries until recently but due to my intense distaste for England (I'm Scottish but I had to move up when I was 8 for my dad’s work) and most things English that I decided emigration was not only imminent but essential. So if I went to Japan and decided I liked it there and that it was somewhere I would like to emigrate to, would the fact that I've studied the language in the country (as well as obviously being to speak English) and my college course qualification be enough to get me a work visa for something like teaching and eventually after a few years a residence/citizenship visa?

It really puzzles me when I hear people choosing their careers based on their possible future life in Japan. Don't go to college because it opens the door to Japan! Go to college to enter a profession or field which YOU want to spend the rest of your life doing.

Nothing is guaranteed in life but if you really want to live in Japan, find the nearest Japanese national, marry her and follow her back to Japan.

what about this,take up a course in japan..eg:MBA >.<

If I was Japanese and wanted to learn English I would expect a teacher who had a reasonably good understanding of English grammar. Why do you think you could teach Japanese people to speak English when your English grammar is so lacking?

Learn to speak English first then ask the question again.

well it will for sure give you better chances than being not graduated...

It would be nice if the Boards of Education in Japan agreed with you. Unfortunately, they don't. They think that sticking just anyone who was able to muddle their way through English courses in college, regardless of degree, is acceptable, assuming the people involved are native speakers.

It is often shocking to my Japanese Teachers of English that I, gasp, went to college to be an English teacher and have an actual English degree. That I know how to diagram sentences. I even met a teacher tonight who just moved into the area who admitted when he first came to Japan to teach he had to look up the difference between a noun and a verb!

I chose to teach in Korea and Japan because I wanted to be a bit more adventurous, but I honestly expected that I would find myself in the company of other people who actually went through school to be a teacher. Imagine my surprise when I found out that all of my native speaking coworkers held degrees completely unrelated to English or even communications, and have never had an education course in general, let alone a TEFL course! I find it mindboggling.

I have had to put in a lot of hardwork in order to show my schools and my BoE that they can believe my transcripts because of a lot of piss poor behavior by earlier ALTs. I am not a human tape recorder, I am not a teaching assistant, I have the qualifications. Luckily, the teachers I work with really respect me, and we work very well together. Sometimes I team teach, sometimes I teach alone, but there is never any doubt that I am actually teaching.

I really wish that people considering coming to Japan to teach would stop and ask themselves how important the teaching aspect is to them. I am not asking everyone to pursue English as a degree or teaching as a career like I have, but I would definitely recommend reading up on teaching theory and child/adolescent psychology, or even taking a genuine education course or two. Maybe research how difficult it is to became a teacher in your home country, or more, look at how difficult it is to obtain a teaching license in Japan (I am working on it, and it is NOT easy). Try to bone up and be able to talk to talk when you get into the classroom because you have put in effort on walking the walk.

I have an interest in teaching, and an interest in business negotiations...
I just like to talk to everybody. LOL.

I am looking at different ways through colleges and after-graduating programs.

Japan IS my priority, but I've considered being an interpreter for American, Canadian, or British businesses who intermingle with Japanese.
Or, oddly enough, for tourist groups....

...Iunno. I guess my goal is less of Japan- although I do want to go so badly- and more of just working with Japanese people. Or even the deaf, or Koreans...

...
Rather confusing what I put, I know. I'm still trying to map everything out

I had never entertained the idea of living in Japan until after I visited here a few years ago. During my visit I found that I liked most of the things I had experienced here, such as the weather, the food, and the pace of life.

It wasn't until after my third visit that I made the decision to move. I was tired of my career in America; it paid well enough, but there was no challenge, and I was going crazy doing the same thing day in and day out. On my third visit to Japan, I stayed for a month to make sure that it was really what I wanted.

My degree is in English Literature, so my English isn't entirely bad. But even so, I had a bit of brushing up to do, as I had made little use of my degree in the Army and my job afterward.

Now I have been living in Japan for more than a year, and I have no regrets. I've become comfortable living here, and it feels like home to me.

Actually, after finding out some things this weekend= I think I may start with a transfer program.

Apparently, Fresno State, and San Fransisco State have exchange ties even with Waseda...so...

Maybe I should just start as a student after a few years of American college, see how it goes.

good point ...personally i rather go to college choose my desire career and just go and travel to japan as often as possible...:)

yes, me too, I've choosed to do veterinary many years ago, and not really thinking about Japan, but rather if it would give me money or not, and if I would like to do it, or not.

WHAT!! BIG SHOCK!

so you could get...say a music degree and go and teach english

how about a business degree??

I guess you could too ^^