I’m sitting in the hotel lobby of Hotel Nikko Narita after a long forty-eight hours spent navigating the debacle of international travel. Surviving language barriers, immigrations, customs, a Japanese phone plan, currency exchange, and a shuttle to my hotel is made all the harder when one is severally sleep deprived and boosts a head cold to boot. But it’s happened. I’m finally here. Sipping green tea in the country I’ve dreamed about since I was a wee lad.
Getting to this moment has been far from easy, and there are tons of hidden costs that came along with this little mid-life crisis. So rather than just fluff up the adventure, I want to try and take a second in this blog post to break down the actual process for those who might want to do something similar. Here’s the reality with all the sugar-coating rubbed straight off.
First, Japan is not an easy country to immigrate to. This makes sense when you consider that Japan was, for a long time, an isolated country with limited contact from the outside world. While anyone can stay in Japan for up to ninety days, to stay in the country long-term you will need a visa. And a work visa usually requires a certificate of eligibility, a document which basically states to the immigration authorities that you have a job and have someone in Japan to vouch for you. This guarantor is all important, because without them your chances of being given a work visa drop significantly.
So, before you embark on your dream of living in the land of the rising sun, you need to find a job. Most native English speakers wanting to live in Japan usually go the same route: a position as an assistant language teacher (ALT). It makes sense as this job only requires that you have a degree of some variety and be a native-born English speaker (or at least can demonstrate near native English language proficiency). No Japanese language requirements. No previous teaching experience needed. Of course, this comes with a pay that is significantly lower than what you would find in America, but it’s a foot in the door, so to speak.
As for companies that are willing to hire English language instructors, you got more than a few options there. The most common option, and the most desirable, is the JET program. This route, sponsored by the Japanese government, pays the best of all the initial options, includes airfare and board, and the contract can be extended over multiple years if you so wish. There are a couple of downsides here though – you cannot work any other jobs while employed as a JET and your really don’t get much of a choice as to where you end up. They place you based upon their need, so it’s a bit of rolling the dice and hoping for the best.
Outside of the JET program, there are also “Eikaiwa” (英会話), which are language schools. These private enterprises are used kind of like tutoring services, exposing Japanese children and teens to English through immersion techniques. The pay for these jobs isn’t quite as nice at entry level as JET and you are expected to pay for your own airfare and place to stay, but they will set you up with housing and a visa (most of the time). You might be expected to teach everything from toddlers to adults and their hours are typically in the afternoon into the evening time. AEON and NOVA are two examples of this kind of job. While they also don’t care if you work on the side, they do require their employees to do some promotion, knocking on doors and flyering their neighborhoods to increase their clientele. For me, that final point was a no go, as I told myself I would never again knock on doors for a company or organization after my stint as a political canvasser.
Which led me to my final choice: Interac. Link Interac Inc. is basically the private version of JET, hiring out their ALTs and setting up contracts with the various boards of education throughout Japan. While they do not offer free board or airfare, and their pay is lower than that of a JET, they will help establish their new teachers with all the necessities of living in Japan (i.e. a car, an apartment, basic teacher training, etc.). They set up most of your initial expenses, if you so wish, and will take them out of your paycheck. One of the big perks, in my eye, was that they also don’t mind if you have a second job or tutor students in your spare time. You simply apply for a work permit and are given the chance to work that side hustle.
I was interviewed by all four of the companies that I have mentioned and was offered a job by three of them. After some hair pulling and worrying my knuckles raw, I decided a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush and went ahead and pulled the trigger on my second choice with Interac. To me, it made the most sense as I know I would rather work within public schools than eikaiwas and I could start the job in March instead of having to wait until August for JET (which I was still in the interview process for). Plus, I could start building up a tutoring service on the side if there was enough demand in the town I was placed in.
Now that I had a company to work with, the fun bit of bureaucracy began. I knew I was going to need to renew my passport. That was a given. But the process of getting my certificate of eligibility was a bear. Here’s all that is required for you to get a certificate of eligibility:
- Two identical ID photos that are exactly 4cm by 3cm on a white background
- A photocopy of your passport page
- An updated resume that includes every singlejob you’ve worked, every single school you’ve attended, and every single gap in your employment history explained
- A photocopy of your university diploma
- An original graduation document
- A completed certificate of eligibility application form
- An offer of employment
If this sounds like a pain, trust me…it is. And it has lots of hidden costs mixed in. Not only is there the $1,000 plane ticket, but all these photos and forms need to be sent internationally, and if you don’t have original copies of your graduation, well…there is some extra cost there too. Plus, with Interac (which mostly works with rural schools), you need an international driving permit so you can legally drive around in Japan, which is an extra $30 jf you don’t have a passport style photo handy. Also crazy to me that they let you drive in other countries if you have a valid driver’s license in your home country and this little form that takes a whole thirty minutes to get. No test required. Kind of scary. Oh, and then you need a car, but thankfully this is something they setup for you when you actually start working in your schools.
In total, I probably have spent around $1,500 in preparing for this trip abroad, not counting the $3,000 USD equivalent in yen they recommended bringing for initial start-up costs before your first paycheck rolls in. I am fortunate that I had enough in savings to cover all these costs, because this job (that doesn’t pay that much comparatively) required quite a lot of cheddar to get going. But as I continued to tell myself several times throughout those stressful nights, wanting to pull my air out as I responded to the fiftieth email and double-checked my applications for the umpteenth time, this adventure is the first step toward a potential career doing what I was meant to do. Or, if not that, then at the very least it would be a wonderful year-long study abroad in a place I’ve desperately wanted to visit since I was young.
And so, with all the paperwork squared away, my bags packed, and my heart beating as fast as if I just chugged two punch four lokos, it was time to leave. Goodbyes are hard, more so for those you leave behind than anything. As I have mentioned in a previous post, not a lot of people leave home where I’m from, especially not to the other side of the world. We had a few goodbye dinners of Mexican and pizza (some food I was sure to miss in my new city) and some goodbye cash and presents (one of my favorites being a little notebook my little sister slipped into my hand with a tear-jerking note and a little drawing / signature from my three-year old niece in it). But with family and loved ones hugged, promises made to visit back home soon, and a few hurried tears brushed away, I was off.
Cue the music. Jaws theme music. Because little did I know that the next 48 hours were going to be absolute hell. And a great topic of discussion in next week’s post. So, as always, let’s end with some etymology.
Immigration. Noun. Specifically, a noun of action from the word immigratus which means to “remove, go into, or move in.” The word pops up in the 1650s, but starts to morph in American English to mean “immigration authorities” collectively from about 1966 onwards.
Works Cited
“Immigration.” Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/immigration Accessed 17 March 2025